Townshend fuming over Fahrenheit row
Rock legend Pete Townshend has launched a scathing attack at film-maker Michael Moore, saying he has been "bullied and slurred" by the director.
Last year, the Stupid White Men author Moore approached the The Who guitarist to ask the star permission to use his song Won't Get Fooed Again in his controversial documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, which criticises George Bush's administration.
Townshend refused to let the Oscar-winning director use the song, because the rocker didn't enjoy Moore's previous films Bowling for Columbine and Roger and Me.
Townshend fumes: "Michael Moore has been making some claims, using my name, which distort the truth.
"I greatly resent being bullied and slurred by him just because he didn't get what we wanted from me. It seems to me that this aspect of his nature is not unlike that of the powerful
and willful man at the centre of his documentary.
"He says that I refused to allow him to use my song Won't Get Fooled Again in his latest film because I support the war. I have never hidden the fact that at the beginning of the war in Iraq, I was a supporter. But now I am less sure we did the right thing.
"I had not really been convinced by Bowling For Columbine and had been worried about its accuracy. To me, it felt like a bullying film. Once I had an idea what Fahrenheit 9/11 was about, I was 90 per cent certain my song was not right for them and pointed out that Won't Get Fooled Again is not an unconditionally anti-war song."
