The Who 2000s
 Charity shows and Entwistle's death
The success of the 1999 shows led to a US tour in the Summer of 2000 and a UK tour in November that year. The tour ended with a charity show at the Royal Albert Hall for the Teenage Cancer trust with special guests which was released later on CD and DVD. With the numerous rave reviews of the shows in the press all three members of The Who began to discuss the possibility of a new album.
The band's appearance at The Concert for New York City in October 2001, was the most fervently cheered of any act by the audience of New York police officers, firefighters and rescue workers. The Who were also honoured with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award that year.
Just before the onset of a tour in the summer of 2002, John Entwistle was found dead in his room at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. A coroner's investigation revealed that while not technically an overdose, a modest amount of cocaine in his system was a contributing factor in a fatal heart attack, the result of years of heart trouble caused or aggravated by regular cocaine use, hypertension, and decades of smoking. In fact over-consumption of alcohol and drugs had dogged all of the band members except for Roger Daltrey over the years. After a brief delay, the tour commenced with bassist Pino Palladino. Most shows from the tour were released officially on CD as Encore Series 2002. Before the tour began new songs Real Good Looking Boy and Certified Rose were rehearsed alongside old classics such as I Can See for Miles, but due to the death of Entwistle, they were not performed. In September, Q magazine named The Who as one of the 50 Bands to See Before You Die.
Endless Wire
In 2004 The Who released two new songs, Old Red Wine and Real Good Looking Boy (with Pino Palladino and Greg Lake, respectively, on bass guitar), as part of a singles anthology (The Who: Then and Now), and went on an 18-date world tour, playing Japan, Australia, the UK and the US. Again, all shows were released on CD, as part of Encore Series 2004. The band also headlined the Isle of Wight Festival that year and received the usual ecstatic reviews. Also that year, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked The Who #29 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
The Who then announced that the spring of 2005 would see the release of their first new studio album in 23 years (tentatively titled WHO2). In March 2005, Pete Townshend's website issued a statement that the release was delayed indefinitely, and explained that expected UK/US tours in the summer of 2005 were also shelved. Part of this was due to slow recording of the new material, and part was due to Zak Starkey's commitment to tour with Oasis. Townshend continued working on the album, posting a novella called The Boy Who Heard Music on his Internet blog site. This concept developed into a mini-opera which formed the kernel for the new Who album, and later a full opera which Townshend presented at Vassar College.
The Who performed Who Are You and Won't Get Fooled Again on the London stage of the Live 8 concert in July 2005. Steve White (drummer for Paul Weller and older brother of ex-Oasis drummer Alan White) took the place of Starkey, who was on tour with Oasis, and Damon Minchella (Ocean Colour Scene's bassist) filled in for Palladino (who was touring South America as the bassist for Jeff Beck). Also that year, The Who were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame.
In 2006, The Who were the first recipients of the Freddie Mercury Lifetime Achievement Award in Live Music at the Vodaphone music awards. Roger Taylor and Brian May of Queen presented the award.
On October 3, 2006, iTunes released two singles in advance of their new album, Endless Wire entitled Tea & Theatre (which is played at the end of the concerts during the North American leg of the tour) and It's Not Enough.
Endless Wire was released on 30 October 2006 (31 October in the USA). It was their first full studio album of new material since 1982's It's Hard. The new album featured songs inspired by many subjects, such as the incidence of Stockholm syndrome during the Beslan school hostage crisis (Black Widow's Eyes), Mel Gibson's 2004 film, The Passion of the Christ (Man in a Purple Dress and 2000 Years) and it contained the band's first mini-opera since Rael on 1967's The Who Sell Out. Excerpts from the mini-opera, called Wire & Glass, were released as a Maxi-single on July 17 exclusively on iTunes, and was released on CD and limited edition 12 vinyl in the UK on 24 July. Mirror Door was released in a radio edit and was first played on BBC Radio 2, on The Ken Bruce Show at 10:00 on 8 June 2006. Endless Wire debuted at #7 on Billboard and #9 in the UK Albums Chart. Despite a top ten debut week, it is the first Who studio album to fail to reach gold or platinum status in the USA since their Tommy breakthrough.
In advance of the album, and later to support it, The Who embarked upon their The Who Tour 2006-2007. First they did a 24-date European tour followed by the rest of the world. These are their first shows since their 2004 world tour and brief performance at Live 8 in 2005. Members of the latest lineup remain, including keyboardist John Rabbit Bundrick, bassist Pino Palladino, drummer Zak Starkey and guitarist Simon Townshend, who is also acting as the supporting act for The Who with his band The Casbah Club. Other opening acts on the tour include The Pretenders and Rose Hill Drive. Shows are again on CD and DVD as part of Encore Series 2006.
Zak Starkey was invited to become a full member of Oasis in April 2006, and, in November 2006 of The Who, but he declined, preferring to split his time between the two bands.
On 24 June 2007, The Who topped the bill at the Glastonbury Festival.
Amazing Journey
On 6 November 2007, a new documentary on The Who went on sale, titled Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who. It was shown on VH1 prior to release. The product description states: Spanning four decades, this authorized and definitive anthology of The Who relives their journey from humble beginnings to their meteoric rise to rock legend status in a 2-film DVD set. Filled with all-new interviews with band members Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend and music icons Sting, The Edge of U2, Eddie Vedder and more, this must-have collection also features electrifying rare and unreleased concert footage in mind-blowing 5.1 surround sound. David Wild, a contributing editor of Rolling Stone, says it's Brilliant. An exceptionally smart and intimate portrait. For music that spoke to generations of fans, and refused to be classified, the answer is - and always will be - The Who.
The documentary includes a lot of footage not seen in earlier Who documentaries, including film from their acclaimed 1970 Leeds University appearance and a 1964 performance at the Railway Hotel when they were known as the High Numbers.
On October 30, 2007, Roger Daltrey announced plans for The Who to return to touring in 2008 for a set of shows in Japan and Australia. We don't want to stop..., Daltrey said. We don't want those long hiatuses that we used to have.... You should at least keep the ball rolling.
During this announcement, Daltrey also implied that Pete Townshend was working on new material for the group. Whether this means that another new album from The Who is on the way has yet to be confirmed.
Influence
The Who are one of the most influential groups in rock music. Their progressive approach to the writing of albums and their exciting live shows are matched by few. The hard-rock style they brought to England's music scene was one that set the stage for other bands ranging from Led Zeppelin to the Clash.
During their earliest Mod genesis, The Who provided inspiration for most, if not all, of the major bands during the Britpop wave in Britain during the mid-1990s. Bands such as Blur, Oasis, Stereophonics and Ash draw a heavy influence from the band's work, which, especially with the Mod counter-culture, provided a quintessentially Cool Britannia ideal.
The Who have also been called The Godfathers of Punk in numerous publications, as well as in Spike Lee's film, Summer of Sam. Part of the foundation of punk rock lies in The Who's onstage aggression, violence and snotty attitude. The MC5, Ramones, Sex Pistols, the Clash, Generation X, Green Day, and many other punk rock and protopunk rock bands, point to The Who as a major influence.
The group has been credited with devising the rock opera and it made one of the first notable concept albums. Following in the footsteps of Tommy were David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway by Genesis, Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick and Pink Floyd's The Wall, among others. Recently, the idea was adopted by The Flaming Lips in Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and Green Day with American Idiot.
In 1967 Pete Townshend coined the phrase power pop to describe The Who's sixties singles sound. The guiding lights of the seventies power pop movement, from the The Raspberries to Cheap Trick, take much of their inspiration from The Who.
The Who's influence can also be seen in their early incorporation of synthesizers into rock music, with Who's Next featuring the instrument prominently and the single Won't Get Fooled Again becoming the first hit single to be driven by a synthesizer track.
My Generation is perhaps the band's most covered song. Iron Maiden, Oasis, Pearl Jam, Patti Smith, Green Day, McFly and Hillary Duff have recorded it. Oasis used it as their set closer during their 2005 world tour. The Zimmers, known as the world's oldest rock band, made a tongue-in-cheek version and used it as their first single, which became a hit in Britain. David Bowie covered I Can't Explain, Pictures of Lily and Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere. The Sex Pistols covered Substitute in their early concerts. The Ramones covered Substitute too, not only by recording it, but for making a videoclip as well. The Jam covered So Sad About Us and so did The Breeders in the 90s .The Clash referred to the I Can't Explain riff in Clash City Rockers and Guns on the Roof. Pearl Jam performed Baba O'Riley and The Kids Are Alright during their tours in the 1990s and 2000s. Pearl Jam have also played many other Who songs such as Leaving Here, Blue, Red, & Grey, Love, Reign O'er Me and Naked Eye. German band Scorpions covered I Can't Explain while shock metal band W.A.S.P. covered The Real Me. Van Halen covered Won't Get Fooled Again on their 1993 live album Live: Right Here, Right Now, explicitly describing it as a tribute to The Who and in 1995, Phish covered Quadrophenia for their second annual Halloween concert tradition of performing another band's album in its entirety, which was later released as Live Phish Volume 14. Phish continued to cover Drowned regularly in their live performances. The Grateful Dead also covered Baba O'Riley in the early 1990s, as did Nirvana. Rush covered The Seeker on their 2004 Feedback EP and live during their R30 tour that same year. Limp Bizkit also did a cover of Behind Blue Eyes in their 2004 album Results May Vary. McFly covered Pinball Wizard for the B-side to their 2004 single I'll Be Ok, and played the song live in their 2005 tour. Fish (ex Marillion) covered The Seeker during his Songs from the Mirror period. Many other artists, ranging from Buddy Rich to Richard Thompson to U2 to Petra Haden (who covered The Who Sell Out in its entirety), have covered Who songs.
The music of The Who is still performed in public by many tribute bands, such as The Wholigans, Who's Next USA, BARGAIN, The Relay, and The OHM, in the USA, Who's Next UK, Who's Who UK, and The Whodlums in the UK.
All three versions of the American forensic drama CSI (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, and CSI: NY) feature songs written and performed by The Who as their theme songs, Who Are You, Won't Get Fooled Again and Baba O'Riley respectively.
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