Keith Moon's death indeed shocked The Who's fans decades ago, but his bandmate, Pete Townshend, felt a different kind of it.
Nearly 44 years since Moon left the music industry and the world too soon, his The Who's bandmate opened up about a different kind of shock he felt upon receiving the news about his passing.
In a new interview with Audible's Words + Music series for its latest entry, "Somebody Saved Me," Townshend recalled feeling speechless as he thought the drummer was well and was already cured.
"He wasn't drinking. He wasn't doing cocaine. He wasn't unhappy. For two weeks before the day that he died, he called me up every night at 11:30 and said, 'Pete, I love you, man. Sleep well,'" he recalled, as quoted by Ultimate Classic Rock and Culture. "Keith, of course, was really trying as hard as he could to stay alive and not doing a particularly good job of it."
Since Moon showed he had been doing well already, he turned to the medicine to help him avoid convulsions and overdosed it. The drug in question is Heminevrin, an anticonvulsant.
After the thoughts finally sank in, Townshend realized that Moon's untimely passing was a result of his usual all-or-nothing personality. In comparison, the late drummer was reportedly like one of those who would be given two aspirin for his headache but would take half a bottle.
With that, Townshend admitted that he is also a codependent that he received a warning from a friend after Moon's death. His pal Barney purportedly told him that, while Moon died from choking on his own vomit, Townshend has a tendency to die choking on someone else's vomit.
Keith Moon's Death Remembered
The Who's famous drummer ended his career as a musician and comedian when he lost his life on Sep. 7, 1978.
A month before his death, The Who released their then-first new album in three years. At that time, Moon was drinking and taking drugs, affecting his performance and appearance. Due to his condition, the band was in no state to tour, and it caused him to feel anxious and depressed.
He began taking Heminevrin, which Dr. Geoffrey Dymond prescribed to him, to quell his cravings for alcohol. When he successfully cut back on his booze, he suddenly exceeded the prescribed dose of the medicine the same way he abused drugs.
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According to his biographer, Tony Fletcher, the drummer's girlfriend, Annette Walter-Lax, never realized the number of pills he took. A day later, she found him lying on his stomach and could not hear him breathing.
She called Dr. Dymond and assisted her in finding an ambulance. Unfortunately, it was too late as he had been dead before she found him. He was officially pronounced dead at Middlesex Hospital.
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