Pete Townshend Penning New Musical and Who Material

Pete Townshend is hard at work on a new musical called 'Floss', which he says he's writing in the style of his other legendary rock operas. The Who guitarist says that he will release some material from the project next year and is in talks with producers in New York to have the project ready in time to debut it in concert in 2011.

"It's an ambitious new project for me, in the style of 'Tommy' and 'Quadrophenia.'" Townshend writes on the Who's official website. "In this case, the songs are interspersed with surround-sound 'soundscapes' featuring complex sound-effects and musical montages. Several of the more conventional songs from 'Floss' will be featured on a forthcoming Who recording for release in 2010."

With 'Floss', Townshend, 64, says he intends to tell the story of an aging rocker named Walter who retires after one of his songs becomes the soundtrack to a successful TV commercial. The character becomes a house-husband to his wife, the title character Floss, who is devoted to riding stables. After a 15-year break from music, he comes out of retirement and becomes estranged from his wife while discovering the songs he now writes "evoke the ecologically rooted, apocalyptic mindset of his generation."

Says Townshend, 'Floss' "touches on the current issues faced by the Boomer generation. It also addresses their uneasy relationship with their parents, children and grandchildren. As a 19-year old -- with 'My Generation' -- I wrote the most explicitly ageist song in rock. At 64, I now want to take on aging and mortality, using the powerfully angry context of rock & roll."

As long as the message isn't "I wish I had died before I got old," consider us excited.