Roger Daltrey And The Bright Shiny Object - available now - is a new book by Don Henze that tells his story about when Roger Daltrey decided to manage his band in an effort to open up other income streams at a time when Pete Townshend said The Who would never tour again.
The 457-page book takes the reader on an adventurous and unexpected journey deep into the world of the rock and roll legend, beginning with the day the author met Daltrey.
“I was twenty-six and had been pursuing my dream of making it in music for ten years and was ready to give up when I met Roger,” explains Henze, who met Daltrey through singer/songwriter, Gerard McMann (Cry Little Sister – Lost Boys). “I had been playing drums for Gerard for a year for free, and like I said, was at the end of my ropes with the whole thing and then Daltrey hired Gerard to write and produce Daltrey’s solo record Rocks In The Head.”
As the story goes, McMann then promised Henze he would play on the Daltrey record as pay back for his hard work playing in McMann’s band, and the promise set off a series of unlikely events between Daltrey and Henze that would go on for the next six years and culminate in the book.
“I have always said, I may not make it in music, but I got one hell of a story out of it,” says Henze.
The book is written in the spirit and style of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Steinbeck and its 457 pages are filled with personal stories about what it’s like to hang out with Daltrey and his family.
In the course of the story, Henze records at Abbey Road Studios for three months with Daltrey; plays drums for Daltrey at Carnegie Hall, hangs out at Daltrey’s house, Holmshurt Manor, where he meets Heather Daltrey and a love affair with Daltrey’s daughter, Willow, begins.
Although Henze may become known as the guy who broke Roger’s fly rod, made Roger’s tea, bought Roger his grapes for his “grape fasting”, danced on tables at glossy restaurants with Daltrey doing his best to tolerate it – the part that may be most memorable for Henze is when Daltrey pronounced him a star. “I’m gonna make you huge Dhawn! (Don),” Daltrey would say over and over, and on and on and on.
Chapter titles include: Din-nah With The Daltreys; The Daltrey Gang; Roger’s Favorite Restaurant; Roger’s Incorporeal Essence; Roger’s Bag Of Stuff; The Foxy Lady; The Who Room; Sheet Metal Worker Daltrey; Chris Stamp And The Flask. And thirty-eight more, all telling of a little known period in Daltrey’s illustrious history.
