EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: I loved my gay past, says Who legend Peter Townshend By Richard Eden for The Daily Mail Published: 00:55, 9 August 2024 | Updated: 00:55, 9 August 2024 e-mail View comments His grandmother, in her dotage, was given to running down the street naked – which perhaps explains, in part, the inspiration behind his most famous lyric: I hope I die before I get old. Given that he's now in his 80th year, it seems safe to assume that Pete Townshend , co-founder of The Who, has accepted that that youthful ambition expired some years ago. Instead, he's decided to talk more candidly than ever about other desires – specifically those he once had for men.
Referring to what he describes as 'a couple of homosexual affairs', Townshend reflects: 'I tried them out, and I very much enjoyed them.' Emphasising that he's at ease with this, Townshend adds: 'I've made a couple of really close friends that I'm still friendly with today. But it wasn't what worked for me, sexually speaking – and didn't fit into my life, somehow.
' It's a marked contrast to the impression he gave 30 years ago, when he corrected what he saw as a misinterpretation of his song Rough Boys and his comment – from the previous decade – that he 'understood what gay sex was about'. Peter Townshend, (left) who had three children with his first wife, Karen, to whom he was married for more than 25 years, and who is now married to composer Rachel Fuller, 51, has long been content to acknowledge his feelings .