Pod Insights DISGRACELAND The Who Pt 2: A Crowd Crush, a Death Trap, and a Tragedy in Cincinnati About this episode They came for the loudest rock band in the world. They got a death trap. In a freezing plaza outside Cincinnati’s Riverfront Coliseum, thousands of Who fans surged forward to get a spot up close in the general admission crowd. But when the doors stayed locked, panic set in – and the crush began. Eleven never made it out. This is a true story of maximum rock ‘n roll, deadly chaos, and the Who.
What do you think was the greatest tragedy in music history? Tell Jake at 617-906-6638, [email protected] , or on socials @disgracelandpod.
To see the full list of contributors, see the show notes at www.disgracelandpod.com https://cms.megaphone.fm/organizations/c83125d2-8508-11ed-bd28-ff0aff7ee233/podcasts/efca2ef8-85f9-11ed-8fe3-bb208936046f/episodes/29bc673e-85fa-11ed-9d9c-cffe44583488/www.disgracelandpod.com.
To listen to Disgraceland ad free and get access to a monthly exclusive episode, weekly bonus content and more, become a Disgraceland All Access member at disgracelandpod.com/membership https://disgracelandpod.com/membership.
Sign up for our newsletter and get the inside dirt on events, merch and other awesomeness - GET THE NEWSLETTER https://mailchi.mp/doubleelvis/disgraceland-email-newsletter
Follow Jake and DISGRACELAND:
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/disgracelandpod/
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@disgracelandpod
X https://twitter.com/disgracelandpod (formerly Twitter)
Facebook Fan Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/491024204626127/
TikTok https://tiktok.com/disgracelandpod
To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:01 Speaker 00 This is exactly right.
0:13 Speaker 01 Cash flow crunch? OnDeck's small business line of credit gives your business immediate access to funds up to $200,000 right when you need it. Cover seasonal dips, manage payroll, restock inventory, or tackle unexpected expenses without missing a beat. With flexible draws, transparent pricing, and control over repayment, get funded quickly and confidently. Apply today at ondeck.com. Funds could be available as soon as tomorrow. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.
0:44 Speaker 02 Sponsored by GSK, the makers of Extenture. Depamocumab ULAA. If your asthma keeps interrupting, it may be time to try something else. Extenture is an ultra-long-acting prescription maintenance treatment for severe asthma, eosinophilic type, ages 12 and older. It isn't for sudden breathing problems. Extenture is the first and only add-on treatment that can help deliver protection from asthma attacks with two doses a year. Just one dose every six months. That's a lot of time for everything in between. Serious allergic reactions can occur. Get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. Don't change or stop medicines, including steroids, unless told by your doctor. Report if you have a parasitic infection,
1:27 Speaker 02 common cold, sinus infection, inflammation in the nose, flu or flu-like symptoms, joint pain, or sore throat may occur. Carry on with fewer attacks and ask your doctor about Extenture. Learn more at extenture.com or call 1-833-393-3678.
1:44 Jake Brennan? Hey, guys. Time to dust off your detective skills while unwinding in the Caribbean on Virgin Voyages' second true crime voyage. Backed by popular demand, this five-night, adults-only escape sets sail March 20, 2027, to Grand Turk in the Beach Club at Bimini. The difference between this year and last will be that I will be on the cruise this year along with Zeph, and he and I will be taping a live version. Disgrace Land, along with podcast hosts from Exactly Right's Buried Bones, podcast of the year award winners, Wise Crack, and other fan favorites. Get on this cruise with us, guys, and enjoy live podcast recordings, behind the scenes storytelling, exclusive meet and greets, and immersive true crime programming throughout
2:27 Jake Brennan? this one of a kind voyage. Head over to www.virginvoyages.com/trucrim to secure your spot. Disgrace Land is a production of Double Elvis.
2:52 Jake Brennan? This is a story about rock and roll, and a rock and roll tragedy. About 11 rock and roll fans who died too young, and a rock and roll band who somehow is still alive. It's a story about The Who. Our second story about The Who, actually. A band who made great music. Unlike that music at the top of the show, that wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from my Mellotron called Eminence Blunt MK2. I played you that loop because I can't afford the rights to "No More Tears: Enough is Enough" by Barbra Streisand
3:32 Jake Brennan? and Donna Summer. And why would I play you that specific slice of your mom's cheese? Could I afford it? Because that was the number one song in America on December 3, 1979. And that was the day that a crowd crush outside the Riverfront Coliseum before a concert by The Who killed 11 people. At the time, the deadliest rock and roll show in history. On this episode, a crowd crush, asphyxiation, 11 dead, Cincinnati, the Riverfront Coliseum, and The Who. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgrace Land.
