The Who’s Pete Townshend on his issues with Bruce Springsteen: “It’s a bit of blood and glory” | CPT PPP Coverage

As a prime example, he infamously once viciously said of Led Zeppelin: “I don’t like a single thing that they have done, I hate the fact that I’m ever even slightly compared to them. I just never ever liked them. It’s a real problem to me cause as people I think they are really really great guys. Just never liked the band.”

Meanwhile, Townshend also disregarded The Beatles as “flippin’ lousy”. The Englishman’s mouth has a tendency to create enemies for himself, even though he usually enjoys the people he is insulting, just not their music.

In recent years, Townshend has been able to dish out insults more subtly and not be as obtuse with his words as he once was. During an interview with Rolling Stone in 2015, The Who’s guitarist was asked if he was a fan of ‘The Boss’ and whether he had ever seen him live. In response, Townshend told the reporter: “I did in the early days, but not anymore. It’s a bit of blood and glory for me now”.

When asked in what sense did he mean with his previous comment, in typical blunt fashion, Townshend replied: “Exactly the sense that sentence implies”.

Only a few weeks after these comments were published in May 2015, Springsteen joined The Who for two songs at the MusiCares benefit concert at the Best Buy Theater in New York City. Together, they played ‘My Generation’ and ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’. Additionally, Townshend was given the Stevie Ray Vaughan Award by Springsteen for his charity work.

In his speech, Springsteen told the crowd: “As I grew older, the Who’s music seemed to grow with me, the sexual frustration, politics, identity. These things course through my veins with every concurring Who album. I always found myself there somewhere in their music.”

“Pete is the greatest rhythm guitarist of all time. He showed you, you don’t have to play any lead. It’s an amazing thing to behold,” he continued. “Pete managed to take the dirty business of rock and roll and somehow make it spiritual and turn it into a quest. He may hate this, but he identified the place where it was noble, and he wasn’t afraid to go there.”

Despite Townshend’s comments, Springsteen only had warm words to offer him during the induction, and he didn’t let the “blood and glory” remark cloud his judgement of a guitarist he greatly admires.

Watch The Who perform with Bruce Springsteen below.