Roger Daltrey Wags His Finger at Young Rockers: "You Don't Know Anything at That Age"

Last week legendary Who rocker Roger Daltrey violated our rule against open letters and penned a rambling, cranky one in British newspaper The Sun. The purpose? Warning out-of-control young rockers of the dangerous of living on the edge (in response to the study indicating rock stars are twice as likely to die early than mere non-rocking civilians). His byline? "By Roger Daltrey (still rocking at 63)." The best parts? They're quoted right here:

• "Watching Pete Doherty and indeed Amy Winehouse is very sad. She is fantastically talented and he has a particular talent but I'm not sure he's comfortable with it. There's a bathroom floor waiting somewhere for him. He seems to have a deathwish and that is so incredibly dull -- to think that that's a cool and exciting thing."

• "Keith Moon might have been saved if he were a young performer today. He had an intelligence, and with the structure there is now he might have been OK. But rehab then was very rare. ... Most of us didn't really spot there was anything really wrong with Keith -- we just thought he liked a drink. But John Entwistle would never have changed. He lived and danced to his own tune."

• "You don't know anything at that age. You think you do but you don't -- and there's a lot of temptation and pitfalls. Young people love to flirt with danger and I think with all these new health and safety laws it will get worse."

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

More Song Stories entries »

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