13. The WhoWho’s Next
This band is as important as Black Sabbath to me. They had a period of about ten years when they were a phenomenal hard rock band in the 1970s. Who’s Next from 1971 is a masterpiece, a milestone. It’s raw, it’s fantastic – the lyrics are witty and interesting, the production is sensational, it’s an absolute classic, and The Who in the 1970s had a tremendous influence on everything I would do later. Pete Townsend’s style of guitar playing has left a huge mark on me, and I think if you know you can see it. Many, many years before I picked up a guitar I loved the way he played guitar – how raw, how violent he was with his instrument.So many guitar players with their expensive instruments are really fast and technical and they’re really careful and they basically caress their little instrument, whereas to me heavy rock is kicking your instrument, thrashing it, and Pete Townshend is the one who put this violence in my head when I was a teenager. I loved that he smashed guitars onstage, I love that he actually fucking played the thing. I mean it’s called fucking heavy rock, heavy metal, hard rock. It’s not called tender rock.
