There are few bands as iconic as The Who.
But while The Who's music has brought joy to countless millions, the band members' journeys
to legendary status has been besieged by shocking and unexpected deaths, public disasters, violence,
and destruction.
Here is the tragic real-life story of The Who.
Young Pete Townshend spent the first few years of his life in a West London area hit hard
by German bombing raids in World War II, which ended just a few months after he was born
in 1945.
Death permeated daily life.
He told the Daily Telegraph,
"When I was four I lived in a house where 12 people had died.
We played in bomb sites, we'd find bits of bodies, skeletons, and watches every day."
When he was five, Townshend's parents split up and for two years he was forced to live
with his psychologically disturbed grandmother, which he described to Rolling Stone as, quote,
"a f---ing nightmare."
And things were tough for bandmate Roger Daltrey as well.
In 1959, he was expelled from school on his 15th birthday after a long history of fighting
and causing trouble culminated in an incident where he brought an air rifle to school.
Another student grabbed the gun and fired it, putting out a kid's eye, and ending Daltrey's
schooling.
And you thought that sort of thing was just an urban legend!
"No, no, I want an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle!"
"You'll shoot your eye out, kid!"
The Who experienced its commercial breakthrough in 1965, when its singles "Anyway, Anyhow,
Anywhere" and "My Generation" hit the top 10 in the United Kingdom.
But the resulting tour almost ended the band before they really got started.
When Daltrey discovered drummer Keith Moon's cache of pills he flushed them down a toilet.
Moon, wielding a tambourine, confronted Daltrey, but the singer quickly took care of the situation
by punching his drummer right in the nose.
Daltry wrote in his autobiography,
"It took about five people to hold me off him.
It wasn't just because I hated him, it was because I loved the band so much and thought
it was being destroyed by those pills."
Townshend and bandmate John Entwistle fired Daltrey from the band…but after one disastrous
show without him, they reluctantly brought him back.
That was just a sign of things to come, as Towshend and Daltrey nearly killed each other
in a 1973 altercation.
After Townshend drunkenly threatened to kill Daltrey and threw a guitar at the singer's
head, Daltrey responded by clocking Townshend in the jaw.
Townshend fell and cracked his head on the floor; an ambulance was called, and the distraught
Daltrey rode in the back with Townshend the whole way to the hospital, holding his hand
the entire time.
There was reason for Daltrey to fear the worst in that fight, because something even more
terrible had actually happened to drummer Keith Moon back in 1970.
According to Ultimate Classic Rock, Moon and his friend Neil Boland were at a pub when
they were attacked by a group of what Rolling Stone called, quote, "jeering skinheads."
Moon and Boland attempted to flee in Moon's car, but the mob threw rocks at them and attempted
to overturn the car with brute force, but during the fight, Boland had gotten trapped
under the vehicle, and was dragged to his death.
Moon was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing by a judge, but his girlfriend Pamela Des
Barres told The Sun that he never got over it.
"One night when we were in bed he broke down and started to cry, calling himself a murderer.
He would wake up screaming.
It was so sad because it was obviously an accident but he blamed himself."
Even in the world of '60s and '70s rock music, where drinking hard and living it up were
a matter of course, Keith Moon was known for his wild behavior fueled by his prodigious
appetite for alcohol.
In just one example, Moon was so loaded up on tranquilizers and brandy that he passed
out behind his drum kit during a San Francisco concert in 1973.
By 1978, Moon came to the conclusion that his imbibing had gotten out of hand, telling
Good Morning America,
"I'm quite out of control.
Amazingly drunk."
"Drunk?!"
"Well, mainly."
Sadly, he never was able to get clean.
He tried to quit drinking, and was prescribed a medication called Heminevrin to help with
withdrawal symptoms.
But on the evening of September 7, 1978, he overdosed on more than 30 Heminevrin pills,
and choked to death in his sleep as a result.
He was 31.
On December 3, 1979, The Who were set to play Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum.
But the show quickly turned into a tragedy.
Doors were set to open at 7:05, but by 6:30, over 8,000 fans had gathered, hoping to get
their first choice of the general admission "festival seating".
Chilled by 36 degree temperatures and strong winds, the restless crowd began to stampede,
trying to force their way through the only two open doors.
The band took the stage unaware of what happened, but as soon as the concert ended, they were
told the terrible truth: 11 fans had been killed in the stampede.
Just a few weeks later, the Cincinnati City Council passed a law that banned festival
seating at concerts, in the hopes of preventing another unspeakable tragedy.
In 2002, The Who were scheduled to begin their latest U.S. tour in Las Vegas on June 28.
But the show had to be cancelled due to another terrible tragedy: the sudden death of Who
bassist John Entwistle.
According to The Guardian, after spending the prior evening knocking back drinks with
his bandmates, Entwistle entered his room at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino at about
3 a.m. with a self-proclaimed groupie named Alycen Rowse.
When she awoke the next morning at about 10 a.m., she discovered Entwistle unresponsive,
and his body cold.
Her attempts to revive the bassist failed, as did those by paramedics.
An investigation by the Clark County medical examiner's office ruled that Entwistle died
from a heart attack, triggered by cocaine consumed earlier in the evening.
Following Entwistle's death, The Who continued as a duo, and Roger Daltrey and Peter Townshend
were back on the road just four days after Entwistle's death.
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Grunge videos about your favorite bands are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.