Abstract Pete Townshend is a rock musician, and around him and the Who there is an important literature. However, his religious universe has been less studied, and it constitutes a fundamental part of his music and personal life. This article focuses on its three main dimensions: voluntary religion, unconscious reflections, and becoming a divinity to fans. The search for identity seems to underlie all three, in either individual or collective processes, as seen in Townshend’s songs, performance rituals, and fans’ devotion. Pete Townshend addressed God in deep and heartfelt prayers, through a medium as secular and aggressive as the Who’s rock, in the struggle to find who he was.
Javier Campos Calvo-Sotelo (Fri,) studied this question.