I first met The Who's Pete Townshend 10 years ago at a hotel near his home in London for an interview. He entered the first-floor suite energetically. When he sat down, his crossed legs bounced with barely contained passion in response to each question.

The 2-to-3-hour interview I'd anticipated turned into a lunch chat and an entire day's discussion, culminating in Townshend's 8 p.m. departure, with this promise: "If you've got any burning questions, I'll come back in an hour's time."

Townshend is a rock legend, of course. But unlike his comrades in the rock pantheon, he's brutally self-critical, hyperarticulate, and accomplished in a range of fields: He has won Tony awards for his work on Broadway; he has published fiction short stories; and in the 1980s he worked as a literary editor at one of Britain's most prestigious publishers, Faber & Faber. He was also arrested by the British police in 2003 for accessing child pornography on the Internet. Shortly thereafter, he was exonerated, and the sting operation targeting him is now under suspicion. Those of us who have cared about Townshend's career know he has written about the horrors of child abuse, and served as a patron of related charities, for years.