- I don't have any illusions anymore. The illusion that rock 'n' roll could change anything - I don't believe that. I've changed. Who would have ever thought that I'd end up saying that I want to be an all-around entertainer? But that's what I want to be.
- [on The Who's performance at Woodstock] It was the worst gig we ever played.
- You know, I was a school rebel. Whatever they said do, I didn't do. I was totally anti-everything. I was a right bastard, a right hard nut. I just totally closed the doors to ever wanting to know what they had to teach me. Rock & roll was the only thing I wanted to get into.
- Of course, chicks keep popping up. When you're in a hotel, a pretty young lady makes life bearable.
- I don't want to stop and I don't think Pete (Pete Townshend) does. We're at the pinnacle of our decline.
- Rock used to be a right laugh. The trouble is the rock press have made it all so serious. Fifty per cent of rock is having a good time.
- [To the audience at Boston's Beer Garden, USA, on Monday, December 3rd ] About ten hours ago this gig was absolutely fucking impossible. So this one's for the filth - or whatever you like to call 'em - the police in Montréal. We're 'ere and it's good to be 'ere and this one's for them: "Won't Get Fooled Again". [The previous night in Montréal, December 2nd, 1973, they'd been arrested and bailed for the destruction of a hotels facilities]
- I'm a rock god?! I'm five foot seven. I had me jaw broken, and so my chin stuck way out. That's how I became tough - I learned to pick up anything and fight back ... A rock god!
- [on Freddie Mercury] When we lost Freddie, we not only lost a great personality, a man with a great sense of humor, a true showman, but we lost probably the best, the best virtuoso rock 'n' roll singer of all time. He could sing anything in any style. He could change his style from line to line and, God, that's an art. And he was brilliant at it.
- [on recovering from throat surgery] I got depressed after surgery, during what I call the big silence, that's when I realized what it would be like to not have a voice. I had two weeks of silence. Silence and no drinking. How's that for a good Christmas? So, you know, it was the strangest Christmas I've ever had.
- I was never nasty to him [Moon's replacement Kenny Jones]. I just didn't think he was the right drummer for the Who.
- [revising his thoughts on the Woodstock festival] Woodstock was probably the single best show in history. Townshend doesn't like it because he is an idiot.
- I saw Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) and I thought Rami Malek deserved what he got. He did a great job with a really thin script.
- [on Keith Moon] I never met anyone like him in my life and I don't think I ever will, and you should all be grateful for that. He was wonderful but dangerous and very frustrating. He was an uncontrolled genius, completely out of control.
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