The Who's Pete Townshend has revealed that he isn't all that fussed about the upcoming new Keith Moon biopic. However, he is ready to have a "moan" about it if he doesn't like it.
Townshend tells Rolling Stone that he doesn't actually "give a fuck, to be honest" – and that if it turns out to be a dud or misrepresent him in anyway, he won't be thinking about blocking its development, or as the guitarist describes "going to war" over it.
The project, which was recently given the green light to begin production, has been led by the Who's frontman Roger Daltrey over the past few years.
“When you talk about it as a Keith Moon biopic, it’s going to be the first semi-fictionalised, dramatised Who story,” Townshend explains. “It will be a Who biopic. Somebody is going to have to play Pete Townshend. I’ve read some very, very varied opinions about what my relationship was like with Keith. I view it one way, and other people view it another way. I certainly was never at war with Keith but neither was I his puppy.”
Describing Moon as “a great manipulator, and a great character, a great showman,” he continues, "he brought a lot of joy, but he also brought a lot of hardship and difficulty. I’ve always been honest about that. It will be interesting to see how that evolves. I certainly don’t see a position where if I didn’t like the way the story was being told, I’d block it. I don’t give a fuck, to be honest. I hope it happens because Roger has been working on it.”
Noting how he would feel if the film didn't reflect his true character in any way, Townshend adds: "I think if I felt I was being cruelly misrepresented, I’d step in and say, ‘This is a bit much.
"But I trust the people that are putting the film together. … And Roger is somebody who would punch out somebody that said anything even slightly derogatory about me. I trust him.”
Of Daltrey's approach to the film creating process, he stated that the vocalist had to “tell his own story” through the movie and that "he has to have his own way", adding "He sometimes crashes in sideways into my projects! But if I don’t like it, I will say so in the press. I might have a moan about it if there’s something I don’t like, but I will never go to war in the way that some bands have.”
