Pete Townshend: Les Paul Award Coming

Pete Townshend, will be presented with the prestigious Les Paul Award on January 25th at the 28th Annual Technical Excellence & Creativity Awards, at Southern California's Anaheim Hilton during the 2013 NAMM Show. Presented by the TEC Foundation for Excellence in Audio, the TEC Awards recognizes outstanding achievement in professional audio technology and production. The Les Paul Award, named in honor of the legendary musician and inventor who died in 2009, is presented annually to honor individuals or institutions that have set the highest standards of excellence in the creative application of audio and music technology. Russ Paul, the son of Les Paul, will make the presentation to Townshend on behalf of the Foundation.

Over the past 21 years, recipients of the award have included such legends as Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, and Al Kooper, among others.

The TEC Foundation for Excellence in Audio is a public benefit corporation headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to presenting the TEC Awards, the Foundation has helped fund programs, including those of H.E.A.R. and the House Research Institute, that educate audio professionals and music listeners about safe hearing in the music environment.

Pete Townshend explained that contrary to popular belief, the damage to his hearing didn't occur on stage with the Who, but on his own, alone in his home recording studios over the years: "What hurt my ears was not guitar, it wasn't. It was recording. It was living in the recording studio. And it was getting drunk; making great songs at home, and listening to it over and over and over and over again, like, real masturbation stuff. Y'know, I've written a great song, and a bottle of brandy, listen to it again, and really, just blowing my brains out in the studio as well. Y'know, I never gave myself a rest."

Pete Townshend's autobiography, Who I Am, will be published on October 8th.

November 27 - Minneapolis, MN - Target Center