With the Chicago revival of Pete Townshend’s rock opera ‘Tommy’ approaching, the singer shared with The Chicago Tribune that he wasn’t a genius like everyone said he was for making the 1969 Tony-winning Broadway musical by explaining:
“I think that the music business and the press that surrounds the music business thinks that rock is a black art, magicians weaving this magic — and to some extent, I suppose, I agree with them. You know. . . but I don’t think that genius is a part of rock n’ roll. I think it’s an instinctive process, a bit like sport. If you can do it, you can do it. You don’t often know why you can do it, but you can do it.”
Amongst the good reviews that called him a rock genius, there were others who had a problem with the ending of the show so, he said:
“Quite a few intelligent people were irritated that (at the end of the play) I had allowed Tommy to put his hand on his father’s shoulder, inferring that he was forgiven, thus inferring that the whole of the generation that rock was supposed to be standing up against was to be forgiven. But in my life and my history, my aim actually was not to be antagonizing to the previous generation, but to say we were different.”
However, regarding the new rendition of the musical, which will run from June 26th to July 23rd, Pete announced that he updated the early-’90s musical to fit the current generation. He said:
“We had to write our own rules. We did that, we broke all the established rules, and now, the current generation they’re breaking all those rules again. We start our story — instead of in this post-war period, we turn everything on its head. I think it’s going to work; I think it’s going to be great.”
You can read Pete Townshend’s interview with The Chicago Tribune here.
