Pete Townshend Is Ready to ‘Moan’ About Keith Moon Biopic
Pete Townshend said he was ready to "moan" in public about the upcoming Keith Moon biopic if he didn’t like it but noted that he couldn’t see a situation where he'd block its development.
The project has been fostered by the Who's singer, Roger Daltrey, for many years, and it was recently confirmed to be going into production. In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Townshend said that, no matter how the story unfolded, he won't “go to war” over it.
“When you talk about it as a Keith Moon biopic, it’s going to be the first semi-fictionalized, dramatized Who story,” Townshend said. “It will be a Who biopic. Somebody is going to have to play Pete Townshend. I’ve read some very, very varied opinions about what my relationship was like with Keith. I view it one way, and other people view it another way. I certainly was never at war with Keith but neither was I his puppy.”
He described the late drummer as “a great manipulator, and a great character, a great showman,” adding that "he brought a lot of joy, but he also brought a lot of hardship and difficulty. I’ve always been honest about that. It will be interesting to see how that evolves. I certainly don’t see a position where if I didn’t like the way the story was being told, I’d block it. I don’t give a fuck, to be honest. I hope it happens because Roger has been working on it.”
The guitarist also said he wasn’t in a position to create a fuss if the script deviated from the facts. "I think if I felt I was being cruelly misrepresented, I’d step in and say, ‘This is a bit much,'" he said. "But I trust the people that are putting the film together. … And Roger is somebody who would punch out somebody that said anything even slightly derogatory about me. I trust him.”
Townshend noted that Daltrey had to “tell his own story” through the movie. “He has to have his own way," he said. "He sometimes crashes in sideways into my projects! But if I don’t like it, I will say so in the press. I might have a moan about it if there’s something I don’t like, but I will never go to war in the way that some bands have.”