Pete Townshend is open to using AI for his unfinished music

November 13, 2025 1

‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ and guest Pete Townshend during Wednesday’s November 12, 2025 show. (Photo: Scott Kowalchyk/CBS)

The Who‘s Pete Townshend has revealed that he’s got lots of unfinished music in his vaults, but he’s not so sure whether fans will ever get to hear it.

Townshend appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Wednesday, where he talked about his unfinished works, revealing he has “350, 450 pieces of music.”

“Now, a lot of it is probably terrible,” he said. “I’ve managed to wade through about half of it,” adding, “I don’t know what to do with it.”

He said he’s “quite interested in AI” and he’d be open to using the AI platform Suno or some other platform on “old songs that didn’t quite work because I didn’t get them right [the] first time round.” He explained he’d like to see “what it can make of it. It might be some hits.”

During the episode, Townshend also sat in with The Late Show band, and discussed his Quadrophenia ballet, which opens in New York on Friday, and The Who farewell tour, which wrapped in North America in October.

He insisted the farewell is “genuine,” but joked, “We’re gonna end it after we’ve done as many shows as Elton John,” which got some laughs. “He did 330, we’ve done 22, so we just have another 308 to do. And then we’ll be gone for good.”

While Townshend said he doesn’t usually enjoy touring, he did this time around.

“I decided I was going to try to make Roger [Daltrey] happy, which isn’t easy,” he said, noting singing takes a lot out of Roger. “I thought, you know, I must forget about myself and just do this for him. It could be the last thing we ever do together. And it worked.”