![\"Roger](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\/767fd1a9-7afa-449c-a862-4d0010524d2a.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWhile the irony of Roger Daltrey singing \u201chope I die before I get old\u201d as he enters his ninth decade has been mined to the point of clich\u00e9, nobody could have guessed in the Sixties that this one-time figure of rebellion would be bestowed with a knighthood. In 1965 Pete Townshend wrote the Who\u2019s My Generation after the Queen Mother objected to the sight of his car, a Packard hearse, on the streets of Belgravia and commanded it be towed away. Now the man who sang Townshend\u2019s words of defiance against the old order is to become a sir. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is weird,\u201d says Daltrey, sitting at a wooden table in the garden of his house in Chiswick in west London, of being embraced by the establishment. \u201cBut it\u2019s great for the charity, so I accept it on behalf of all the unsung heroes who have helped me with it. It will open doors.\u201d <\/p>\n
Since 2000 Daltrey has been staging annual fundraising concerts at the Royal Albert Hall for Teenage Cancer Trust, which was set up in 1990 to provide specialist units for young people suffering from cancer. Is that why he was given the knighthood? \u201cOf course, but the honours system is in desperate need of updating. It\u2019s a weird club to be a part of and I\u2019m not entirely comfortable with it. Still, I\u2019m not going to be here much longer. If I live another ten years it will be way past anyone in my family, and it\u2019s important for Teenage Cancer Trust to continue. We were seeing teenagers put in wards alongside two-year-olds or geriatrics and the isolation was devastating. The environment of someone suffering from a serious illness is every bit as important as a good drug.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Daltrey receiving his CBE in 2005 with his sister, granddaughter Lily and wife Heather<\/p>\n
TIM CLARKE\/ROYAL ROTA\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n
Daltrey is a strange mix: a former Labour voter who now says that \u201cLabour has made us a country for the f***ing scroungers\u201d; a self-made millionaire with a dedication to charity and a reputation for generosity; a man who has spent the past six decades in a creative partnership with someone who couldn\u2019t be more different. As Townshend told me in 2019: \u201cI\u2019m a Remainer, he\u2019s a Brexiteer. I believe in God, he doesn\u2019t.\u201d Yet they have stayed together, surviving the deaths of the drummer Keith Moon<\/a> and the bassist John Entwistle. Townshend and Daltrey are, rather like Noel and Liam Gallagher<\/a>, the odd couple who need each other. <\/p>\n Now the partnership that has defined the Who since the 1964 single I Can\u2019t Explain, Townshend\u2019s tale of a young mod who wants to tell his girlfriend he loves her but can\u2019t because he\u2019s taken too many amphetamines, is coming to an end. The Who announced in May that they are to embark on The Song Is Over, their last tour of the US. Does this mean the end of UK concerts too? <\/p>\n \u201cThis is certainly the last time you will see us on tour,\u201d says Daltrey, looking somewhat agitated at the prospect. \u201cIt\u2019s gruelling. 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. As to whether we\u2019ll play [one-off] concerts again, I don\u2019t know. The Who to me is very perplexing.\u201d <\/p>\n \u2022 Roger Daltrey\u2019s backstage diary \u2014 and a farewell to organising 24 years of concerts<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Wasn\u2019t the Who, a combustible entity formed of the tortured genius of Townshend, the stoicism of Entwistle, the wildness of Moon and the rock-god charisma of Daltrey, always perplexing? \u201cYes, but with all the potential future years in front of you, you could handle it. I\u2019m going to be 82 next year. Fortunately, my voice is still as good as ever. I\u2019m still singing in the same keys and it\u2019s still bloody loud, but I can\u2019t tell you if it will still be there in October. There\u2019s a big part of me that\u2019s going: I just hope I make it through.