The Who’s Pete Townshend “Never Really Got Into Led Zeppelin,” But Did Listen to AC/DC

The Who’s Pete Townshend admitted in a new interview that he “never really got into Led Zeppelin” at the height of the latter act’s fame, adding, “The only heavy metal I really listened to was AC/DC.” Townshend was a guest on the YouTube channel Classic Album Review, where host Barry Robinson asked the guitarist if he thought The Who were early progenitors of heavy metal. “No, I don’t necessarily think so,” responded Townshend (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “I think [our 1970 live album] Live At Leeds is probably as explosive as it got. But, meanwhile, we were still doing… Like, for example, at Woodstock, we played a good chunk of Tommy and then we played some heavy stuff, as well. We did both.” He continued, “The only heavy metal I really listened to was AC/DC,” Pete admitted. “And I never really got into Led Zeppelin, which is strange because today I’ve recently been trying to get Jimmy Page to have lunch with me. I sent him a note recently just saying, ‘I’ve been listening to all of the Zeppelin albums again,’ and I thought I should. And there’s some fucking great stuff there.” He explained, “It’s just that at the time I didn’t like it that they were, in a sense, trying to pi...