Roger Daltrey on the Toll of Decades on the Road

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Pete Townshend is touring again. This time, he’s on a 17-date run through North America with his long-time bandmate, Roger Daltrey. The iconic guitarist has an honest view about his life on the road now at age 80. He told Rolling Stone that touring has its lonely points and parts he “could do without” as he and Daltrey wonder about the future of the Who.

“It can be lonely. I’ve thought, ‘Well, this is my job, I’m happy to have the work, but I prefer to be doing something else.’ Then, I think, ‘Well, I’m 80 years old. Why shouldn’t I revel in it? Why shouldn’t I celebrate?” he said.

Townshend’s newfound gratitude for life on tour doesn’t eliminate his tired feelings after decades of performing and life on the road. When The Who first became a phenomenon, they were a band made of people. But in the years since, Townshend points out that the identity of the group has shifted. “It’s a brand rather than a band,” he said. “Roger and I have a duty to the music and the history. The Who [still] sells records — the Moon and Entwistle families have become millionaires. There’s also something more, really: the art, the creative work, is when we perform it. We’re celebrating. We’re a Who tribute band.”

When Townshend says The Who is “a tribute band,” he isn’t referring to Keith Moon and John Entwistle, two Who members who died years ago. However, he is including their families as part of the band’s ever-expanding history. There are the obvious, immediate reflections of songs written, performed, and recorded over the years, but there’s also the legacy each member has helped shape over time. “It does whet an appetite to think about how we should bow out in our personal lives — what we do with our families and our friends and everything else at this age,” Townshend continued. “We’re lucky to be alive. I’m looking forward to playing. Roger likes to throw wild cards out sometimes in the set, and we have learned and rehearsed a few songs that we don’t always play.”

Touring and performing with The Who live is old hat for Townshend, even if the effects of time still have an impact. After 50 years of doing shows, one may think the excitement of a performance may have worn off, but Townshend still gets an edge preparing for the stage.

“I’m sort of excited, because we have not rehearsed a lot of these songs, so they will be less predictable than if we had done a Who album,” Townshend told Rolling Stone.

Roger Daltrey on Touring, Health, and Life After The Who

For his part, Roger Daltrey is also feeling the exhaustion and rewards of touring again. While playing with Townshend in London earlier this year at a Teenage Cancer Trust charity event, Daltrey spoke to fans about his health. “Fortunately, I still have my voice, because then I’ll have a full Tommy,” he told the audience, referencing the eponymous character from The Who’s iconic 1969 rock opera. He also quoted one of Tommy’s famous lines for the crowd: “Deaf, dumb, and blind kid.”

In a new interview with The Times earlier this month, Daltrey elaborated on those remarks, taking the opportunity to reflect on life and the band after the tour’s completion. His words came across as definitive for long-time fans who have spent decades following the group from the outside. “This is certainly the last time you will see us on tour. It’s grueling,” he told the paper.

Daltrey reflected on the toll of performing The Who’s music night after night on a global scale. “In the days when I was singing Who songs for three hours a night, six nights a week, I was working harder than most footballers,” he told the paper. But at 80, that work is starting to take a more noticeable toll.

“I don’t know if we’ll play [one-off] concerts again. The Who to me is very perplexing,” Daltrey mused. He’s correct on that front. The line between past and present and now and then with The Who has been blurring for some time.

Even so, Daltrey has no doubts about his voice. “My voice is still as good as ever,” he told The Times.

For concertgoers throughout North America, these 17 shows may be the last opportunity to see Townshend and Daltrey perform as The Who. For both men, it’s a mix of mourning and celebration, of looking back and seeing how the band changed their lives and the world around them, and of looking ahead to the final chapter in their history. The point, as Townshend said, is that The Who “is a tribute band,” and more importantly, one that has the time, the ability, and the opportunity to celebrate the time they’ve spent on earth.