Editing Keith Moon (section)

==Personal life and relationships==

===Birthdate===
Before the 1998 release of Tony Fletcher's ''Dear Boy: The Life of Keith Moon'', Moon's date of birth was presumed to be 23 August 1947. This erroneous date appeared in several otherwise-reliable sources, including the Townshend-authorised biography ''Before I Get Old: The Story of The Who''.{{sfn|Marsh|1989|p=80}} The incorrect date had been supplied by Moon in interviews before it was corrected by Fletcher to 1946.{{sfn|Fletcher|1998|p=1}}

===Kim Kerrigan===
{{main|Kim McLagan}}
Moon's first serious relationship was with [[Kim Kerrigan]], whom he started dating in January 1965 after she saw the Who play at [[The Downstairs Club (later Le Disque a Go! Go!)|Le Disque a Go! Go!]] in Bournemouth.{{sfn|Fletcher|1998|p=112}} By the end of the year she discovered she was pregnant. Her parents, who were furious, met with the Moons to discuss their options, and she moved into the Moon family home in Wembley.{{sfn|Fletcher|1998|pp=139–141}} She and Moon were married on 17 March 1966 at Brent Register Office,{{sfn|Fletcher|1998|p=146}} and their daughter Amanda was born on 12 July.{{sfn|Fletcher|1998|p=163}} The marriage (and child) were kept secret from the press until May 1968.{{sfn|Fletcher|1998|p=220}} Moon was occasionally violent towards Kim:{{sfn|Fletcher|1998|p=184}} "if we went out after I had Mandy", she later said, "if someone talked to me, he'd lose it. We'd go home and he'd start a fight with me."{{sfn|Fletcher|1998|p=186}} He loved Amanda, but his absences due to touring and fondness for practical jokes made their relationship uneasy when she was very young. "He had no idea how to be a father", Kim said. "He was too much of a child himself."{{sfn|Fletcher|1998|p=220}}

From 1971 to 1975 Moon owned [[Tara, Chertsey|Tara]], a home in Chertsey where he initially lived with his wife and daughter.{{sfn|Fletcher|1998|p=290}} The Moons entertained extravagantly at home, and owned a number of cars. Jack McCullogh, then working for [[Track Records]] (the Who's label), recalls Moon ordering him to purchase a [[milk float]] to store in the garage at Tara.{{sfn|Fletcher|1998|p=295}}

In 1973 Kim, convinced that neither she nor anyone else could moderate Keith's behaviour, left her husband and took Amanda;{{sfn|Fletcher|1998|p=352}} she sued for divorce in 1975 and later married [[Faces (band)|Faces]] keyboard player [[Ian McLagan]].{{sfn|Fletcher|1998|pp=323, 365}} Marsh believes that Moon never truly recovered from the loss of his family.{{sfn|Marsh|1989|p=413}} Butler agrees; despite his relationship with [[Annette Walter-Lax]], he believes that Kim was the only woman Moon loved.<ref name="butler"/> McLagan commented that Moon "couldn't handle it".{{sfn|Fletcher|1998|p=323}} Moon would harass them with phone calls, and on one occasion before Kim sued for divorce, he invited McLagan for a drink at a [[Richmond, London|Richmond]] pub and sent several "heavies" to break into McLagan's home on Fife Road and look for Kim, forcing her to hide in a [[walk-in closet]].{{sfn|Fletcher|1998|p=323}} She died in a car accident in [[Austin, Texas]], on 2 August 2006.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/iconic-model-who-married-keith-moon-dies-in-crash-410477.html |title=Iconic model who married Keith Moon dies in car crash |work=[[The Independent]] |last=Herbert |first=Ian |date=4 August 2006 |access-date=6 April 2013 |archive-date=21 March 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080321060059/http://www.canada.com/topics/entertainment/story.html?id=06ccba15-3e88-4d88-b46f-895b1ce2b81c&k=5326 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Annette Walter-Lax===
In 1975 Moon began a relationship with Swedish model Annette Walter-Lax, who later said that Moon was "so sweet when he was sober, that I was just living with him in the hope that he would kick all this craziness."{{sfn|Fletcher|1998|p=Inset between p. 436 and 437}} She begged [[Malibu, California|Malibu]] neighbour [[Larry Hagman]] to check Moon into a clinic to dry out (as he had attempted to do before), but when doctors recorded Moon's chemical intake at breakfast, a bottle of champagne, [[Courvoisier]] and [[amphetamines]], they concluded that there was no hope for his rehabilitation.{{sfn|Fletcher|1998|pp=424–425}}

===Friends===
[[File:Keith the ballerina.jpg|alt=Keith Moon on stage at a gig in Toronto, 21 October 1976|thumb|Moon onstage in Toronto, 21 October 1976]]

Moon enjoyed being the life of the party. Bill Curbishley remembered that "he wouldn't walk into any room and just listen. He was an attention seeker and he had to have it."{{sfn|Chapman|1998|p=80}}

