Kenney Jones recalls Keith Moon’s death

Faces drummer Kenney Jones has recalled how he wondered if Keith Moon had played a practical joke the night he died.

The pair had been together on the night of September 6, 1978, then Jones woke the next morning to discover The Who icon had died after an accidental overdose of drugs designed to combat his alcoholism.

Jones tells Noise11: “I was going to the opening of the Buddy Holly movie that Paul McCartney was producing. We had a party and watched the film.

“I said goodnight to Keith. I asked him how he was – he said he hadn’t had a drink for a while. He told me, ‘I take these pills to stop me drinking. If I have one drink they make me violently ill.’

“That was that. We said goodnight to each other.”

He heard the tragic news the following day. “I went, ‘I can’t believe this,’” he recalls. “‘He is such a practical joker – it can’t be right.’”

Jones went on to replace Moon in The Who and spent a decade with the band. He reflects: “He must have gotten home at about half-past-two, taken his night-time pill and gone to bed, then woken up a couple of hours later, thought it was morning and taken the other pill.

“They were too close together and it was enough to slow his heart down.”

Jones takes part in a Faces reunion concert in Surrey on September 5 (Saturday) alongside surviving colleagues Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood.

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Not only is one-time online news editor Martin an established rock journalist and drummer, but he’s also penned several books on music history, including SAHB Story: The Tale of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, a band he once managed, and the best-selling Apollo Memories about the history of the legendary and infamous Glasgow Apollo. Martin has written for Classic Rock and Prog and at one time had written more articles for Louder than anyone else (we think he's second now). He’s appeared on TV and when not delving intro all things music, can be found travelling along the UK’s vast canal network.