The Who's Roger Daltrey: "We Were the First Heavy Metal Band"

Roger Daltrey claims The Who were the first heavy metal band, arguing they differed from other acts in the early 1960s and laid groundwork for the genre. He credits Jim Marshall’s 4×12, 100-watt speaker cabinet for Pete Townshend’s guitar sound and links later guitar smashing to Townshend’s influence. He also points to The Who’s rock opera approach as elevating rock in a distinctive way. Pete Townshend similarly claims heavy metal origins tied to Live at Leeds, citing later bands that copied their style. The piece notes that both use a broad definition of heavy metal, and it suggests The Who may have an even stronger case as early punk pioneers through “My Generation.”

"“We were just different than everybody else,” the singer told Rolling Stone. “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.”"

"He continued, “Jim Marshall invented the 4×12 [speaker cabinet], 100-watt stack for [Who guitarist] 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 ass in a way, you could say it. We were doing it before anyone, but it's not important in the long run.”"

"Towshend made similar claims in the past, telling the Toronto Sun in December 2019, “We sort of invented heavy metal with [our 1970 album] Live at Leeds. 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.”"

"Maybe more so than metal, the Who have a better claim to being the first punk band, with their early hit “My Generation” possessing a lot of the qualities that would go on to s"

Read at Consequence