In 2003 Pete decided to download $14.00 worth of child porn in a weird attempt to prove banks were in alliance with the industry. Seems completely illogical now but in whatever research The Who guitarist that's what went down.
In his autobiography, "Who I Am", Townshend describes the trauma this fact finding mission created.
He says: “It’s white knight syndrome – you want to be the one that’s seen to be helping.”
Townshend explains he was himself a victim of sexual abuse when he was young, continuing: “I had experienced something creepy as a child. So you imagine, ‘What if I was a girl of nine or ten, and my uncle had raped me every week?’ I felt I had an understanding and I could help.”
He reports the police gave him half an hour to decide whether to go to court over the incident, and he decided against it. “I think I was exhausted,” he says. “My lawyers were as surprised as I was because everyone thought I would be let off. Townshend was placed on the National Sex Offenders list.
“I thought if I went to court they would fucking rip me apart. If I had a gun I would have shot myself. It really did feel like a lynching.”
The book seems pretty cool with Pete telling us how he had a bit of a crush on Mick Jagger which caused him to ask his band mates to feature their hm..'man hardware' prominently in photo shoots as well as his first meeting with Keith Moon, an argument with Jimi Hendrix at Monterey.
The book is due out October 8, and sounds a bit like 50 Shades of Townshend…