Pete Townshend revealed that one of the reasons he stays on the road is to help his family out financially. Townshend, who 50 years ago, wrote the Who's Tommy, which dealt with a child spurred into what he's described as a form of traumatic autism, explained that the disorder has hit close to home. During a chat with the PBS News Hour, Townshend spoke candidly for the first time about his grandson: “My daughter Minta, for example, has got a full spectrum autistic boy. And when we worked out how much it would cost through education, it came to a million pounds. And I employ people, and the band employs people, and it's great to be, kind of the person that decides whether that happens, or not.”
Although he's always made a point of discerning between being a creative artist and a performer, Townshend admitted once again that despite the fact that he does his job amazingly well — it doesn't mean that he actually enjoys it: “I don't feel excited. I feel I'm there to do a job. There's no thrill. Indeed, I would say I don't like it much. I do it as a job, and I find it in credibly easy. So easy — I don't even have to think about it.”
Townshend went on to say he's fitting into old bones with great comfort and even joy: “I'm happy to be here as an old person. I've come to realize that this time of life is probably the best. When you hit 70, when you hit 75 — as I will next birthday — you realize, y'know, that you're, definitely on a shorter leash. And you, kind of, settle with the present. And in a sense for people of my generation who went through the LSD-era of trying, in a sense, to find out 'Who is God?,' y'know, 'Who am I?' — all of that stuff, y'know? You suddenly realize, 'Well, here it is. It's me. It's now. I have a life. I have minutes. I have hours. I have weeks, months, years — maybe — and I should live in the present.' So, it's a very beautiful thing.”