Why Keith Moon was so special according to Pete Townshend

The Who entered Rock and Roll history led by guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend, who formed the perfect line-up alongside Roger Daltrey, Keith Moon and John Entwistle. Together, they made some of the albums that changed Rock music forever and inspired countless artists around the world.

Although the band continued after Moon tragically passed away in 1978 at the age of 32, both the fans and the group still missed him, remembering him as an irreplaceable member. Townshend once explained why Keith was so special as both a musician and a person.

Why Keith Moon was so special according to Pete Townshend

Although Keith Moon was not always easy to deal with, Pete once recalled an interesting story that shows how special the drummer was. He said that, despite being physically ill at times, Moon was still able to deliver an incredible performance. “He once took eight elephant tranquilizers in San Francisco and survived. Couldn’t move, couldn’t play.”

“He was in a wheelchair for two days. I have a Super-8 film of when we brought him off the plane in a wheelchair. The doctor from the Free Clinic says, ‘His heart is only beating once every 30 seconds! He’s clinically dead!’ And Keith says (mumbles), ‘F*ck off. ” That is not apocryphal.” I have it on film. It was sad, because he had alienated so many people around him by his obstinate clinging to his image. That was a good analogy to Sid Vicious.”

“About halfway through the recording of ‘Who Are You’, he was showing up late and not playing very well and I got into this mood: ‘I’m not taking any more of his shit.’ So I rang him up and told him to get the f*ck down here. He came running down, babbling excuses. I got him behind the drums and he could not keep the song together. He couldn’t play. He’d obviously been out the night before to some club.He’d put his work second.

He continued:

“Again. But before I could say anything, he went [imitates chaotic drum solo]. “See?” he said. ‘I’m still the best Keith Moon-type drummer in the world.’ There was nobody to top him doing that. But unless you wanted that, you were f*cked. It happened that on that song, we didn’t want that, Keith wrestling himself. He was funny, but he was capable of so much more. He was such a wonderful drummer, not just an apeshit drummer. But he had reduced himself to that in the eyes of the world and in his own eyes. A couple of days after that, he started to call me up just to say good night and I love you,” Pete Townshend said in an interview with Musician magazine in 1989.

During the same conversation, he recalled that Keith later kept calling him about ten times, saying that he loved him, and Pete could tell he was crying a little. Moon would ask the guitarist, “You do believe me, don’t you?”, and Pete would reply, “Yes, but you’re still an asshole.”

After that, he helped Moon to rent a flat in London, as the drummer was broke after buying a house in California that no one later wanted to buy. It was meant to help his bandmate get back on his feet, but only a few days later, Moon died in that same apartment. Curiously, a couple of years later, when the flat was still owned by Harry Nilsson, The Mamas and The Papas singer Cass Elliott also died there.

Pete said that Keith Moon didn’t keep time when playing

Although Keith Moon is one of the most influential drummers of all time and, in most cases, drummers are expected to keep time, Pete said that the late musician didn’t. “Roger made a point once when listening to some records, you know, the stems of the records. He listened to the drums and the vocals on their own and he said to the interviewer: ‘Listen, Keith Moon is following the vocals, he is following my vocals’.

I took him (aside) later and I said: ‘No, Keith is following everybody. He followed me, he followed John, the one thing he didn’t do was to keep time (laughs),” Pete Townshend said in an interview with Apple Music in 2022. When Moon tragically passed away in 1978 at the age of 32, Townshend said he did not shed a tear and urged the band to keep going. He believes his mind found this way to cope with the loss of a friend and bandmate. In his autobiography “Who I Am”, the musician recalled that he felt “something irreplaceable” was missing after Keith died.

“Without grief, in its usual manifestation, I had to find a different way to deal with my loss. You can say I was in denial. Keith had been a pain in the ass, but he had also been a constant joy. Once he’d gone, something irreplaceable was missing from the magnificent boardroom at Shepperton.”

Pete Townshend continued:

“The fur coat, the grand schemes, the Cubby Broccoli and Mel Brooks visions. There was something missing from Ramport Studios as well. All that was left was a sense of his ghost, playing the drums, laughing as he played ‘Who Are You’ with his earphones on fire.
The building is now a doctor’s surgery. How very fitting,” Pete Townshend said.

Keith Moon’s final album with The Who was “Who Are You” (1978). His substitute was Kenney Jones (Small Faces/The Faces) with whom the band recorded “Face Dances” (1981) and “It’s Hard” (1982). After him, the band also had as drummers Simon Phillips (1989), Zak Starkey (1996 to 2025) and Scott Devours (2025).