Words about music (42): Pete Townshend

When I'm on the stage - let me try to explain - when I'm on the stage, I'm not in control of myself at all. I even don't know who I am. I'm not this rational person that can sit here and talk to you. If you walked on the stage in the middle of a concert for an interview, I'd probably come close to killing you - I HAVE come close to killing people that walked on the stage. Abbie Hofmann walked on the stage at Woodstock and I nearly killed him with me guitar. A cameraman walked... a, a, a policeman came on when the bloody building of the Fillmore in New York was burning down - and I kicked him in the balls and sent him off. It's not like being possessed, you know, it's just - I do my job, and I know that I have to get into a certain state of mind to do it.

Pete Townshend