\u201d<\/p>\n John Entwistle, Keith Moon, Daltrey and Pete Townshend in 1968<\/p>\n KING COLLECTION\/AVALON\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n The main problem is the effects of contracting meningitis nine years ago. \u201cIt\u2019s done a lot of damage,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s buggered up my internal thermometer, so every time I start singing in any climate over 75 degrees I\u2019m wringing with sweat, which drains my body salts. The potential to get really ill is there and, I have to be honest, I\u2019m nervous about making it to the end of the tour.\u201d<\/p>\n He thinks he destroyed his hearing even before he joined the band, while working in a sheet metal factory in Acton when he was 16. At the Teenage Cancer Trust concert in March, he revealed that not only was he going deaf but he was losing his sight too. If he lost his voice, he told the audience, he would \u201cgo the full Tommy\u201d. Unlike many rockers his age, Daltrey doesn\u2019t use an Autocue. \u201cThere\u2019s no point. Can\u2019t f***ing see it!\u201d he roars. How is his sight now? \u201cNot good,\u201d he replies, from behind tinted shades. \u201cI\u2019ve got an incurable macular degeneration.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Pete Townshend: \u2018Fans are irritated I won\u2019t just play Who hits till I die\u2019<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Nevertheless, he\u2019s determined to give American audiences a great show, in part to thank them for raising the members of the Who out of the postwar malaise they grew up under. \u201cI want to give the songs the same amount of passion as I did the first time round,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it\u2019s not easy when you\u2019re dealing with a partner who can be ambivalent about it.\u201d <\/p>\n Townshend has stated on several occasions that he doesn\u2019t enjoy touring. \u201cSo he says until he\u2019s out there \u2014 and he loves the money. But look at those early Who concerts. Every night was a war. That\u2019s how we got the music across. We\u2019re not going to turn into f***ing Abba overnight, are we?\u201d<\/p>\n With Townshend at Wembley Stadium in 2019<\/p>\n SAMIR HUSSEIN\/WIREIMAGE\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n They certainly aren\u2019t, as proven by Daltrey\u2019s well publicised issues with the Who\u2019s former drummer Zak Starkey. The son of Ringo Starr was fired from the band<\/a> in April, reinstated, then fired again two weeks later. What happened?<\/p>\n \u201cAn audience can see what\u2019s happening on stage and have a complete misunderstanding of what\u2019s actually going on,\u201d says Daltrey, referring to the Who\u2019s concert at the Royal Albert Hall in March, where the problems began. Starkey shot out a few barbs after the event. \u201cWhat happened was I got it right and Roger got it wrong,\u201d he claimed in an interview with The Telegraph, while on Instagram Starkey dismissed a statement that he retired from the Who as \u201ctotal bollox\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was kind of a character assassination and it was incredibly upsetting,\u201d Daltrey says of Starkey\u2019s remarks. <\/p>\n In fact, the whole thing started over a technicality. <\/b>Daltrey explains that the drums used in a Who concert are electronic so that he can hear them through his in-ear monitors. \u201cIt is controlled by a guy on the side, and we had so much sub-bass on the sound of the drums that I couldn\u2019t pitch. I was pointing to the bass drum and screaming at him because it was like flying a plane without seeing the horizon. So when Zak thought I was having a go at him, I wasn\u2019t. That\u2019s all that happened.\u201d<\/p>\n Zak Starkey performing with the Who in 2017<\/p>\n MINDY SMALL\/FILMMAGIC\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n Then how come Starkey was back in the band, then out again? \u201cPete and I retain the right to be the Who. Everyone else is a session player. You can\u2019t replace Keith Moon. We wanted to branch out and that\u2019s all I want to say about it. But [Starkey\u2019s reaction] was crippling to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Not that life in the Who was ever easy. \u201cJohn [Entwistle] was very funny, but he was a dark character with a vicious streak,\u201d he says of the bassist. \u201cHe was brought up by his mum and a stepdad he didn\u2019t like, and he was an addict who managed to survive for as long as he did. As for Moony [Keith Moon], sometimes you wanted to kill him but f*** he could be funny. Having said that, in today\u2019s world where everything is banned \u2014 how dare you laugh! \u2014 a lot of things he did weren\u2019t very funny if you were on the receiving end. But Moony was just a big kid, really.