Born in Wembley, London, England back in 1946, the drummer Keith Moon started his musical career in 1962, joining The Who two years later. In 1965 the band that was also formed by Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey and John Entwistle released their debut album “My Generation” that became an instant hit especially because of the title-track.
For more than a decade the band’s line-up stayed the same and they released another seven highly praised studio albums, including “Tommy” (1969), “Who’s Next” (1971) and “Quadrophenia” (1973). In 1978, the band sadly lost Moon, who tragically died at the age of 32. Even though he was an important part of the band’s sound, the band decided to continue. Curiously, a few years before that Moon had given his opinion on the band’s future without original members.
What Keith Moon once said about The Who continuing without original members
Until this day, Keith Moon is often mentioned as one of the greatest drummers of all time, alongside names like John Bonham and Neil Peart. His drum fills and style influenced countless generations of drummers. The songs that he helped The Who to create continue to be some of the biggest anthems of Rock music.
Back in 1972, when The Who had released only five studio albums. At the time, Moon talked with Drum Magazine and he was asked if he thought The Who would continue if one member decided to leave the group. He replied, saying: “I don’t think it would carry on. It would naturally fall apart. I don’t think one member of the group would get fed up before we all did.”
Keith Moon continued:
“If somebody wanted to leave they would have done it years ago. It will reach a point where we can’t do any more. I can see us working together all our lives. Certainly there’s no one I’d rather work with than The Who,” Keith Moon said.
In that same conversation he was asked if he could see himself as a “publican” (bartender) when he decided to retire. The musician quickly replied, saying that he would either be “on one side of the bar or another”.
After Moon’s passing, The Who recruited the former Faces drummer Kenney Jones, with whom they recorded two studio albums. They were “Face Dances” and “It’s Hard”, which had a few famous tracks. Some of them are “Eminence Front” and “You Better You Bet”. Since 1996, the band’s current drummer is Zak Starkey, the son of Ringo Starr. He had the chance to hang out a lot with Moon when he was a kid, because Moon was a good friend of The Beatle. So Starkey first knew him as “Uncle Keith”.
The similarities between Led Zeppelin and The Who
Even though Led Zeppelin and The Who are totally different bands, they had tragic similarities. The main one is that both groups lost their legendary drummers in a tragic way and both were only 32. The main difference is that Led Zeppelin decided to stop after John Bonham passed away.
Moon and Bonham were really good friends and besides being really talented drummers, they were also known for struggling with addiction. The Who member was only two years older than Bonham and died in September, 1978. Two years later, during the same month of September, in 1980, Bonham also died at the age of 32.
If any Zeppelin or Who fan is asked what they love about the sound of the two groups, one of the things they will certainly mention are the drums. Bonham and Moon added a lot of weight to the incredible songs written by the two groups. Their playing was crucial for their groups to become two of the best-selling groups of all time. The Who sold an estimated amount of more than 100 million records all over the world, 100 million less than Zeppelin. The Jimmy Page group sold more than 200 million records.