The Who guitarist Pete Townshend is a fan of Taylor Swift.
The 79-year rock legend admits he enjoys Taylor’s music and respects her dedication to writing and performing, with the pop superstar releasing 11 studio albums by the age of 34.
Outing himself as a Swiftie on the ‘What It Takes’ podcast, he said: “I’m a song dreamer in a sense. So I love the great songwriters of my father’s era, Gershwin and so on. And also the great songwriters of today, past The Beatles and all the rest of them to Taylor Swift. I love what she does, too. Not that she’s necessarily absolutely always to my taste, but I just love the fact that she seems to love it, that she seems to be having so much fun. That’s what I identify with.”
Earlier in 2024, Pete congratulated Taylor for the success she has had on her ‘Eras Tour’.
The ‘Won’t Fooled Again’ rocker – who is joined in The Who by singer Roger Daltrey – praised the ‘I Can Do It With a Broken Heart’ hitmaker for creating “really safe” space for her fans to enjoy her songs live.
In an interview with ComicBook.com, he said: “I think what’s happening with the Taylor Swift events, for example, she’s created a place where people feel really, really, really safe.
“And what I think was happening in the ’60s – the late 60s, early 70s – was a discovery that it was safe to blend a music event, to allow yourself to unfold, to relax into the mood of the event. It could be that it was heavy music like Led Zeppelin, or parts of what The Who were doing. But it could also be the gentleness of great R’n’B like Sly and the Family Stone, but also more gentle music like Joni Mitchell, like Crosby Stills and Nash. There was a cross-section of music which, brought together in festival events, had the effect of making people feel together.”