Pete Townshend

Pete Townshend, born Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend on 19 May 1945 in Chiswick, West London, is an English musician, songwriter, and Broadway composer. He is the co-founder, lead guitarist, keyboardist, second lead vocalist, and principal songwriter of the Who, and is widely recognized as the de facto leader of the band. His Broadway work includes The Who's Tommy, for which he received the Tony Award for Best Original Score in 1993.

Townshend grew up in a musical household. His father, Cliff Townshend, was a professional alto saxophonist who performed with the Royal Air Force's dance band the Squadronaires, and his mother, Betty, sang with the Sidney Torch and Les Douglass Orchestras. His parents' volatile marriage led to a period of separation during his toddler years, when he was sent to live with his maternal grandmother Emma Dennis. He later cited this experience as an unconscious influence on the plot of Tommy. The family eventually reunited when his parents purchased a house on Woodgrange Avenue in Acton.

His grandmother Emma gave him his first guitar — an inexpensive Spanish model — for Christmas in 1956, the same year a seaside trip introduced him to the 1956 film Rock Around the Clock and ignited his interest in American rock and roll. Though his father taught him a few chords, Townshend was largely self-taught and never learned to read music. He attended Acton County Grammar School, where he and fellow student John Entwistle formed a short-lived trad jazz group called the Confederates, with Townshend on banjo and Entwistle on horns. The group performed at the Congo Club in Acton and covered artists including Acker Bilk, Kenny Ball, and Lonnie Donegan. Townshend later enrolled at Ealing Art College in 1961 to study graphic design, where he studied alongside future Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, before dropping out in 1964 to pursue music full-time.

The band that would become the Who took shape gradually. Entwistle joined a skiffle and rock and roll group called the Detours, led by Roger Daltrey, and brought Townshend in as an additional guitarist. After vocalist Colin Dawson departed in 1962, Daltrey moved to lead vocals and Townshend became the sole guitarist. In 1963, Townshend's father arranged an amateur recording of "It Was You," the first song Townshend ever wrote. A name conflict with another group prompted a change, and Townshend's roommate Richard Barnes proposed "The Who," which Daltrey adopted. Drummer Keith Moon joined shortly after, replacing Doug Sandom, and the band's classic lineup was set. During a June 1964 performance at the Railway Tavern, Townshend accidentally broke his guitar on the low ceiling and proceeded to destroy the instrument entirely, a gesture that became a recurring feature of the Who's live performances.

Over the course of his career with the Who, Townshend wrote more than 100 songs across 12 studio albums. These include the rock operas Tommy, released in 1969, and Quadrophenia, released in 1973, as well as the album Who's Next in 1971. He also wrote more than 100 songs for his solo albums, in addition to radio jingles and television theme songs. Non-album singles, bonus tracks on reissues, and rarities compilations such as Odds and Sods, released in 1974, contain dozens of additional compositions.

Although primarily known as a guitarist, Townshend also plays keyboards, banjo, accordion, harmonica, ukulele, mandolin, violin, synthesiser, bass guitar, and drums, and is self-taught on all of these instruments. He has played them on his solo albums, on several Who albums, and as a guest contributor to other artists' recordings. Beyond music, he has contributed articles, book reviews, essays, books, and scripts to various newspapers and magazines, and has collaborated as a lyricist and composer with other musical acts.

Townshend's honors span multiple decades and disciplines. In 1983, he received the Brit Award for Lifetime Achievement. In 1990, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Who. His Tony Award for Best Original Score came in 1993 for The Who's Tommy. In 2001, he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award as a member of the Who, and in 2008 he was honored with the Kennedy Center Honors. He was ranked third in Dave Marsh's 1994 list of Best Guitarists in The New Book of Rock Lists, tenth on Gibson.com's 2011 list of the top 50 guitarists, and thirty-seventh on Rolling Stone's 2023 list of the 250 greatest guitarists of all time. On 21 May 2016, Townshend and Roger Daltrey received the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement at UCLA.