In the early 1960s, he played in several traditional jazz and dixieland outfits with schoolmate Pete Townshend, and later joined Roger Daltrey's band the Detours. This band later became The Who. He was nicknamed "The Ox" because of his strong constitution -- the ability to "eat, drink or do more than the rest of them" -- not for his size, or his tendency to stand still during shows.  John Entwistle was also a songwriter and artist. He wrote several well-known Who songs including. Though he continued to contribute material to all of The Who's albums with the exception of Quadrophenia, his frustration with having his material recorded by the band (largely with having to relenquish singing duties to Roger Daltrey) led him to release Smash Your Head Against The Wall in 1971. He was the first member of The Who to release a solo record. Entwistle provided rapid melodic lines and Townshend anchored the song with rhythmic chord work. Indeed, Pete Townshend was often quoted that it was Entwistle who was the lead guitarist in the band, while he, being the rhythmic timekeeping element, was in effect the drummer. Moon, on the other hand, with all his flourishes round the kit, was considered by Townshend to be the equivalent of a keyboard player. Entwistle developed what he called a "typewriter" approach to playing the bass. It involved positioning the right hand over the strings so all four fingers could be used to tap percussively on the strings, causing them to strike the fretboard with a distinctive twangy sound. This gives the player the ability to play three or four strings at once, or to use several fingers on a single string. It allowed him to create passages that were very percussive and melodic. He used this approach to mimic the fills used by his drummers in band situations, sometimes sending the fills back at the drummers faster than the drummers themselves could play them. This method is unique and should not be confused with the hammer-on tapping techniques. Entwistle has been a massive influence on the playing styles and sounds used by generations of bass players that have followed him and continues to top 'best ever bass player' polls in musicians magazines. In 2000, Guitar magazine named him "Bassist of the Millennium" in a readers' poll. John Entwistle died in a hotel room at the Hard Rock Hotel one day before the scheduled first show of The Who's 2002 US tour. The number of the actual room in which he died has remained a closely guarded secret, ostensibly to prevent the room becoming a shrine/place of pilgrimage.The Las Vegas medical examiner determined that death was due to a heart attack induced by an undetermined amount of cocaine.