Keith Moon once bought a cemetery for John Entwistle as a birthday present

The late legendary The Who drummer Keith Moon was also known as “Moon the Loon” because he really did many crazy things not only partying with the band on tour, but also in his relationship with other people.

There are countless crazy stories about him which were told by friends and bandmates over the decades. But certainly, one of the craziest ones was told by The former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman. He affirmed that Moon once bought a cemetery as a birthday present for his bandmate, the bassist John Entwistle.

Keith Moon once bought a cemetery for John Entwistle as a birthday present

Bill Wyman was the Stones‘ bassist from 1962 until 1993 when he decided to retire from the band but during those 31 years with the band, he made a lot of friends, including Keith Moon.

In an interview with Classic Rock in 2022, he recalled some stories involving The Who’s drummer. One of them was about him buying a cemetery in the West Country. “I used to stay at Moonie’s house a lot. Keith was a wonderful guy but, God he did overindulge. The doctor would come round and give him so much bloody stuff, then three days later Keith would’ve taken it all.”

“There’d be Valium 10s, sleeping pills, wake-up pills and speeding pills, and he would just down them all the time. And there’d be champagne in the mornings, with brandy. I used to watch him in disbelief.”

He continued:

“Once I was making a cup of tea in the morning and his lovely Swedish girlfriend [Annette Walter-Lax] came down – I’d heard them fighting upstairs – and she had scratches down each side of her face, with blood. I said: ‘Annette, what happened?” And she went: “Oh, nothing. Keith just threw the cat at me.'”

“He’d do the maddest things. If he’d be meeting me and Ringo at Tramp, he’d arrive in a full hunting uniform. He’d have been out and hired fox-hunting gear: hat, coat, riding crop, jodhpurs. One time he bought a cemetery in the West Country as a birthday present for John Entwistle,” Bill Wyman said.

Keith Moon was part of The Who from 1964 until 1978, when he tragically passed away at the age of 32. He was the band’s drummer on their first 8 albums, which are the most famous ones. Although he died too soon, he continues to be a huge influence for drummers worldwide.

He was first replaced in The Who by the Small Faces/Faces drummer Kenney Jones. For almost two decades already, The Who’s drummer is Zak Starkey, Ringo Starr’s son, who met Moon when he was a kid. In fact, it was Moon who gave him his first drum kit. Like Keith Moon, John Entwistle also passed away in a tragic way. But it was 24 years after the drummer, in 2002, at the age of 57.