4:39 Jake Brennan? Rock and roll is more than music. You know this. Pete Townshend knows this. Pete Townshend, the guitarist, sometimes singer and chief songwriter for the Who, once described rock and roll as "one-part music and one-part, quote, 'the celebration of energy, losing yourself, and getting high,' unquote." The "getting high" part doesn't necessarily mean illegal drugs, though many who have performed and/or listened to rock and roll, of course, over the years have done so while on one substance or another. Getting high was scraping the strings of your Rickenbacker on the mic stand and then thrusting the guitar's headstock through the low ceiling above you, as Pete Townshend
5:23 Jake Brennan? did in 1964 inside a West London club. Getting high was smashing the shit out of your cherry sunburst Gibson Les Paul, or your gold-top Gibson Les Paul, or your Gibson SG, or your Gibson Thunderbird, which Pete did over and over again at Who shows throughout the 1970s. That was getting high. That was losing yourself. And that was rock and roll. Rock and roll was violence and euphoria wrapped into one. And it had a beat you could dance to. And no one on the planet was a better example of that violent euphoric high than Pete's bandmate, the drummer Keith Moon.
6:05 Jake Brennan? A wild man on and off the stage, who assaulted his drum set with equal vigor and abandon as Pete Townshend assaulted his guitars. But this was January 1979, and Keith Moon was dead. Pete Townshend assumed it was a swift and painless way to go. So many prescription sedatives were found in Mooney's stomach that 26 of them were still undissolved. And as much as Pete missed having his friend around, missed that fearless sense of humor, Keith wasn't really gone-gone. Not really.
6:43 Jake Brennan? He was inside Pete's ears, endlessly ringing, that non-stop, high-pitched tone driving him mad. Keith Moon's cymbals reverberated throughout Pete Townsend's cranium. In fact, the tinnitus he'd developed from years of maximum rock and roll was so bad that Pete had decided, even before Keith shuffled off this mortal coil, that The Who would stop touring.
7:09 Jake Brennan? Besides, they'd made their point. Eight albums, two rock operas, 126 decibels, that's according to the Guinness Book of World Records, and millions served from Woodstock to the University of Leeds. But then Keith died, which, you would think, would only underscore Pete's desire to quit the road. It was impossible to imagine The Who without Keith Moon flailing away at his drum kit. Just as it was impossible to imagine them without John Entwistle's thunder fingers rattling the bass guitar or Roger Daltrey belting out that iconic rock god scream. There was no one like Keith Moon. Who else would install spotlights on the beach of his Malibu home
7:54 Jake Brennan? and point them at the home of his neighbor, Steve McQueen, in hopes that he could catch a glimpse of Steve's girlfriend, Ally McGraw, naked?
8:06 Jake Brennan? Pete Townsend sat in silence as his dead friend split his head open from the inside out with tinnitus, and he tried to think. What if? What if Keith's death was a parting gift? What if, in Keith's absence, there was opportunity? And not just opportunity, but duty? A feeling came over Pete, something so overwhelming that it elbowed the ringing in his ears out of the way. Fuck his tinnitus. Fuck the haters who would never acknowledge the band without Mooney. And fuck the fact that Pete's marriage was falling apart. And by going back out on the road, where temptation and indiscretion were plentiful,
8:48 Jake Brennan? he was essentially saying so long to that once-happy union. Pete didn't care about all that. He felt an unwavering desire to prove himself again. As if The Who were starting over. And that's all there was. Making music, writing songs, touring and performing. If he simply did the work, then everything else would be okay. At least that was the idea. But the work required a workhorse. Not a clone of Keith Moon going buck wild behind the kit. A drummer who could keep a steady rhythm and guide the rest of them forward. But what about Phil Collins? Phil was keen. Nah, but Phil had his hands full keeping Genesis on the rails, what with Peter Gabriel
9:33 Jake Brennan? leaving and all that. Pete wanted Kenny Jones, formerly of The Faces. Roger Daltrey thought it was a bad idea for the same reason Pete thought it was a good idea. Kenny wasn't Keith. Keith used to play to Roger's vocal, and in turn Roger danced to Keith's performance. It was like this symbiotic musical relationship. It was in the blood. To Roger, Kenny Jones was bloodless. But Roger Daltrey wasn't the arguing type. And when Pete Townsend wanted something done, just like Paul McCartney and the Beatles or Rod Stewart and Kenny's old band, The Faces, Pete Townsend got it done. So it was decided.
