Biografia

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".

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.

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.

The Beach Boys and Jan & Dean were his favorite musicians.

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

have made me wonder where I went wrong . . . things of a personal nature, 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.