The Kids Are Alright

Pete Townshend: When I'm on the stage - let me try and explain - when I'm on the stage, I'm not in control of myself at all. I don't even know who I am, you know. I'm not this rational person that can sit here now and talk to you. If you walked on the stage with a microphone in the middle of a concert, I'd probably come close to killing you - I *have* come close to killing people that walked on the stage. Abbie Hofmann walked on the stage at Woodstock and I nearly killed him with me guitar. A cameraman walked the stage - a, a, a policeman came on when the bloody building at the Fillmore in New York was burning down - and I kicked him in the balls and sent him off, you know. Because - I - I'm just not there, really. It's not like being possessed, it's just - I do my job. And I know that I have to get into a certain state of mind to do it.