Who I Am

By: Pete Townshend

Narrated by: Pete Townshend

Length: 17 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

From the voice of a generation: the most highly anticipated autobiography of the year, and the story of a man who...

• ...wanted The Who to be called The Hair.
• ...wanted to be a sculptor, a journalist, a dancer, and a graphic designer.
• ...became a musician, composer, librettist, fiction writer, literary editor, sailor.
• ...smashed his first guitar onstage, in 1964, by accident.
• ...invented the Marshall stack, feedback, and the concept album.
• ...inspired Jimi Hendrix's pyrotechnical stagecraft.
• ...is partially deaf in his left ear.
• ...stole his windmill guitar playing from Keith Richards.
• ...followed Keith Moon off a hotel balcony into a pool and nearly died.
• ...did too much cocaine and nearly died.
• ...drank too much and nearly died.
• ...detached from his body in an airplane, on LSD, and nearly died.
• ...was embroiled in a tabloid scandal that has dogged him ever since.
• ...planned to write his memoir when he was 21.
• ...published this book at 67.

©2012 Pete Townshend (P)2012 HarperCollins Publishers

Pete is a friend to me now..wonderful

his candor and ability to craft the stories within the story was very refreshing....cheers

Average biography

He is mostly honest and forthcoming, what I value most in biographies, but he tended to ramble on. I found myself wanting to listen to something else. I admire his creativity and artistic vision, but he comes across as always up in his head and self obsessed. Didn’t find myself thinking I’d love to grab coffee or lunch with him after I finished this biography.

Wonderfully Written!!!

What made the experience of listening to Who I Am the most enjoyable?

Pete Townshend provides very interesting insights into the british rock scene of the 60's. The interactions between various artists of the time was amazing.

What did you like best about this story?

Pete Townshend pulls no punches for anyone including himself. Seemed to be very honestly written.

What about Pete Townshend’s performance did you like?

He was able to laugh at himself and his past behavior.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I went back and listened to my entire Who library. It was really cool to have that first hand background on the creative process that Pete went thru to write a lot of the Who's songs.

Any additional comments?

You will not be disappointed with this purchase.

I LOVE this book. It is like hanging out with Pete

I LOVE this book. It is like hanging out with Pete Townshend as he tells me about his entire life and all the interesting stuff about his musical career including the Who and many other folks! Very interesting!

Excellent this being my only second audio book.

What made the experience of listening to Who I Am the most enjoyable?

I'm a person with dyslexia, at the age of 57, I honestly can't say I've ever read a book cover to cover. What made this so enjoyable was the Townsend narrating the entire book. My first audio book was Life (Keith Richards) I enjoyed it but the downside Keith only,only read a little at the beginning and end. Johnny Depp read half the book, then here's the letdown the last half of the book was narrated by some joker reading the book in the third person. Trying to come across as Keith himself. Second of all I purchased this CD's. 24 to the exact. audible.com is fantastic I can enjoy listening on my iPad in the car, or play it on my PC at home. Kudos I find this just as enjoyable as listening to the music of my generation. Why I never tried this before is beyond me. I highly recommend this book of Pete Townsend to everyone. To me it's like listening to a almost 18 hour song very enjoyable.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Who I Am?

just hearing Pete Townsend read the entire book, this man lived it so who better to hear from.

Which scene was your favorite?

at the moment, I can't answer this question, only about halfway into the book

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

definitely made me laugh more than once.

Any additional comments?

will be certainly, buying more I'm also joined the membership program, I also highly recommend that also

Maximum R&B as I hoped it would be

Pete's narration makes the book complete, probably the best of the recent rock bios by a good measure. Pete is brutally honest, well worth a listen, my favorite book of the year.

Pete on Pete

Great details about the history of The Who and Pete Townsend. His ocasional insincere sounding chuckles are annoying at first, but eventually you get used to his reading style. In-depth, intimate and definitive. It was only lacking where I would've preferred more about his songwriting process on some of his more early/iconic songs.

Skims a bit, but definitely worth it.

I love listening to authors read their own autobiographies. Townsend does a great job reading his story, laughing off some pretty serious situations. But he gets very personal and tells tales of how he sees his creative endeavors. As a Townsend fan and The Who fan I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Pete Leaves No Stone Unturned

I was always a fan of The Who and an even bigger fan of Pete Townshend, so when I heard this book was coming out it was at the top of my Christmas list from my wife.

Despite my excitement, I put the book down around page five-hundred-and-something and never picked it back up. At least not until I discovered Audible, and what a difference!!

Written and narrated by Pete this recording feels like you are hanging out with the man himself while he tells you his life story in rich detail.

I came away with the feeling that, as both an artist and an individual, he is every bit as complex as you would imagine a genius of his caliber to be.

From his childhood, interest in music, the formation of The Who, the group and solo projects that make up his life's work, crazy stories, relationships etc. etc. it's all in there.

Highly recommend for any fan of The Who, Pete Townshend, or even this time period in music.

Fantastic History of The Who & Pete Townsend!

This was a wonderful 17 hours spent. Having Pete read his life and times was enlightening, entertaining, funny, poignant, heartbreaking and uplifting.