In the early 1970s Townshend, a follower of Meher Baba since 1967, composed O' Parvardigar to the words (with a few alterations) of Meher's Parvardigar Prayer. It first appeared in 1972 on both his debut solo album Who Came First and on I Am, a tribute album to Meher with music composed and performed by Townshend and a group of other Meher followers.[3][4] Townshend said in a Rolling Stone interview "I don't actually say this prayer, I just happened to put it to music [...]