Pete Townshend thinks he would have been "happier" without The Who.

The 79-year-old musician - who co-founded the band in 1964 - has always felt the group were "beneath" him and he believes he'd have preferred to have followed his love of art instead.

He told The Daily Mail newspaper's Weekend magazine: "I always feel I wish I'd left before the band got famous and been an artist. I think I would have been happier...

"I was deeply into a college course about how art was going to have a revolutionary function. So I felt The Who were a bit silly, maybe a bit beneath me, I'm afraid."

Asked how he sees things now, he said: "I feel the same. I think they feel beneath me."

And Pete admitted bandmate Roger Daltrey is unimpressed by his stance.

He said: "Roger and I have conversations about this. Sometimes he thinks I should be more grateful...

"I should have left, I think. That's OK. I don't regret feeling that. It's just that there was a life I could have had that I missed."

The 'My Generation' hitmaker never expected The Who to be around for more than a year.

He said: "I expected The Who to self-destruct in six months. That's why I threw myself into performing in a bloody manner. I hurt myself on the stage. I smashed guitars I could only just afford. But my personal manifesto was absolute, 'This is a brief moment in music history. It won't turn into...' Well, what it turned into."

The 'Pinball Wizard' rocker has moments of feeling he is a "genius" when he's on stage, but admitted performing live "does nothing" for him.

He said: "I'll keep going as long as I feel it. We'll be on the stage and I'll be thinking, 'What the **** am I doing here?'

"Then the first few tricky bars of 'Baba O'Riley' will begin and I'll think, 'I'm a f****** genius. I should be here, because this is my music.'

"People say I get well paid for doing a job I like. I do get well paid but I don't like it. I don't like being on the road. I don't like being on stage. It does nothing for me. It makes me insincere."

The guitarist noted there are some perks to his job.

He said: "The money is great."