Pete Townshend has told how his arrest for child sex abuse images saved his life after it led him to discover he had bowel cancer.
The Who guitarist was arrested in 2003 for using his credit card to access a website, though no images were downloaded.
He accepted a police caution and was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for five years after saying he was trying to prove big banks were involved in the vile abuse industry.
He told the Mail on Sunday : "Just for the record, my arrest was probably one of the best things that ever happened to me. It probably saved my life.’"
Townshend kept putting off tests for bowel cancer after his father died from the hereditary disease.
"I had a cancerous polyp in my bowel,’ he said. "While I was waiting for the police to go through my computers, I decided to have that long-postponed colonoscopy.
"The doctor showed me the polyp. He said, 'This would have killed you in six months.' So it sort of saved my life."
Townshend, who survived abuse himself as a child and is about to release a novel about sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll, says his arrest still haunts him.
He told the Mail on Sunday: "The arrest saved my life in other ways too because it freed me from this notion that I could fix everything. The arrogance of the charity work, the arrogance of the mentor, my white knight syndrome.’"
Townshend said he suffered abuse at the hands of his grandmother, from teachers and in the Sea Scouts.
He adds: ‘I feel released from that. I’ve been able to let it go. It’s what old ladies say when they have a heart attack, “God has ways of slowing you down.” This was something I needed.’
Who musicians Townshend and frontman Roger Daltrey, 75, are the only survivors from the supergroup.
Drummer Keith Moon died of a drugs overdose in 1978 aged 32 and bassist John Entwistle died in 2002 aged 57 from a heart attack.
The band are about to release a new album next month called Who.