10:13 Jake Brennan? The very much alive Kenny Jones replaced the dead Keith Moon and The Who hit the road. First, The Rainbow in London, then the Phrasus, amphitheater in Cannes, France, where their excellent documentary, The Kids Are Alright, was having its debut, as was the new movie version of their rock opera, Quadrophenia. And then, on to America. We're on December 3rd, 1979, in Cincinnati. A crowd of excited ticket holders were already assembled outside in frigid temperatures, hours before doors opened. There was little assigned seating at tonight's show, so these fans were there early in order to claim a spot up front before others beat them to it.
10:55 Jake Brennan? And the high school kids that remain in the Who's target demographic in particular were ready to have the night of their young lives. And it would be a night to remember. A night of maximum rock and roll. A celebration of energy, of losing yourself, and of getting high. But the underpinning of violence that characterized any Who show, which was typically reserved for one of Pete Townshend's poor guitars, tonight, that trademark violence would instead strike into the heart of a restless crowd.
11:45 Speaker 01 Cash Flow Crunch? OnDeck's small business line of credit gives your business immediate access to funds up to $200,000 right when you need it. Cover seasonal dips, manage payroll, restock inventory, or tackle unexpected expenses without missing a beat. With flexible draws, transparent pricing, and control over repayment, get funded quickly and confidently. Apply today at ondeck.com. Funds could be available as soon as tomorrow. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.
12:15 Speaker 02 Sponsored by GSK, the makers of Extenture, Depamocumab ULAa. If your asthma keeps interrupting, it may be time to try something else. Extenture is an ultra-long-acting prescription-maintenance treatment for severe asthma, eosinophilic type, ages 12 and older. It isn't for sudden breathing problems. Extenture is the first and only add-on treatment that can help deliver protection from asthma attacks with two doses a year. Just one dose every six months. That's a lot of time for everything in between. Serious allergic reactions can occur. Get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. Don't change or stop medicines, including steroids, unless told by your doctor. Doctor, report if you have a parasitic infection.
12:58 Speaker 02 Common cold, sinus infection, inflammation in the nose, flu or fluke-like symptoms, joint pain or sore throat may occur. Carry on with fewer attacks and ask your doctor about Extenture. Learn more at Extenture.com or call 1-833-393-3678.
13:21 Jake Brennan? Joni put her parents' Volvo sedan in park and cut the engine. The car needed new brakes and the "check engine light" kept flashing ominously from the dash. Nevertheless, this bulletproof hunk of steel had somehow made it all the way from her small town outside Cincinnati to here, a garage adjacent to the Riverfront Coliseum, where in just a few hours, The Who would perform a sold-out show for an audience of 18,000 people. Her friend Gene, sitting shotgun, sparked her bic lighter and brought the flame to the tip of a tightly-rolled joint between her lips. She took a small hit, held it in, exhaled, and then she passed it to Joni. "The fuck," Joni said. "I told you to do that outside.
14:04 Jake Brennan? My dad is gonna kill me if he smells that shit in here." Joni still couldn't believe that she'd managed to convince her parents to let her go to the show in the first place, let alone take their car. Dad was a hardass, but Mom was a pushover, so that was the angle. Get Mom alone, ask her, and then have her deal with Dad. It worked. Joni was stoked. This was her first show ever, and it was about time. She was 17, for Christ's sakes. Going to see a show at the Coliseum was a rite of passage for any high school student in the greater Cincinnati area. Though she was being honest, she didn't care that she didn't see Kiss the year prior. All that makeup and tongue-wagging was fucking goofy. She was bummed, though, that she missed the Zeppelin show, even though something like
14:48 Jake Brennan? a thousand kids without tickets crashed the gates and nearly caused a riot. And that was what her dad was really worried about. All these kids hopped up on dope, libidos raging, adrenaline pumping, jockeying for position. The Who is not her father's rock and roll, or anyone's father's rock and roll for that matter. Joni's mom reminded her dad that the Coliseum had learned from the Zeppelin incident and now only allowed ticket holders onto the plaza outside the venue to ensure something like that would never happen again.
