Refugee
09-15-2007, 04:51 PM
Last week, legendary Who (http://www.rollingstone.com/thewho) rocker Roger Daltrey violated our rule against open letters (http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2007/07/13/an-open-letter-to-open-letter-writers-that-means-you-usher-britney-and-metallica/) and penned a rambling, cranky one (http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,4-2007410335,00.html) in British newspaper The Sun. The purpose? Warning out-of-control young rockers of the dangerous of living on the edge (in response to the study indicating rock stars are twice as likely to die early than mere non-rocking civilians (http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2007/09/04/enemy-of-rock-rock-stardom/)). His byline? “By Roger Daltrey (still rocking at 63).” The best parts? They’re quoted right here:
“Watching Pete Doherty and indeed Amy Winehouse is very sad. She is fantastically talented and he has a particular talent but I’m not sure he’s comfortable with it. There’s a bathroom floor waiting somewhere for him. He seems to have a deathwish and that is so incredibly dull — to think that that’s a cool and exciting thing.”
“Keith Moon might have been saved if he were a young performer today. He had an intelligence, and with the structure there is now he might have been OK. But rehab then was very rare. … Most of us didn’t really spot there was anything really wrong with Keith — we just thought he liked a drink. But John Entwistle would never have changed. He lived and danced to his own tune.”
“You don’t know anything at that age. You think you do but you don’t — and there’s a lot of temptation and pitfalls. Young people love to flirt with danger and I think with all these new health and safety laws it will get worse.”
“Watching Pete Doherty and indeed Amy Winehouse is very sad. She is fantastically talented and he has a particular talent but I’m not sure he’s comfortable with it. There’s a bathroom floor waiting somewhere for him. He seems to have a deathwish and that is so incredibly dull — to think that that’s a cool and exciting thing.”
“Keith Moon might have been saved if he were a young performer today. He had an intelligence, and with the structure there is now he might have been OK. But rehab then was very rare. … Most of us didn’t really spot there was anything really wrong with Keith — we just thought he liked a drink. But John Entwistle would never have changed. He lived and danced to his own tune.”
“You don’t know anything at that age. You think you do but you don’t — and there’s a lot of temptation and pitfalls. Young people love to flirt with danger and I think with all these new health and safety laws it will get worse.”