FLORENCE, ITALY – JUNE 17: Musician Pete Townshend of The Who performs at Firenze Rocks 2023 at Visarno Arena on June 17, 2023 in Florence, Italy. (Photo by Roberto Serra – Iguana Press/Getty Images)

The Who‘s Tommy is back on the boards, with a theatrical run at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre now extended a second time through August 6th.

During a new chat with Loudersound, Pete Townshend recalled how big a risk writing and recording the double-album rock opera was for the Who at the time: “Tommy had been more successful than we expected. All of us in the band quickly forgot the reality of our situation, what might have happened. If Tommy had failed, we would have slid into ignominy.”

He went on to admit: “We had been a UK singles band who smashed guitars and wore funny outfits prior to Tommy. We were not all that far from (pop acts) Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick And Titch – appearing every month on Top Of The Pops and trying to get to Number One. Jimi Hendrix and Cream — and even Pink Floyd in their very early days — threatened to expose the Who as a lads’ band who were failing to rise to the spiritual and subversive romanticism of the psychedelic era.”

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