15:20 Jake Brennan? And that's where Joni and Jean were headed now. Up the walkway from the garage to the plaza. It was freezing outside, 20 degrees, give or take. A cold wind blew the red-hot end of what was now Jean's roach and tangled Joni's long brown hair in front of her face. Doors weren't scheduled to open until 6:30, but they were here early, as were thousands of others. The show was first come, first served, quote-unquote "festival seating," as it was called, which basically means "general admission for arenas." And if you wanted a spot up front in the pit, where the action was just feet away from Roger Daltrey twirling the microphone cord and Pete Townsend erupting into a flurry
16:03 Jake Brennan? of windmills on his guitar, where you not only heard but felt the power of the loudest rock band on the planet, you'd better show up well in advance. "Shit," Joni thought. She surveyed the crowd. Not nearly early enough. The plaza was a zoo, thousands upon thousands of people. All 16 doors leading inside were, of course, still closed and would be until the appointed time. Joni looked at her watch, 5:30, one hour to go before they could get out of the cold and receive that dose of maximum rock and roll. With Jean by her side, she claimed a spot among the rest of the fans, and they huddled their bodies together for warmth.
16:46 Jake Brennan? And then, they waited. Inside the Coliseum, Pete Townsend was getting in tune. He had his trademark Marshall Stack assembled, one speaker cab on top of the other, a configuration that Jim Marshall himself, the man the Marshall Stack is named for, once told Pete not to do, because one of those giant-ass speakers could topple over and kill somebody. Good. That meant it was dangerous, not to mention necessary, because every time Pete added some extra wattage to his rig, John Entwistle did one better on his side of the street. Fucking Entwistle, always trying to drown out Pete with his bass. This is the real reason why The Who were so damn loud: two sparring egos on either
17:31 Jake Brennan? side of the stage, each unwilling to let the other have more juice.
17:36 Jake Brennan? The Who's manager, Bill Kerbischle, meanwhile, tried to remain egotistical and matter-of-fact as he surveyed the scene. His band was about to perform the most anticipated show of the year in Cincinnati. It had sold out in under an hour. Close to fifteen thousand festival seating tickets on the floor at ten bucks a pop and another thirty-five hundred or so at eleven bucks each for low seating up above. Bill Kerbischle made the rounds. He walked through the mostly empty Coliseum and imagined it packed through the rafters. He passed the vendors prepping Budweisers and Orange Julius, the guards stationed at ramp entrances leading into the venue, and the off-duty cops collecting time and a half.
18:19 Jake Brennan? And one of those cops passed Bill on his way from taking a piss in the men's bathroom, heading back outside, to where he was one of twenty-five officers overseeing what was now a crowd of approximately eight thousand. Again, twenty-five cops for eight thousand kids. It was now long past six-thirty. All sixteen doors remained closed. Joni and Jean were still huddled together, still trying to stay warm, now somewhere in the middle of the mob. Thousands of people in front and behind them. And people were getting restless. They were cold, they were anxious, and they were pissed off that the doors were supposed to be open by now. Some were screaming, "Let us in."
19:02 Jake Brennan? Others ran from outside the perimeter of bodies and catapulted themselves into the middle. Amongst all this commotion and impatience, the crowd began to shift on its own. Not as eight thousand separate individuals, but as one connected mass. Joni felt herself getting pushed forward, and then suddenly, from inside the Coliseum, she heard it. They all heard it. The sound of rock and roll. The sound of the Who. There was no mistaking it.
19:35 Jake Brennan? There are conflicting reports on what this sound actually was. If it was the Who performing a late sound check, or whether it was a test run of footage from the new Quadrophenia movie, which was going to be shown directly before the Who's performance in lieu of an opening band. Whatever it was, it made the 8,000 people and counting outside lose their minds because they thought the show had begun and they were missing out. "They're starting! They're fucking starting! Let us in! What the fuck!"
