Legendary rock drummer Keith Moon of The Who is still making fans, 34 years after his death. The only problem is, some of them don’t realize he’s dead.
Organizers for the 2012 Olympics have requested his presence to play a gig at the London games, asking band manager Bill Curbishley if it would be possible to secure him.
“I emailed back saying Keith now resides in Golders Green crematorium, having lived up to The Who’s anthemic line ‘I hope I die before I get old,'” he said. “If they have a round table, some glasses and candles, we might contact him.”
The remaining members of The Who are expected to participate in Olympic festivities, but no word yet on what exactly they will be playing.
Moon was well-known for his antics onstage, which earned him the nickname “Moon the Loon”. During a performance on The Somthers Brothers Comedy Hour, he set off an explosion rigged from his bass drums that embedded a piece of his own cymbal in his arm and singed guitarist Pete Townshend’s hair. He also had a thing for blowing up toilets by flushing explosives; it’s estimated that he did hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage doing this in hotels while the band was touring.
The outlandish, brilliantly talented drummer died in 1978 from an overdose of clomethiazole, a pill prescribed to him to alleviate his alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
The infamous “Smothers Brothers” performance: