79 Facts About Keith Moon

Keith John Moon was an English drummer for the rock band the Who.

Keith Moon was noted for his unique style of playing and his eccentric, often self-destructive behaviour.

Keith Moon was recognised for his drumming style, which emphasised tom-toms, cymbal crashes, and drum fills.

Keith Moon occasionally collaborated with other musicians and later appeared in films, but considered playing in the Who his primary occupation, and remained a member of the band until his death.

Keith Moon was fascinated with blowing up toilets with cherry bombs or dynamite, and destroying television sets.

Keith Moon enjoyed touring and socialising, and became bored and restless when the Who were inactive.

Keith Moon suffered from alcoholism and acquired a reputation for decadence and dark humour; his nickname was "Moon the Loon".

Keith Moon moved back to London in 1978, dying that September from an overdose of Heminevrin, a drug intended to treat or prevent symptoms of alcohol withdrawal.

Keith Moon's drumming continues to be praised by critics and musicians.

Keith Moon was posthumously inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1982, becoming the second rock drummer to be chosen, and in 2011 he was voted the second-greatest drummer in history by a Rolling Stone readers' poll.

Keith Moon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 as a member of the Who.

Keith John Moon was born to Alfred Charles and Kathleen Winifred Moon on 23 August 1946 at Central Middlesex Hospital in northwest London; he grew up in Wembley.

Keith Moon was hyperactive as a boy, with a restless imagination and a particular fondness for music and The Goon Show.

Keith Moon joined his local Sea Cadet Corps band at the age of twelve on the bugle, but found the instrument too difficult to learn and decided to take up drums instead.

Keith Moon was interested in practical jokes and home science kits, with a particular fondness for explosions.

Keith Moon left school around Easter 1961, at age 14.

Keith Moon then enrolled at Harrow Technical College; this led to a job as a radio repairman, enabling him to buy his first drum kit.

Keith Moon took lessons from one of the loudest contemporary drummers, Screaming Lord Sutch's Carlo Little, at ten shillings per lesson.

Keith Moon admired Elvis Presley's original drummer DJ Fontana, the Shadows' original drummer Tony Meehan and the Pretty Things' Viv Prince.

Keith Moon idolised the Beach Boys; Roger Daltrey later said that given the opportunity, Keith Moon would have left to play for the California band even at the peak of the Who's fame.

The Beachcombers all had day jobs; Keith Moon, who worked in the sales department at British Gypsum, had the keenest interest in turning professional.

Keith Moon's drumming style affected the band's musical structure; although Entwistle initially found Keith Moon's lack of conventional timekeeping problematic, it created an original sound.

Keith Moon was particularly fond of touring since it was his only chance to regularly socialise with his bandmates, and was generally restless and bored when not playing live.

Unlike contemporary rock drummers such as Ginger Baker and John Bonham, Keith Moon hated drum solos and refused to play them in concert.

Keith Moon provided humorous commentary during song announcements, although sound engineer Bob Pridden preferred to mute his vocal microphone on the mixing desk whenever possible.

Keith Moon co-composed "The Ox" with Townshend, Entwistle and keyboardist Nicky Hopkins.

The setting for "Tommy's Holiday Camp" was credited to Keith Moon; the song was primarily written by Townshend and, although there is a misconception that Keith Moon sings on it, the album version is Townshend's demo.

Keith Moon sat in on congas with East of Eden at London's Lyceum Ballroom, and afterwards suggested to violinist Dave Arbus that he play on the track.

Keith Moon played a four- and later a five-piece drum kit during his early career.

Keith Moon began to endorse Premier Drums in late 1965 and remained a loyal customer of the company.

From 1967 to 1969 Keith Moon used the "Pictures of Lily" drum kit, which had two 22-inch bass drums, two 16-inch floor toms and three mounted toms.

At one point, Keith Moon asked Premier to make a white kit with gold-plated fittings.

Keith Moon developed a habit of kicking over his drums, claiming that he did so in exasperation at an audience's indifference.

In May 1966, Keith Moon discovered that the Beach Boys' Bruce Johnston was visiting London.

Keith Moon played timpani on another track, a cover of Jerome Kern's "Ol' Man River".

Keith Moon was credited on the album as "You Know Who".

Keith Moon remarked that a particular suggestion had gone down like a "lead zeppelin".

On 15 December 1969, Keith Moon joined John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band for a live performance at the Lyceum Theatre in London for a UNICEF charity concert.

Keith Moon did not play drums on the album; Jerry Shirley did, with Keith Moon providing percussion.

Keith Moon became involved in solo work when he moved to Los Angeles during the mid-1970s.

Keith Moon's first was in 1971, a cameo in Frank Zappa's 200 Motels as a nun afraid of dying from a drug overdose.

Keith Moon reprised the role for the film's 1974 sequel, Stardust, in Jim MacLaine's backing band the Stray Cats and played Uncle Ernie in Ken Russell's 1975 film adaptation of Tommy.

Keith Moon spent his share of the band's income quickly, and was a regular at London clubs such as the Speakeasy and The Bag O'Nails; the combination of pills and alcohol escalated into alcoholism and drug addiction later in his life.

Keith Moon did not keep a drum kit or practise at Tara, and began to deteriorate physically as a result of his lifestyle.

Keith Moon moved from cherry bombs to M-80 fireworks to sticks of dynamite, which became his explosive of choice.

Tony Fletcher wrote that "no toilet in a hotel or changing room was safe" until Keith Moon had exhausted his supply of explosives.

On 23 August 1967, on tour opening for Herman's Hermits, Keith Moon celebrated what he said was his 21st birthday at a Holiday Inn in Flint, Michigan.

The Who spent the afternoon visiting local radio stations with Nancy Lewis, and Moon posed for a photo outside the hotel in front of a "Happy Birthday Keith" sign put up by the hotel management.

Keith Moon disputed a widely held belief that Moon drove a Lincoln Continental into the hotel's swimming pool, as claimed by the drummer in a 1972 Rolling Stone interview.

Keith Moon claimed that, while he had not personally seen a car in a swimming pool, he had seen a bill for damages and removal.

Keith Moon passed out again during "Magic Bus", and was again removed from the stage.

The next evening Keith Moon systematically destroyed everything in his hotel room, cut himself doing so and passed out.

Marsh suggested that at this point Daltrey and Entwistle seriously considered firing Keith Moon, but decided that doing so would make his life worse.

Daltrey later denied threatening to fire him, but said that by this time Keith Moon was out of control.

Keith Moon bought a number of cars and gadgets, and flirted with bankruptcy.

Keith Moon and Moon were married on 17 March 1966 at Brent Register Office, and their daughter Amanda was born on 12 July.

From 1971 to 1975 Keith Moon owned Tara, a home in Chertsey where he initially lived with his wife and daughter.

Jack McCullogh, then working for Track Records, recalls Keith Moon ordering him to purchase a milk float to store in the garage at Tara.

In 1973 Kim, convinced that neither she nor anyone else could moderate Keith Moon's behaviour, left her husband and took Amanda; she sued for divorce in 1975 and later married Faces keyboard player Ian McLagan.

Keith Moon died in a car accident in Austin, Texas, on 2 August 2006.

Keith Moon was an attention seeker and he had to have it.

Early in the Who's career, Keith Moon got to know the Beatles.

Keith Moon would join them at clubs, forming a particularly close friendship with Ringo Starr.

Keith Moon later became friends with Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band members Vivian Stanshall and "Legs" Larry Smith, and the trio would drink and play practical jokes together.

Smith remembers one occasion where he and Keith Moon tore apart a pair of trousers, with an accomplice later looking for one-legged trousers.

Keith Moon filled in for Peel in 1973's "A Touch of the Keith Moon", a series of four programmes produced by John Walters.

On 4 January 1970 Keith Moon accidentally killed his friend, driver and bodyguard, Neil Boland, outside the Red Lion pub in Hatfield, Hertfordshire.

Pub patrons had begun to attack his Bentley; Keith Moon, drunk, began driving to escape them and hit Boland.

Those close to Keith Moon said that he was haunted by Boland's death for the rest of his life.

In mid-1978, Keith Moon moved into Flat 12,9 Curzon Place, Shepherd Market, Mayfair, London, renting from Harry Nilsson.

Cass Elliot of the Mamas and the Papas had died there four years earlier, at the age of 32; Nilsson was concerned about letting the flat to Keith Moon, believing it was cursed.

Keith Moon wanted to get sober, but because of his fear of psychiatric hospitals, he wanted to do it at home.

Keith Moon watched a film, and asked Walter-Lax to cook him steak and eggs.

Keith Moon's death came shortly after the release of Who Are You.

Keith Moon was cremated on 13 September 1978 at Golders Green Crematorium in London, and his ashes were scattered in its Gardens of Remembrance.

The London 2012 Summer Olympic Committee contacted Curbishley about Keith Moon performing at the games, 34 years after his death.

The Jam paid homage to Keith Moon on the second single from their third album, "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight"; the B-side of the single is a Who cover, and the back cover of the record has a photo of Keith Moon's face.

The phrase "Dear Boy" became a catchphrase of Keith Moon's when, influenced by Kit Lambert, he began affecting a pompous English accent.

In 2008, English Heritage declined an application for Keith Moon to be awarded a blue plaque.