20:05 Jake Brennan? The crowd surged forward. Jody tried to move, but there was no room, nowhere to go. She felt her feet lift off the ground. And up ahead she could see, two doors were open, right? Was that what she saw? Was that it? The crowd surge brought her back down again. Only this time, her feet weren't touching the plaza floor. Now, her feet were on someone's back, someone's chest. Some poor kid flat on the ground underneath her wheezing for air. The kid's cries drowned out by thousands screaming and shouting, and then abruptly, like a bomb going off, the sound of the plate glass windows of the dozen or so locked doors up ahead shattering. Kids, who just moments ago were pressed up against those locked doors,
20:50 Jake Brennan? their faces flattened against the cold glass, were now being thrust inside, through the glass shards. Their shoes, their coats, their shirts ripped right off their bodies as they passed through the jagged narrow openings. For those lucky enough to be in front of one of the only open doors, it was a mad dash to get through. You were only as fast as the mass of people that surrounded you, all shoving forward to the same destination, the same doorway, the same turnstile, all at once. Bodies squeezed tight against bodies, chests compressed, and that flow of oxygen was cut off just like that.
21:28 Jake Brennan? Joni watched in horror as bodies began to be hoisted into the air and passed to the back of the crowd above her. Those bodies were limp, passed out, in shock, or worse. The mere sight sent Joni into shock. She looked around for Jean and only now realized that they'd been separated. She screamed out, "Jean, Jean!" She continued to be pushed forward, unable to control her movement, getting closer to one of the open doors, nearly there, trying to call out for her friend again but finding she could no longer breathe. The crush of bodies around her pushed closer to the entrance. She struggled to break free to get air into her lungs. No use. She was inches from the door now, and then, a massive wave of momentum came from behind. Joni was helpless to resist.
22:13 Jake Brennan? Her body was thrown forward, wrestling her free from the bodies surrounding her. Finally, she could breathe again. And as she catapulted toward the ground, she took a huge gulp of air. Her body landed, next to her, lying on the plaza floor. A kid younger than her, skin turned blue, unconscious or dead, she couldn't tell which. She freaked. Feet were raining down on top of her now, a stampede that kept coming and seemed to have no end.
22:51 Speaker 04 We'll be right back after this word, word, word.
22:58 Speaker 05 Cash Flow Crunch? OnDeck's small business line of credit gives your business immediate access to funds up to $200,000, right when you need it. Cover seasonal dips, manage payroll, restock inventory, or tackle unexpected expenses without missing a beat. With flexible draws, transparent pricing, and control over repayment, get funded quickly and confidently. Apply today at ondeck.com. Funds could be available as soon as tomorrow. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.
23:28 Speaker 02 Sponsored by GSK, the makers of Extenture, Depamocumab ULAA. If your asthma keeps interrupting... It may be time to try something else. Extensure is an ultra-long-acting prescription-maintenance treatment for severe asthma, eosinophilic type, ages 12 and older. It isn't for sudden breathing problems. Extensure is the first and only add-on treatment that can help deliver protection from asthma attacks with two doses a year. Just one dose every six months. That's a lot of time for everything in between. Serious allergic reactions can occur. Get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. Don't change or stop medicines, including steroids, unless told by your doctor. Report if you have a parasitic infection.
24:11 Speaker 02 Common cold, sinus infection, inflammation in the nose, flu or flulike symptoms, joint pain, or sore throat may occur. Carry on with fewer attacks and ask your doctor about Extensure. Learn more at extensure.com or call 1-833-393-3678.
24:30 Jake Brennan? Ken Blackwell, the newly-elected mayor of Cincinnati, just hours into his first day on the job, was holding a telephone receiver up to his ear and looking like he'd just been knocked into a stupor. He had that look because, just moments earlier, while in the middle of dinner with the United States Speaker of the House, Tip O'Neill, Blackwell was being briefed on a tragedy unfolding at the Riverfront Coliseum. And what the hell? A tragedy? What do you mean, a tragedy? Fatalities, he was told. The voices of Cincinnati police and fire on the other end of the line were breathless. Mayor Blackwell was stunned. How many fatalities are we talking about? The total number was unknown, but they all seemed to be occurring outside the Coliseum
25:15 Jake Brennan? at the plaza level. The fire marshal suspected mass overdoseage. You know kids today, Mr. Mayor, sir, thinking they're invincible and all that, thinking they can handle a puff off this and a tab off that. And you also can't roll out a batch of bad dope, making its way through the crowd like a silent killer. The fire marshal, of course, was unaware, as everyone was at the moment, that the real reason people were dying was not because of a "mass overdoseage," and also not because they were being trampled, according to the long-held theory, but instead because they were squeezed together so tightly that their lungs couldn't expand. They were literally asphyxiated, standing up, strangled by the people crushed alongside them.
