Roger Daltrey on The Who touring again: 'I can't see it'

17 June 2024, 10:52

The Who at The O2 in London in 2023. Picture: Getty Images

By Mayer Nissim

Roger Daltrey doesn't completely rule out The Who going on the road again.

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The Who played a couple of era-ending shows at the Royal Albert Hall earlier this year as Roger Daltrey stepped away from his role curating the Teenage Cancer Trust gigs there after just under a quarter of a century.

Those were the last shows The Who have played to date, and they followed a pretty busy second half of 2023, which included a number of outdoor appearances across Europe and a massive date at London's O2.

But those concerts could well mark the last time The Who ever tour again.

Quizzed ahead of his own solo tour, Daltrey told The AP that another jaunt with his band isn't something that's in his mind at all at the moment.

"I don’t see it," Daltrey said. "I don’t, I don’t know whether The Who will ever go out again.

The Who at the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus in 1968. Picture: Getty Images

"I don’t know. I don’t think like that. If we’ve got something to do that was progressive and interesting, and there was a reason to do it, then we would go out. But at the moment I can’t see it."

Roger's bandmate and only other ever-present in The Who, Pete Townshend, has flipped back and forth on the future of The Who in recent months.

"I think it’s time for Roger and I to go to lunch and have a chat about what happens next," Townshend said last year.

Pete Townshend speaks to Gold

"It feels like the end of an era. It's a question of, really, what is feasible, what would be lucrative, what would be fun?"

He later said to the New York Times: "It feels to me like there’s a final tour where we play every territory in the world and then crawl off to die.

"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."

The Who, Isobel Griffiths Orchestra - Baba O’Riley (Live At Wembley, UK / 2019)

But he later added to the Sound Up! podcast: "I'm not doing a farewell tour. I think I was being sarcastic about it."

He then added to Mojo magazine: “The Who are not done yet. The Who are a brand and a friendship, but it’s not a band. It’s not a hard-working, complicated, growing and evolving f***king jazz group.

"We’re not challenging each other to work musical miracles, but we’re playing music we know so well. So never say never. I don’t want to do what I did before and say we’re never going to work again."