The Who guitarist Pete Townshend fears he can no longer write songs.

The legendary ‘My Generation’ songwriter doesn’t feel he can push musical boundaries like he used to during his band’s 70s heyday, and admits trying to write songs has become a long and difficult process.

Speaking in a BBC Radio 2 documentary, he said: “Today I just wish that when I walk down to my studio I could sit at my piano and be able to organise my thoughts, pull out one of the sheets of lyrics I have got in front of me, finish the song, record it and put it out on an album.

“But it’s not how life is today. I don’t know why. When I stray into familiar territory I feel uneasy. I feel I am not breaking new ground. And that’s bad. I am expected to break new ground.”

Pete – who has fought a long battle against hearing problem Tinnitus – also recalls in the documentary how he fell out with the bandmate Roger Daltrey so badly when touring in the 70s they fought and he was knocked out, leaving the singer worried he had killed his friend.

He said: “I wanted to take huge risks and I wanted Quadrophenia the tour to be about quadrophonic sound. But we got into rehearsals and we just couldn’t do it.

“A couple of really nasty things happened between me and Roger. I hit him and he knocked me out. It was the first time that had happened.

“He was very frightened because I was unconscious for about 20 minutes.”

The couple quickly settled their differences and have since toured many times, with Pete, 66, vowing to join Roger – the only other surviving member of the group – to tour the ‘Quadrophenia’ album, originally released in 1973, again next year.