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Pete Townshend has revealed he had secret feelings for men in the music industry throughout his career – including The Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger.
The Who guitarist, 79, who co-founded the rock band with Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle and Keith Moon, has previously identified as pansexual – an orientation defined by attraction to people regardless of sex or gender identity.
Townshend said he “very much enjoyed” the “homosexual affairs” and reflected he had made long lasting connections with the men he became involved with in the Sixties and Seventies.
He said: “I’ve made a couple of really close friends that I’m still friendly with today. But it wasn’t what worked for me, sexually speaking – and didn’t fit into my life, somehow.”
The musician married his first wife, Karen Astley, who he shares three children with in 1968. After they divorced in 1994, he then secretly married the composer Rachel Fuller in 2016.
Despite his long term relationships, Townshend reflected on one notable attraction he experienced.
“I was very sexually attracted to [Jagger]. And possibly to a few other people in my life,” he told Record Collector magazine as per the MailOnline.
He added he had also “possibly had secret feelings” for The Who’s late co-manager Kit Lambert, however, he clarified this attraction had not been reciprocated.
In 2012, Townshend previously spoke about Jagger publicly when he defended the size of The Rolling Stones frontman’s penis after his bandmate Keith Richards claimed he had a “tiny todger” in his autobiography Life, Keith.
“What I remember of the size of Mick Jagger’s penis — I remember it as being huge and extremely tasty,” Townshend said at a press conference at the time, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Townshend also spoke about his feelings for Jagger in his autobiography that was released the same year, Who I Am, writing: “Mick is the only man I’ve ever seriously wanted to f**k.”
The guitarist has previously spoken about his sexuality when explaining the inspiration for his 1966 single “I’m A Boy”.
“It’s the idea of masculinity and the way that men are seen to be at a time when I often forget, to be homosexual, to be pansexual, as I think I probably was, but not anymore,” he told Rock Cellar Magazine.
“I think I was ready to fall into bed with anybody that would have me.”
