Pete Townshend released “Can’t Outrun the Truth”, a charity single created by The Who member in collaboration with his wife Rachel Fuller under her pseudonym Charlie Pepper.
Marking Townshend’s first proper solo single in 29 years, “Can’t Outrun the Truth” was recorded in his studio after Fuller composed the song on piano and transferred his thoughts about feelings of isolation caused by the pandemic into its lyrics. Then, with her singing days “long”, Fuller asked Townshend to record the demo.
The end result is Townshend playing steel guitar and violin while singing universal lyrics like, “This lockdown is holding me down / My mind’s gone underground / Even though I’m crawling from room to room / I can’t leave myself behind.” Watch the music video directed by Michael Noone and William Trevett, below.
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“We had just moved into the house and Pete was as happy as Larry in his studio, working every day, and I wanted my back,” Fuller shared in a statement. “I was just climbing up the walls, and I couldn’t do any creative work and we obviously couldn’t go anywhere. And I really started thinking about how incredibly difficult this time period has been for a lot of people.”
All proceeds from vinyl sales and a minimum of 10p from each download of “Can’t Outrun the Truth” will go to the Teenage Cancer Trust, a UK charity founded by Townshend with Who bandmate Roger Daltrey. You can download the track here.
“The Teenage Cancer Trust was set up in order to get money from a series of concerts at the Albert Hall every year and various other things, all of which he has withdrawn from,” Townshend explained in a statement. “So the idea of doing that, something that grew out of Lockdown about mental illness, but also for this particular charity. If you have a scenario where someone in your family or a teen gets cancer, they get treated, and Lockdown gets infected, you’re not allowed to go and visit them. There is Touching in everything about the song.”
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This past October, Daltrey and Townshend brought out Eddie Vedder during a Los Angeles benefit for Teen Cancer America, the US version of the Teenage Cancer Trust. This summer, The Who will go on tour in the UK and Europe; Get your tickets via Viagogo.
At some point in the near future, fans of The Who may finally be able to see Daltrey’s long-running bio on the late drummer Keith Moon. He recently revealed that he’s finished a script, and has “an actor in mind” to play Moon.
