Before I Get Old is one of the best books ever written about rock’n’roll, discarding much of the mythology that often surrounds a lesser informed appraisal of the Who. It tells the story of six personalities – songwriter and guitarist Pete Townshend, bassist John Entwistle, drummer Keith Moon and singer Roger Daltrey, plus their original managers Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp.
Here are the band’s origins within the steamy nightlife of London, their meteoric rise to fame, the laughter and the pathos, the craziness of the world they inhabited, the drugs, the destruction, the vandalism, the debts – and, of course, the music. In short, every element that makes up the fascinating, shocking and hilarious story of the Who.
Before I Get Old is essential reading, an exhaustive study of an exhausting band who always lived up to their legend.