Forty years ago today, May 2nd, 1979 at the Rainbow Theatre in London, The Who did their first show with Kenney Jones on drums, eight months after the death of his friend, Keith Moon. The two were together the last night Moon was alive – September 6th, 1978 — having attended a party Paul McCartney threw in London for the release of the movie, The Buddy Holly Story. Roger Daltrey, while a friend and fan of Jones, never thought he was a good fit for The Who, and Jones agrees. Kenny Jones on being in the Who
“I would have given anything not to have joined The Who. You know, I would have given anything for Moonie to still be there. There is only one drummer for The Who — and that’s Keith Moon. And that’s the way it will always be. But I did enjoy the opportunity. It was different, it was great. It was exciting. You know, like The Small Faces was the most creative band I’ve been in, the Faces was the most fun, and The Who — I have to say — was the most exciting.”
Just after Jones joined The Who, Phil Collins reached out to Pete Townshend. Here is Phil Collins on a conversation he had with Pete Townshend about joining The Who.
“Keith died in the last, you know, few months previous and I said, ‘What’s happening with The Who? I’d love to play.’ And he literally said, ‘We just asked Kenney Jones.’ I would have left Genesis. I knew I could do that. I didn’t think they had it with Kenney and I didn’t think they had it with Simon Phillips. And I went to see them at the [Madison Square] Garden with Zak Starkey and I thought, ‘At last you found a drummer that can do it.’”
Roughly 20 years after that conversation, Collins was given the opportunity. Here is Phil Collins on turning down that opportunity.
“They did ask me to rehearse with them to do a show at the [Royal] Albert Hall and I said no because I didn’t want to leave Switzerland – I had just got settled in Switzerland. There’s one thing I should have done was to say, ‘Yeah, I’ll do that.’ Rehearse for a week and do a show at the Albert Hall with The Who.”
Jones, who played with The Who on the Tommy soundtrack album, was in the band until 1988 and recorded two studio albums – Face Dances and It’s Hard. Jones, who made his name with The Small Faces and Faces, was the band’s third drummer as Doug Sandom preceded Moon. Since then, only two other drummers have played with The Who, but were never made official members – Simon Phillips and Zak Starkey, whose godfather was Keith Moon. Zak is still with the band and is rehearsing with them for their Moving On! tour, which starts Tuesday in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
