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Posted on 05/30/2026 8:13:35 AM PDT by DoodleBob
Roger Daltrey has made the claim that THE WHO was "the first heavy metal band", having laid the groundwork for the genre more than six decades ago.
The 82-year-old rock legend made the comments during a new interview with Rolling Stone. Asked how he sees THE WHO's legacy and what he and his bandmates did better than everybody else, Roger said: "We were just different than everybody else. Americans don't really know THE WHO from the early '60s, but as the drummer of DEEP PURPLE [Ian Paice] said recently in a magazine, 'THE WHO started it all.' We were the first heavy metal band."
He continued: "Jim Marshall invented the 4×12 [speaker cabinet], 100-watt stack for [THE WHO guitarist] Pete Townshend. All the guitar smashing that Jimi Hendrix became famous for, in his style, was basically copied from Pete Townshend, first of all. And the first rock opera, of course, we elevated rock to be maybe up its own ass in a way, you could say it. We were doing it before anyone, but it's not important in the long run."
Back in 2019, Townshend told the Toronto Sun that THE WHO "sort of invented heavy metal" with the band's first live album, 1970's "Live At Leeds". "We were copied by so many bands, principally by LED ZEPPELIN — you know, heavy drums, heavy bass, heavy lead guitar and some of those bands, like Jimi Hendrix for example, did it far better than we did," he said. "CREAM, with Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, they came along in '67, same year as Jimi Hendrix, and they kind of stole our mantle in a sense. So people who want to hear that old heavy metal sound, there are plenty of bands that can provide it. So it's not really what we can actually do today. Even if we wanted to, it was never high on my list of wishes."
Daltrey recently announced a run of U.S. solo tour dates, celebrating his return two years after his widely praised semi-acoustic 2024 summer outing and the acclaimed THE WHO farewell tour. The 2026 solo trek has been dubbed "A Great Night Out".
The tour will kick off August 23 at the Mesa Arts Center in Mesa, Arizona and run through September, including a rare Daltrey performance at New York City's The Town Hall on September 27 and wrapping up in Medford, Massachusetts at the Chevalier Theatre on September 29.
Daltrey was honored with a knighthood by The Prince of Wales at Windsor Castle this past December for his contribution to charity and music. Daltrey launched and curated the Teenage Cancer Trust concerts initiative at the Royal Albert Hall which has raised millions for the charity over the past 25 years.
Inducted into the Rock And Hall Of Fame with THE WHO in 1990, Daltrey received a Lifetime Achievement award from the Grammy Foundation along with the band in 2001. Daltrey and THE WHO co-founder Pete Townshend received Kennedy Center Honors in 2008. Considered to have one of the most recognizable singing voices of all time, Planet Rock listeners voted Daltrey rock's fifth-greatest voice in music history. He also received stellar reviews for his unique 2018 autobiography, "Thanks A Lot Mr. Kibblewhite", with one critic describing it as how "the punk became rock's Godfather…" Known for his magnetic presence and rebellious creative spirit, Daltrey has also been an actor and film producer, with multiple roles in films, theatre, and television.
He's released ten solo studio albums, including the acclaimed discs "Daltrey", "Ride A Rock Horse", "One Of The Boys" and the 2018 release "As Long As I Have You", and such hit singles as "I'm Free", "Giving It All Away", "Without Your Love", "Free Me" and "After The Fire". His solo work has been compiled into two anthologies, "Martyrs And Madmen" (1997) and "Moonlighting" (2005). Queen Elizabeth awarded him a CBE for his service to music and charity in 2004.
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We called it hard rock in the 70s.
Heavy metal to me was big haired 80s bands that all sounded alike. Wasn’t a favorite fie me. I can’t tell who plays what between Def Leppard, Poison, Tesla, etc.
Just me probably.
Well whatever, but crap albums like ‘Tommy’ sure put an end to that. There’s not even a shred of ‘heavy metal’ in that.
I can’t listen to the studio version of “Tommy”, the live version was much better.
Arthur Pryor’s Band who recorded “In the Hall of the Mountain King” in 1905 was, arguably, the first heavy metal band.
Ozzie and Dio were heavy metal among others. The Who weren’t.
The Who actually did a cover of In The Hall Of The Mountain King.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQeE0XDBXNg
Yeah, it's hard to play good music when you're drunk and high on drugs.
Copycats. :)
Except, as they say, it wasn't live, and it wasn't at Leeds.
“ 1974 was Zeps last good year live. Thats when Page was heavy into heroin.”
I saw the Presence tour in 77. They were great. The Physical Graffiti tour was also phenomenal.
That’d be nothing to brag about.
Lemmy on The Beatles:
“...the Beatles were hard men too. Brian Epstein cleaned them up for mass consumption, but they were anything but sissies. They were from Liverpool, which is like Hamburg or Norfolk, Virginia—a hard, sea-farin’ town, all these dockers and sailors around all the time who would beat the piss out of you if you so much as winked at them. Ringo’s from the Dingle, which is like the f***ing Bronx. The Rolling Stones were the mummy’s boys—they were all college students from the outskirts of London. They went to starve in London, but it was by choice, to give themselves some sort of aura of disrespectability. I did like the Stones, but they were never anywhere near the Beatles—not for humour, not for originality, not for songs, not for presentation. All they had was Mick Jagger dancing about. Fair enough, the Stones made great records, but they were always s**t on stage, whereas the Beatles were the gear.”
Exactly.
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