All you could do was to see them. We were backstage when the Beatles were on and you could just about hear a noise. It was just literally screaming.
And of course I personified Tommy. I was the guy who used to play the part. I played the damn part for five years.
But contrary to what some people seem to think, I was never a bully. I was just a hard man.
But it wasn't like it was today, with all the drug problems. It was petty thieving and just general larking about. A lot of my friends ended up robbing banks.
First of all, you have to understand that I'm like anybody else. When I hear my voice on a record I absolutely loathe my voice. I cannot stand my voice.
I always used to develop a cold going into the studio.
I call it fan fatigue. I went to see Bob Dylan last year, who I think is absolutely incredible, but he suffers from his audience.
I can't remember half the names of the people we used to copy. James Brown was one.
I didn't ever want to be the leader.
I don't know many singers who actually do like the sound of their own voice.
I don't like Tommy on Broadway at all. I like the music, I'm pleased with Pete's success but I don't like what they've done to it.
I don't think there's any way it could have failed. We don't know failure in this band. We didn't know failure. We got to know it a little after awhile but at that time there was no such word.
I feel it went downhill during the later part of the '70's when Pete actually attained that position of being the leader and being the insular writer, writing everything, producing demos.
I felt that we did a fairly reasonable performance of the mini-opera. Brian Jones wasn't in good shape in those days, sadly. But it was one of those memorable times. Again, the director for that was Michael Lindsay-Hogg.
I have to tell you, and I don't mean this as sour grapes or anything, but it is hard to play for fans who see you all the time, makes it much harder.
I know without our fans and the devotion of our fans we wouldn't be here. I don't mean to put them down, but I'm just stating a fact that it is hard to play to people that see you all the time and it takes a lot of fun out of it in some ways.
I love Sell Out, I think it's great. I love the jingles. The whole thing as an album is a wonderful piece of work. The cover. Everything about it. It's got humor, great songs, irony.
I met Pete first when he came to one of our rehearsals with a guitar. I saw him at school, he was a character. You could hardly miss him. But he loves to make those kinds of stories up and we have had a lot of fights in the past and I did used to rule the band with an iron fist.
I think I would have been jailbait.
I think if Keith Moon was here today and you asked him to recall most of his early life or most of his life, he wouldn't be able to recall it.
I think Pete did have a hard time as a kid with his appearance. But don't all kids have a hard time? God, I had a hard time, too. I was little with bow legs and rickets. I used to get picked on like everybody used to get picked on.
I wanted to be in a band that shared ideas and were in it together.
I was making guitars and I was a sheet metal worker and if you ever see sheet metal workers' hands, you've never seen so many cuts in your life.
In the early days, before Pete started to write prolifically, we used to listen out for all obscure American records.
In those days I don't' think they were even demos.
It was fun to sing somebody else's song.
Listen, I never, ever thought about getting a second job. Once we came to America it always felt like we'd made it.
Monterey, I remember, but I seem to remember the Fillmore West, that we played the week before Monterey. That was much more memorable for me. The first time in San Francisco. They were good gigs.
My love for the band is still there. It hasn't changed, maybe that's why it's so painful these days.
No, I was two years older than the other guys. I was a war baby. My family were a lot poorer than they were. I'd had to fight too hard for anything I had in my life and to smash things up for me.
Part of the early Who career was all about knocking people's confidences out.
Sgt. Pepper is a collection of songs, top-and-tailed by a great song. But there isn't really an overall concept to Sgt. Pepper, it's just a series of great songs.
We lived the life with Keith Moon. It was all Spinal Tap magnified a thousand times.
We were too rough at the edges to be a pop group.
We weren't wealthy but we definitely weren't poor. We were incredibly rich because there was a wonderful community in Shepherd's Bush, where I grew up. All my friends were into villainy and crime.
Well, for the My Generation album, there was nothing to be nervous about in them days. We used to take every day as it came. Every day was just a gig and I think we did the recording between gigs literally.
Well, Shel Talmy didn't think that Pete's lead guitar playing was up to it and he didn't think our backing vocals were up to it. He was right about the backing vocals.
You're better off being a brick layer if you're going to play guitar than a sheet metal worker.
Roger is 5’ 7” tall.
Roger’s middle name is Harry.
Roger’s trademark is swinging the microphone by the chord during a concert performance.
Roger has made 60 television appearances as himself.
Roger has been the lead singer of the rock band,
Roger has produced 4 films.
Roger was married to Jacqueline from 1964 to 1968 and they have one child.
Roger plays the flute.
Roger was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, along with the other members of The Who, in 1990.
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