Early in the Who's career, Moon got to know [[the Beatles]]. He would join them at clubs, forming a particularly close friendship with [[Ringo Starr]].{{sfn|Fletcher|1998|p=127}} Moon later became friends with [[Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band]] members [[Vivian Stanshall]] and [[Larry Smith (musician)|"Legs" Larry Smith]], and the trio would drink and play practical jokes together. Smith remembers one occasion where he and Moon tore apart a pair of trousers, with an accomplice later looking for one-legged trousers.{{sfn|Fletcher|1998|pp=245–246}} In the early 1970s, Moon helped Stanshall with his "Radio Flashes" radio show for [[BBC Radio 1]], filling in for the vacationing [[John Peel]]. Moon filled in for Peel in 1973's "A Touch of the Moon", a series of four programmes produced by [[John Walters (broadcaster)|John Walters]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/radio1/england/1973-08-21#at-22.00 |title=BBC Genome beta, Radio 1, 1973-08-2 |access-date=31 December 2014 |archive-date=31 December 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141231175616/http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/radio1/england/1973-08-21#at-22.00 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Guitarist [[Joe Walsh]] enjoyed socialising with Moon. In an interview with ''Guitar World'' magazine, he recalled that the drummer "taught me how to break things".<ref>{{cite book |title=Contemporary Musicians: Profiles of the People in Music, Volume 5 |first=Michael |last=LaBlanc |publisher=Gale |page=[https://archive.org/details/contemporarymusi00mich_0/page/194 194] |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-8103-2215-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/contemporarymusi00mich_0/page/194}}</ref> In 1974, Moon struck up a friendship with actor [[Oliver Reed]] while working on [[Tommy (1975 film)|the film version of ''Tommy'']].{{sfn|Fletcher|1998|pp=388–389}} Although Reed matched Moon drink for drink, he appeared on set the next morning ready to perform; Moon, on the other hand, would cost several hours of filming time.{{sfn|Chapman|1998|p=80}} Reed later said that Moon "showed me the way to insanity".<ref>{{cite news |title='Moon the Loon' tops poll as rock's most excessive rogue |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/moon-the-loon-tops-poll-as-rocks-most-excessive-rogue-84518.html |work=The Independent |date=15 July 2015 |archive-date=28 September 2020 |access-date=2 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200928061330/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/moon-the-loon-tops-poll-as-rocks-most-excessive-rogue-84518.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Dougal Butler===
{{main|Dougal Butler}}
Peter "Dougal" Butler began working for the Who in 1967, becoming Moon's personal assistant the following year<ref name="butler2012">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ItYpSpum6IIC |title=Interview with Dougal Butler by Richard T. Kelly, from Full Moon: The Amazing Rock and Roll Life of Keith Moon|year=2012 |isbn=978-0-571-29585-2|last1=Butler|first1=Dougal|publisher=Faber & Faber }}</ref> to help him stay out of trouble. He remembers managers [[Kit Lambert]] and [[Chris Stamp]] saying, "We trust you with Keith but if you ever want any time off, for a holiday or some sort of rest, let us know and we'll pay for it." Butler never took them up on the offer.<ref name="butler"/>

He followed Moon when the drummer relocated to Los Angeles, but felt that the drug culture prevalent at the time was bad for Moon: "My job was to have eyes in the back of my head."<ref name="butler2012"/> Townshend agreed, saying that by 1975 Butler had "no influence over him whatsoever."{{sfn|Townshend|2012|p=248}} Although he was a loyal companion to Moon, the lifestyle eventually became too much for him; he phoned Curbishley, saying that they needed to move back to England or one of them might die.<ref name="butler"/> Butler quit in 1978, and later wrote of his experiences in a book entitled ''Full Moon: The Amazing Rock and Roll Life of Keith Moon''.<ref name="butler2012"/>

===Neil Boland===
On 4 January 1970, Moon accidentally killed his friend, driver and [[bodyguard]], Neil Boland, outside the [[The Red Lion, Hatfield|Red Lion pub]] in [[Hatfield, Hertfordshire]]. Pub patrons had begun to attack his [[Bentley]]; Moon, drunk, began driving to escape them and hit Boland. After an investigation, the [[coroner]] ruled Boland's death an accident; Moon, having been charged with a number of offences, received an [[absolute discharge]].{{sfn|Marsh|1989|p=355}}

Those close to Moon said that he was haunted by Boland's death for the rest of his life. According to [[Pamela Des Barres]], Moon had nightmares (which woke them both) about the incident and said he had no right to be alive.<ref name="DesBarres1">{{cite book |last=Des Barres |first=Pamela |title=I'm with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie |url=https://archive.org/details/imwithbandconfes00barr |url-access=limited |publisher=Chicago Review Press |year=2005 |edition=2nd |pages=[https://archive.org/details/imwithbandconfes00barr/page/n133 254]–258 |isbn=1-55652-589-3}}</ref>