Daltrey looks to life after the Who: ‘It was a wonderful ride’
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!” Considering that he has devoted much of the past 60 years to his career as the lead singer in the Who, you wouldn’t expect to hear Roger Daltrey laughing uproariously over the apparent demise of the band long synonymous with his name. Especially not just a day after Who co-founder Pete Townshend stated in a podcast he was “not doing” a farewell tour that he himself had proposed just weeks earlier.
But Daltrey, who performed a solo show May 6 at the Shell in San Diego ahead of a June tour, laughed so hard during a recent interview you might have thought he was watching a favorite film comedy. The singer’s long burst of “ha ha has” was in response to his interviewer noting that – more than anyone – Daltrey knows just how prone the mercurial Townshend is to changing his mind in a near-instant.
After pausing to contain his laughter, the veteran singer grew more serious.
“If Pete doesn’t want to tour, I don’t want to be back with the Who on the road, at 81, with someone who doesn’t want be there – if that’s what he’s saying,” said Daltrey who turned 80 on March 1. “But you know, every dog has its day and it was a wonderful ride.”
Whether this dog has truly had its day remains to be seen, particularly since Daltrey – in a 2000 San Diego Union-Tribune interview – referred to Townshend as “a habitual liar.”
Regardless, Townshend sounded less than enthused when he told the New York Times in March: “I don’t get much of a buzz from performing with the Who. If I’m really honest, I’ve been touring for the money. My idea of an ordinary lifestyle is pretty elevated.”
Such statements don’t encourage Daltrey to think another reunion trek seems feasible. With the Who down to two members – drummer Keith Moon died in 1978, bassist John Entwistle in 2002 – touring as a one-man version of the Who, minus Townshend, is not a viable option.
“I won’t do it with someone who is halfhearted about it,” Daltrey said. “The music is too important to me. The reason the Who was so powerful is because we meant it. We took your face off when we played; we didn’t swan about on stage.”
What if Townshend changes his mind and expresses enthusiasm to reunite with Daltrey for one final Who tour?
“You’re putting me in a corner,” he replied. “I’d be up for it if the reason Pete’s doing it isn’t just to make money. I’ll do it to make good music and to show people what we were, before we leave the stage forever. You can’t just half turn up for a tour.
“Singers can’t dial it in at concerts, because it shows immediately. I’m doing it because I love it, and it’s what I do … I’ve got a voice and I want to use it. I have never toured only for the money. Yes, the money is very useful. But I couldn’t do it just for that; you can’t. You need to be passionate about what you do and you really need to connect with the audiences. If you don’t, you’re failing.”
In June, Daltrey and a predominantly British band will undertake a nine-city U.S. tour he is billing as “semi-acoustic.” It is designed to focus on songs from his solo albums, along with some Who favorites.
“My career has been … kind of ridiculous, really, when I think of about it,” Daltrey said, speaking from his home in the English countryside. “There’s something in me, this identity, that only comes out when I’m singing. I just love singing, it’s as simple as that. I love connecting with my voice in a different way than when I’m speaking. I just love it!”
Daltrey discussed music and his ridiculous career with the Union-Tribune on April 17. Here are highlights from that conversation. His quotes have been edited for clarity and length.
Q: turned 80 on March 1. So, happy belated birthday. Does music mean something more or different to you at 80 than when you were 20, 40 or 70?
A: it doesn’t. I’ve always sang – from the age of 6, when I started in the church choir – until now.
Q: do you maintain your voice and how often do you practice?
A: never practice. And I think, at the moment, I’m singing, possibly the best I ever have in my life. I had a very rough period in the late 1990s and early 2000s, where I had – it turned out I was OK – but it was a potential vocal cord cancer and I managed to get it sorted. I also managed to hear myself singing for the first time, which was a luxury for me. In the ‘60, ‘70s, and ‘80s, it seemed to be the mission of the rest of the band to drown me out. It felt like it anyway! They were so loud that it became hard work to hear myself.
Q: happened that enabled you to hear yourself better?
A: (audio) monitors that let you get the mix you want – like, if the guitar’s too loud! – and always hear yourself. That makes an enormous difference to a singer. Also, and I didn’t realize it until the ‘90s, but I’d been deaf for a long time in my life. And I don’t think it was caused by the band.
When I think back on it, it was caused by working in a sheet metal factory when I was a teenager, grinding welds down every day, with no hearing protection. I think that’s what definitely took the top (range) out of my hearing, rather than the band. It’s one of those things I’ve managed to survive.
Q: does your wearing hearing aids now factor in?
A: kind of work with one in-ear monitor in one ear and the hearing aid in the other. You can manipulate them so that I get the best sound for hearing myself that I can on stage with this system. Fortunately.
Q: is the status of the oft-delayed Keith Moon biopic, and who would you like to play you in the film?
A: very much in the works. We are, at this moment, looking for directors. We’ll cast it after we have the right director.
Q: were a very young man when the Who recorded “My Generation,” with its famous “hope I die before get old” lyric. Do you put yourself in a young man’s frame of mind when you sing it now?
A: sing it as a singer delivering it. I talk in the song, and I say: “Now, you talk about your generation, I’ll talk about my generation.” I don’t pretend to be young. I sing the song.
Q: big disappointment about the Who is how infrequently the band has made albums since the 1970s.
A: you can’t go back. It’s always been a little bit of a weight on my shoulders that (Pete and I) have never managed to go into the studio and bang things around between us. I’ve written songs and laid them down – I’m not a slouch – and who knows what could come of them if we could collaborate?
Q: would it take to make that happen?
A: An earthquake!