- Born
- Died
- Birth nameKeith John Moon
- Nickname
- Moon the Loon
- Height5′ 8″ (1.73 m)
- Keith John Moon was born to working class parents in Wembley, London,
England, on the 23rd August, 1946. At the age of 12, he had joined the
Sea Cadet Corp and was given his first musical instrument, the bugle.
He left school by 15 and was in his first band, The Beachcombers; this
was around the summer of 1963. There was rumour that Keith was
self-taught, but history says otherwise, he was shown how to play by
the late Carlo Little (1938-2005), Carlo
was the original drummer in
The Rolling Stones and
Screaming Lord Sutch's band, The Savages.
By the age of 18, he had joined a local London band, The High Numbers;
this was to consist of what is now known as
The Who.
With his own unique style of drumming, rolling the sticks along the
skins as to banging the typical beat, he was to become extrovertly
charismatic in his life as well as his playing. With a desire, a need
if you like, to be the centre of attention, this hyperactive, and
largely, self destructive, personality became his own worst enemy.
With a flair for theatrical and ridiculous behaviour, he was the centre
point and self-publicist for, if they liked it or not,
The Who.
In the meantime, he had fathered a daughter, Mandy, to Kim. He may have
been the perfect showman, but behind the scenes, he was often a very
aggressive man to live around and with. Kim soon left him, taking their
young daughter with her.
He started to live the high life in California, with the likes of
John Lennon,
Harry Nilsson and
Ringo Starr, Ringo's son, Zak, was his
godson, ironically, it was Zak who played with
The Who in their later career, during the
nineties and beyond.
While in California, he made his only solo album, Two Sides of The
Moon, for MCA Records, a 1975 release, with many guest artists. Keith
rarely played the drums while away from The Who,
he sang on the album, and played the drums on only three of the tracks.
His on-stage aggression, destroying his drum kits while still playing
them and wrecking hotel rooms, apart from being an obvious publicity
stunt, was fuelled with an over use of drugs and alcohol. This
addictive side to his nature flowed into the 70s, playing against the
band, his family and friends. His drumming became irregular and
unpredictable. He put on weight, so much so as to have him sit in a
chair with the backrest toward the camera, to hide his paunch, on the
cover of the last The Who album with Keith, the
1978 Who are You.
He died in September 7th, 1978; his death was an accident, by the
overuse of the prescribed medicine that was designed to ease him off his
drink addiction. He died in the same London apartment as
Cass Elliot, from
The Mamas and the Papas, who had
died there some four years earlier.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Cinema_Fan
- SpouseKim McLagan(March 17, 1966 - 1975) (divorced, 1 child)
- Wild drum playing and subsequent destruction of his kit when performing live.
- Extremely destructive personality even off-stage, often at the expense of hotel rooms
- Bowl Haircut
- Packed flash powder in his bass drum during an appearance on the
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967), causing it to explode. This not only caused Pete Townshend's hair to
catch fire and damaged his hearing, but Moon was injured as well. His
prime purpose in this prank was to upstage Smothers, and when he
appeared right in front of the camera whilst a joke was being cracked,
before collapsing, his attempts were successful. Bette Davis was standing backstage during the explosion and fainted. - On the cover of the last The Who album recorded with Moon, he is seated in chair upon which the words "Not to Be Taken Away" are stenciled. Moon
died within weeks of the album's release. - His public image was so pronounced that the Muppet character, Animal,
whose credo is "Drums. Women. Food." was inspired by Moon. - Did not like school and was not a good student. A teacher once wrote in his report card, "Retarded artistically, idiotic in other respects".
- Moon accidentally ran over his driver, Neil Boland on January 4, 1970. Moon, his wife, Kim and Larry "Legs" Smith (of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band) left a pub where they were followed by a group of Skinheads who proceeded to pound on the car after Moon and his group got in it. Neil exited the car to stop the fracas and the car continued to move. Moon, from the back seat, tried to steer the car out of harm's way and inadvertently ran over Boland. Boland later died of his injuries. (Described in "Dear Boy: The Life of Keith Moon" by Tony Fletcher.)
- I love to see people laugh and I love it more if I can make them laugh.
I think this comes across in my drumming. I watch a lot of The Marx Brothers' movies and they were doing the same sort of things. You've
seen the way [Chico Marx] plays the piano with that certain flair . . . adding
something to the music while taking liberties within his own
capabilities? It's a question of taking somebody else's music but not
sending it up in a derogative sense, just injecting your own
personality. [Pete Townshend]'s music allows me to do this. - You know, if I ever stopped laughing inside and quit believing in
people then I would get very hurt and totally disillusioned. You have
to treat everything - even if at that time it seems like a right bummer- as a good experience. There are things that have happened to me that
like my relationship with my wife. They're the things that make you
think most, because one is far more deeply involved. - At heart I cannot accept that I am a well-known rock 'n' roll star and
one of the greatest drummers in the world. I can't believe that person
on the television is really me. The Keith Moon the public knows is a
myth, even if I have created him. The real me is the person who sits at
home having a cup of tea with his old lady, Annette. The hotel smashing
is one way I get relief from the public image. I have no temper. I do
it in a spirit of amusment [sic] rather than anger. When I've done
damage to a friend's house I come back sheepishly the next day and
offer to put things right, which means I'm willing to foot the bill. - They're always saying I'm a capitalistic pig. I suppose I am. But ... it's good for my drumming.
- I'm not tempted to quit now like I was when we where having our internal troubles. I'd be mad to, wouldn't I? Said in an interview concerning him, possibly, leaving The Who October 1966.
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