26:00 Jake Brennan? Still, at the time, at this moment, all that was known was that the scene outside the venue was chaotic and gruesome, and the show was about to start. So what do we do? The mayor asked. In the fire marshal's opinion, was to shut the whole thing down before more kids died. And the mayor scrunched up his face. He could feel the tension headache coming on strong right between his eyes. If they shut it down now, now that the show had started and all 18,000 people were on site, who's to say that wouldn't create a more dangerous situation? What if it turned out like the Zeppelin show from last year, but even worse? And let's not forget the people were dying not inside the venue, a private space, but outside on the plaza, which is public property.
26:45 Jake Brennan? Did they even have the legal authority to stop it? With that, Mayor Blackwell made his first major decision as Cincinnati's new mayor, on day one, no less. The show would go on.
27:00 Jake Brennan? Joni was stumbling around in a daze. She took stock of her surroundings. Somehow, she made it inside the Colosseum. She had no idea how she'd done it, how she'd managed to get off of the ground, avoid being trampled to death, avoid being asphyxiated to death. But however she managed, it felt like she'd gone through a war zone to get here. To her left, she saw piles of shoes and clothes, sacrificial offerings stripped off the feet and backs of those who had only minutes earlier clawed their way in. To her right, people scrambled past her, no doubt making a mad dash to the pit down in front of the stage. And behind her, outside in the plaza, red and blue lights swirled hypnotically.
27:46 Jake Brennan? Police cars, ambulances, news crews. They were all descending on the disaster unfolding in the freezing night. There were bodies scattered across the cold ground. Some were already dead and covered with blankets, while others were being revived by overwhelmed EMTs not sure where to direct their efforts. And what about Jean? Where the hell was Jean?
28:10 Jake Brennan? Joni frantically looked for her friend as she made her way inside the Colosseum into the main hall, where the stage was set with the Who's Marshall stacks.
28:20 Jake Brennan? At the moment, a giant screen was hanging from the rafters, and on that screen, scenes from the newly released Quadrophenia movie were being played.
28:29 Jake Brennan? Quadrophenia was The Who's second rock opera, following the group's groundbreaking "Tommy", originally released as a double album in 1973. It told the story of the mods and the rockers battling it out in London and Brighton. It's a world from which The Who were born, one which now represented their old legacy, their past life, one in which Keith Moon sat on their drum riser and not Kenny Jones. But the crowd of thousands looking up at the screen weren't thinking about legacy. Right now, they were watching a bloody scene unfold, a scene in which the mods and the rockers brutally attack each other on Brighton Beach. The violence, the blood, the chaos. It was as if what had just transpired outside was now being rerun on the screen.
29:14 Jake Brennan? Art imitating life, or the other way around. For those who had just gone through a harrowing, near-death experience simply to gain entrance now felt like they were being shown that whole ordeal all over again. Joanie wasn't looking at the screen. She was looking for her friend. And she was still looking when the house lights went down and The Who at long last appeared. Roger Daltrey with his blonde hair cut short, a bearded Pete Townshend, John Entwistle, The Ox, locking into a groove with Kenny Jones, still trying to prove he was worthy of Keith Moon's vacant seat. All four of them, completely unaware of what had just happened. As were many of the thousands in the audience.
29:56 Jake Brennan? Listening to the audio from the show, it sounds like just another Who show, a killer performance for a pumped-up crowd. Of course, we now know that there were some in the audience that night who sat on the sidelines, traumatized by the stampede, stunned and dazed, letting the music wash over them like the cold waves crashing on Brighton Beach. They didn't even applaud. All they could think about were the bodies they'd seen on the ground on the plaza, faces gone blue, eyes glazed over. All that was left to do now was not to enjoy the show but simply survive it, count down the minutes, song after song. "Who Are You?", "Pinball Wizard", "Entwistle Taking the Reins For My Wife", until the show mercifully came to an end.
30:39 Jake Brennan? And when it did finally end, thank fucking god, it was time to get the hell out. And Joanie watched as thousands of people began moving toward the exit. And she was back to the beginning, back to a few hours ago, when the masses had been streaming in the opposite direction. Freedom was just a few footsteps away. She could see it there through the shattered plate glass doors, past the piles of clothes and shoes, the bodies covered in blankets, the pulse of ambulance lights. Then she felt hands grab her shoulders, and she spun around, and it was Gene. Holy shit, it was Gene. It was all too much, for both of them. The tears came, tears of relief, of confusion, of fear. Tears that you shed when you realize that not everyone in a crowd of eighteen thousand
31:24 Jake Brennan? had lived to see what you had just saw.
