Townshend said he wanted to "work my way back to normality"

Townshend was recently cautioned by police for accessing a paedophile website, saying he was researching the autobiography.

He has now sent an e-mail to Rolling Stone magazine saying: "I put it down and did not plan to finish it until much later.

"But now I am going to push ahead until it is done. People need to read about my entire life to get a real picture of who I am."

Townshend will be on the sex offenders register for five years after a four-month investigation.

I'm going out onto the street to meet people, to smile and shake hands with everyone who has been supportive Pete Townshend

Police decided he was not in possession of indecent pictures downloaded from the internet.

Townshend said he was researching the subject for his life story because he may have been sexually abused as a child.

In his e-mail, he said he wanted to "work my way back to normality".

The autobiography would probably come out in 2004, he wrote.

He would not talk about his experiences on TV because he was "too wounded, too crazy, too happy and grateful, too resentful and too busy".

'Undecided' public

Roger Daltrey, his only surviving bandmate, had been "a rock", he wrote.

"Finally, I'm going out onto the street to meet people, to smile and shake hands with everyone who has been supportive of me in my hometown.

"But also to give those people who are 'undecided' a chance to look me in the eye and make their own decision."

The 58-year-old, who is married with children, was arrested in January and said at the time: "I am not a paedophile. I think paedophilia is appalling."