BIOGRAPHY
Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend was born May 19, 1945, in Chiswick, West London, into a musical family; his father played saxophone with the RAF dance band the Squadronaires and his mother sang professionally. Drawn to rock and roll after seeing Rock Around the Clock in 1956, he formed early bands with schoolmates John Entwistle and Roger Daltrey before co-founding the Who, whose first hit, "I Can't Explain," reached number eight on the British charts in 1965. As the band's principal songwriter, Townshend wrote more than 100 songs across 12 studio albums, including the rock operas Tommy (1969) and Quadrophenia (1973) and the landmark Who's Next (1971). He also pursued solo and side projects shaped by his devotion to Meher Baba, released a Faber and Faber-edited book career, and saw The Who's Tommy adapted into a Tony-winning stage production. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.