31:30 Jake Brennan? Backstage, there were no tears, just celebratory drinks and that post-show euphoria. Pete, Roger, John, and Kenny were high on rock and roll. Still blissfully unaware of the tragedy that had occurred just beyond the doors of the venue they were currently sitting in. And this is because their manager, Bill Kerbischle, had purposefully kept them in the dark so that they could finish the show as if it were any other night.
31:57 Jake Brennan? The alternative wasn't pretty, stopping the show and risking a riot and more deaths.
32:03 Jake Brennan? But now it was time to bring the boys back down to earth, and the high they were riding on was about to come to a sudden, sobering end. Bill Kerbischle had that look on his face, a look he only expressed when things were unspeakably grim. "Gather round, boys," he said, "something terrible happened out there tonight." Pete Townsend's ears throbbed with the noise from that night's show, and every night's show from the last fifteen odd years. This is one of those moments when he wished his tinnitus was so bad that he was actually deaf, because then he wouldn't have to hear what Bill had to say next. Eleven people were dead.
33:06 Jake Brennan? December 1981, New York City. Pete Townsend was going on Hour 12. Half a day spent sitting on a ratty old couch in a drug den. Some Wall Street trader sitting to his right sparked a lighter and held it to a slab of tinfoil. Pete moved in. Pipe between his lips took a hit. His lungs burned and his eyes teared up, and then the space between his ears went numb. The ringing, the ghost of Keith Moon, it all just went away. And Pete Townsend was transported. Freebasing cocaine was Pete Townsend's ticket to a fantasy land. And I don't mean a couch in a drug den somewhere in New York City, which was, in its own
33:51 Jake Brennan? unique way, the very definition of a fantasy land. I'm talking about the one inside of his head. The one where he wasn't an alcoholic, or wasn't over a million dollars in debt from mismanaged funds, or wasn't trying to navigate a girlfriend on the side while his wife understandably fumed at home, or that it didn't feel like his band was about to implode at any moment. At this moment, however, Pete was on a self-imposed break from the Who. One during which, the band's manager, Bill Kurbishly, strongly advised Pete against drinking and drugging. But if the work was on hold, the work being the thing that got Pete through the hardship, the work being the thing that made everything okay, something else had to fill the void.
34:34 Jake Brennan? And Pete Townsend sure as shit wasn't going to take up golf. Hitting a ball into a hole wasn't going to push something like Cincinnati down deep into the recesses of his mind. You needed the hard stuff for that. To not think about the 11 kids who died that night just two years ago, and they were just kids, really, with the exception of one 27-year-old, all of them between the ages of 15 and 21. To not think about questions like, why weren't more doors open for a crowd of 18,000 people? Or, did the anxiety over festival seating, or the potential it presented for overselling the show, contribute to the tragedy? Or, who exactly was to blame? The venue? The promoter? The city? The Who?
35:17 Jake Brennan? Relatives of the dead sued all of the above. And just months after the show, a settlement was nearly reached. But then Pete shot his mouth off in an interview in Rolling Stone magazine, in which he said of the Cincinnati aftermath, quote, "Our guard dropped just for a second, and then it was back up again. It was, 'We're not gonna let a little thing like this stop us,' unquote." The little thing being the deaths of 11 people. Again, it was the same logic Pete used when Keith died, allowing a tragic event to galvanize you, not hold you back. And yeah, that's kind of fucked up, but that's how Pete saw it. Not that he was seeing clearly at all. Cocaine, heroin, prescription drugs, and alcohol
36:00 Jake Brennan? had him fully checked out from dealing with anything real. He knew living like this was unsustainable. "Hope I die before I get old and all the hat-worth amusings of a 20-year-old." Pete was in his mid-30s now. He'd seen death up close, and he wanted to be on the other side of that. In 1982, Pete checked himself into an electro-acupuncture clinic in San Diego and got clean, at least for the first time. Months later, The Who released their 10th studio album, It's Hard, featuring the single "Eminence Front", which was all about the drug-induced facade Pete had been putting up for years. And then Pete put up the money.
