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Troubles and tribulations marked 1968 beginning with The Who's tour of Australia and New Zealand in January. Accompanied by fellow Mod band The Small Faces, The Who became the objects of hatred for Australia's right-wing press who derided them as drunken louts. The Who escaped with Pete vowing never to return (he finally did return, 36 years later)

The trip did mark one important milestone. Reading literature given him by Small Faces member Ronnie Lane, Pete became a disciple of the Indian avatar Meher Baba. His influence soon led to a new idea for a rock opera, an "amazing journey" for a young English boy who discovers a new spiritual level after being rendered "deaf, dumb and blind" by a childhood trauma.

During the summer tour, Pete gave a long interview to the fledgling music magazine Rolling Stone, discussing in depth his plans for his new opera and the meaning of rock in general. Printed over two issues, the interview presented Pete as one of the only performers of rock music who could speak at length on the intellectual meaning of the medium. The many interviews that would follow over the next few years established his reputation as rock's leading intellectual and the standard bearer for the hopes his generation placed in popular music.

Tommy, as the rock opera was finally dubbed, first appeared as an advance single, "Pinball Wizard," released March 7 and became The Who's first Top Ten single hit in a year and a half. The album followed on. May 17. Arriving in a three-section gatefold sleeve with an illustrated libretto, Tommy was hailed as a masterpiece by many rock critics and became The Who's first giant-selling album. When the money began to roll in, The Who were within weeks of declaring bankruptcy.

Photo: Jim Marshall

Tommy turned out to be more than just a hit album; it was a triumph in live performance as well, a fact proven when The Who took the opera onstage at the Woodstock Festival August 17. Despite an interruption in the middle of the piece when Yippie leader Abbie Hoffman came on stage to make a political announcement and was knocked off by Pete, Tommy wowed the festival's gigantic crowd in a performance captured on film and later featured in the hit movie Woodstock. Roger with his curly hair and open, fringed jacket and a boiler-suited Pete banging his guitar into the stage became iconic images for their generation. Now the whole world wanted to see them perform.

Pete did not devise the next big project until that summer, coming from a combination of the 1969 movie deal, the arrival of a new musical instrument and a method of transportation. During the summer, Pete was presented with a musical synthesizer which he put in his home studio and began toying with, running guitar and organ through sequencers, creating loops of musical notes after the manner of the American minimalist composer Terry Riley. Meanwhile, in order to travel in comfort from one rock show to another, Pete bought a large American van. While driving along in air-conditioned comfort, he began imagining a future where the air was too polluted to breathe.