Metal
Roger Daltrey agrees The Who were 'the first heavy metal band'
Roger Daltrey has backed claims that The Who kick‑started heavy metal, though he insists the title means little to the band’s legacy.
Roger Daltrey agrees that The Who were the "first heavy metal band".
The frontman of the legendary '60s and '70s rock band - whose hits include Pinball Wizard, Baba O'Riley and Won't Get Fooled Again - has chimed in on the topic after Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice insisted it was neither his band or Black Sabbath that should be credited with the title.
The sticksman said on the Metal Sticks podcast recently: “We helped create what I call ‘the second coming’ of it.
“Everything else, the band that did it first - The Who did it before everybody.”
He went on: “They were the first on the big amp; they were the first to push rock ‘n’ roll beyond pretty little pop songs.
“Let’s not forget the importance of The Who. They just changed everything for kids who wanted to do something a little more violently.”
Regardless, Daltrey insists it's not a title that is at all "important" to the band's legacy.
He told Rolling Stone: "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. Jim Marshall invented the 4×12 [speaker cabinet], 100-watt stack for 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 a** in a way, you could say it. We were doing it before anyone, but it’s not important in the long run."
Echoing the sentiment of his bandmate, The Who's guitarist Pete Townshend previously told the Toronto Sun: “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.
“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.”