36:42 Jake Brennan? In 1983, the majority of the lawsuits stemming from the Cincinnati concert tragedy were settled. $2.1 million in total. That's about $6.8 million today. The families of the victims received about $150,000 each, which left $750,000 to be split between 23 others who had been badly injured. Only nine of the 11 victims were represented in the settlement. One family chose not to sue, and another opted not to settle, instead seeking a court trial and over $8 million in damages. And they later settled for an undisclosed amount. But when it came to facing what happened in Cincinnati, to really dealing with it, that took much longer for Pete. 40 years, to be exact.
37:27 Jake Brennan? It was 2022 when Pete Townsend and The Who returned to the city for the first time since 1979. Things were different by then. Kenny Jones was out. John Entwistle was dead. Pete and Roger weren't as loud or as dangerous as they once were, but they could still use music to celebrate energy and losing yourself and getting high, while at the same time rejecting, once and for all, the notion of rock and roll as nothing but a tragic disgrace.
37:57 Jake Brennan? I'm Jake Brennan, and this is DisgraceLand.
38:13 Jake Brennan? Alrighty then, thanks for hanging with me and The Who in this episode. Apple Podcast listeners, make sure you have auto downloads turned on so you never miss any downloads. Guys, this week's question of the week is, was the Riverfront Coliseum tragedy the worst tragedy in rock and roll history? There are plenty of others to choose from, and we've covered a bunch on this podcast. Let me know, 617-906-6638. Leave me a voicemail, send me a text with your answer, and you might hear yourself on the after-party bonus episode coming up right after this. Leave a review for DisgraceLand on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and win some free merch. Alrighty, I gotta return some videotapes. Here comes some credits. DisgraceLand was created by yours truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis.
38:54 Jake Brennan? Credits for this episode can be found on the show notes page at disgracelandpod.com. If you're listening as a DisgraceLand All-Access member, thank you for supporting the show. We really appreciate it. And if not, you can become a member right now by going to disgracelandpod.com/membership. Members can listen to every episode of DisgraceLand ad-free. Plus, you'll get one brand-new exclusive episode every month, weekly unscripted bonus episodes, special audio collections, and early access to merchandise and events. Visit disgracelandpod.com/membership for details. Rate and review the show and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook @disgracelandpod, and on YouTube at youtube.com/disgracelandpod.
39:40 Jake Brennan? Rockerola.
39:45 Speaker 05 He's a bad, bad man. OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans up to $400,000 make it happen fast. Rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of five-star TrustPilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.
40:15 Jake Brennan? Hey guys, time to dust off your detective skills while unwinding in the Caribbean on Virgin Voyages' second true crime voyage. It's back by popular demand, this five-night, adults-only escape sets sail March 20, 2027, to Grand Turk in the Beach Club at Bimini. The difference between this year and last will be that I will be on the cruise this year, along with Zeph, and he and I will be taping a live version of DisgraceLand along with podcast hosts from Exactly Right's Buried Bones, Podcast of the Year Award winners WiseCrack, and other fan favorites. Get on this cruise with us, guys, and enjoy live podcast recordings, behind-the-scenes storytelling, exclusive meet-and-greets, and immersive true crime programming throughout this one-of-a-kind voyage.
41:00 Jake Brennan? Head over to www.virginvoyages.com/trucrime to secure your spot.
41:06 Speaker 02 Sponsored by GSK, the makers of Extenture, Depamocumab ULAA. If your asthma keeps interrupting, it may be time to try something else. Extenture is an ultra-long-acting prescription maintenance treatment for severe asthma, eosinophilic type, ages 12 and older. It isn't for sudden breathing problems. Extenture is the first and only add-on treatment that can help deliver protection from asthma attacks with two doses a year. Just one dose every six months. That's a lot of time for everything in between. Serious allergic reactions can occur. Get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. Don't change or stop medicines, including steroids, unless told by your doctor. Report if you have a parasitic infection, common cold, sinus infection, inflammation
41:51 Speaker 02 in the nose, flu or fluke-like symptoms, joint pain or sore throat may occur. Carry on with fewer attacks and ask your doctor about Extenture. Learn more at extenture.com or call 1-833-393-3678.
Previous Bonus Episode – Obsessions, Earworms, and RIP Sly Stone Next Bonus Episode – Concert Tragedies, Concussions, and Brian Wilson Page updated November 3, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated