Simon Townshend appears at Tin Angel Thursday April 10.

Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Michael “Flea” Balzary, longtime drummer Chad Smith, guitarist Josh Klinghoffer plus lead singer Anthony Kiedis thought “long and hard” about whether to go along with the NFL and have all their instruments prerecorded when they went on stage to perform their signature hit “Give it Away” during the halftime show at the Super Bowl at MetLife Stadium at the Meadowlands last February.

The band caved in and only Kiedis’ vocals were live when they literally popped up on stage for their song during the short set by headliner crooner Bruno Mars.
Fans all over the world posted pictures of the band’s unplugged instruments and cried foul.

Chili Peppers may have avoided having to explain themselves the next week had they somehow got Pete Townshend to speak on their behalf.

The legendary guitarist was faced with the same predicament in 2010 when The Who were asked to perform at halftime of Super Bowl XLIV at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

Townshend was asked to play in studio, prerecord the entire performance then pretend to be playing when they went on stage at halftime.

The halftime show at the Super Bowl is now the most watched music show on television anywhere in the world every year.

The Who at the Super Bowl in 2010.

The time to set up and perform is very limited with no margin for error, so the NFL insists on the artist performing the 13-minute set ahead of time and sort of playing along to their own performance at halftime.

The author of the iconic windmill guitar chord was not having any of that and simply told the NFL it is either his way or the highway.

“I think the audience is in the region of like 200 million people,” Pete’s younger brother Simon said in a phone interview this week. Simon has been playing guitar with The Who since 1996 and played with The Who at the Super Bowl. “With that big of an audience (actually it was over 106 million), they wanted it prerecorded. But my brother, being my brother, refused. So he played live over a track. It was a very risky thing to do but I think he pulled it off. You have to get the set up in eight minutes, so there is no way you can set up a live band in that time.”

Simon, who is playing an acoustic set the Tin Angel (20 South 2nd St, Philadelphia, PA, 215-928-0978) to promote his new album “Denial,” said he and the rest of the band wanted to do the Super Bowl gig very badly but The Who is led by Pete and he was not going to be denied.

Simon Townshend is in town to promote his new album “Denial” a deeply personal account of the Townshend family’s struggles with life on many levels.

“They (the NFL) work the way they work,” Simon said. “But Pete being Pete, refused to play prerecorded. I love him for that.”

Simon said the Super Bowl experience was great. The band was there for most of the week leading up to the Big Game.

It was great except for the game itself which featured the New Orleans Saints, champions of the NFC against the AFC Champion Indianapolis Colts. Both finished the season as the No. 1 seeds from their respective conferences.

“I really enjoyed it,” Simon recalled. “The only thing I was a bit miffed about was I couldn’t watch the game. Once you were in that dressing room, you were kind of in a locked-in mode and I couldn’t get out to actually watch any of the game.”

New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees, who completed 32 of 39 passes for 288 yards and two touchdowns, was named the Super Bowl MVP. His 32 completions tied a Super Bowl record set by Tom Brady in Super Bowl XXXVIII in leading the Saints to the win.

According to Vegasinsider.com Colts were favored by five points. The Saints won the game 31-17, so Kudos for Simon for actually knowing the betting line.

New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees, who completed 32 of 39 passes for 288 yards and two touchdowns, was named the Super Bowl MVP. His 32 completions tied a Super Bowl record set by Tom Brady in Super Bowl XXXVIII.

“I saw that the underdogs won,” Simon said. “I I was very happy about that. It’s a fascinating game…really awesome.”

NOTES: Simon Townsend takes the stage at the Tin Angel at 8 p.m.
The rest of the lengthy and deeply personal interview with Simon Townshend will be aired Saturday night April 12, 2014 at 11:30 P.M. on the Delaware Valley Radio Network, WRDV during the “FM Audition” original music showcase (89.3 FM and wrdv.org).

A feature from the interview will also appear in an upcoming issue of Out On The Town Magazine, the popular long-time Entertainment Newspaper published by Mike Vagnoni.

Email Al Thompson at … the.magazine2@footballstories.com