\u201d<\/p>\n In late 1965 Daltrey got sacked from the band himself, albeit briefly, for beating up Moon after the drummer gave drugs to Entwistle and Townshend. \u201cHe used to hate me because I stood in front of him,\u201d he says of Moon. \u201cHe wanted the drums on the front of the stage, so I used to get drumsticks in the back of the head. Despite it all, I cared about him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 The Who on a new album, ageing and artistic differences<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Daltrey says that from 1968 to 1975 the Who changed music. He says he felt totally connected to Townshend\u2019s writing, even if he didn\u2019t always know what Townshend was going on about. Who\u2019s Next, the band\u2019s 1971 masterpiece and one of the greatest rock albums, was built round the aborted rock opera Lifehouse, a vision of an apocalyptic future where music is banned, pollution has rendered the outside world uninhabitable and citizens are connected to each other via an internet-like system called the Grid. When I ask Daltrey if he understood Townshend\u2019s ideas for Lifehouse, he bursts into laughter. <\/p>\n \u201cPete\u2019s ideas are a stream of consciousness without a thread of narrative, and that\u2019s the problem,\u201d Daltrey says. \u201cI\u2019ve always tried to help him find a thread, vocally and emotionally. With Lifehouse I said to Pete, \u2018What the f*** is this about?\u2019 He was into his religious thing at the time, so he was searching for the meaning of life and he said it might be found in a musical note. It was a mess of ideas and it didn\u2019t make any sense. And he didn\u2019t just want to make an album; he also wanted it to be a film. No chance!\u201d<\/p>\n With Townshend in 2009<\/p>\n BRADLEY KANARIS\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n Nevertheless, Daltrey remains in awe of the guitarist and songwriter\u2019s talent. \u201cTommy is the best opera ever written,\u201d he decrees. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve seen a lot of the grand operas.\u201d<\/p>\n For his part, Townshend says that Daltrey set the model for the golden-haired rock god \u2014 a look since taken up by Robert Plant and countless others. \u201cIt\u2019s only because I didn\u2019t get a haircut,\u201d Daltrey says, guffawing wildly. \u201cCouldn\u2019t afford it. It wasn\u2019t until \u201968 that we got our first pay cheques. Up until then Keith Moon was spending it all.\u201d<\/p>\n All these years later, Daltrey is determined to rock until he drops, whether the Who keep touring or not. \u201cNever, never retire. You\u2019ll be dead in three years. Daytime TV will kill you.\u201d What is the most lethal programme, I ask\u2026 Cash in the Attic? \u201cOh, you\u2019ve seen it have you?\u201d <\/p>\n \u2022 Read more music reviews, interviews and guides on what to listen to next<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n The Who have 60 years behind them. What does Daltrey consider to be the band\u2019s legacy?<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a tricky one,\u201d he says, after being momentarily, atypically stuck for words. \u201cWe ploughed our own furrow. We were not the pop of the Beatles<\/a> or the bluesy connection of the Stones<\/a>. All I can say is that we marched to our own drum.\u201d<\/p>\n He thinks about this for a moment. <\/p>\n \u201cAnd we had a madman on the drums.\u201d<\/p>\n Roger Daltrey will perform at Dreamland Margate on Friday Aug 8<\/b>. The Who are at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida, on August 16, then touring<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While the irony of Roger Daltrey singing \u201chope I die before I get old\u201d as he enters his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,269,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-311273","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114957842209558266","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Portrait](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\/97062516-2de1-4c9b-851c-7aa52d647829.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Roger](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\/061e3958-42fd-4d07-8ab6-b312bb2abcd8.jpg\")
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<\/p>\n![\"Roger](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\/ef75d160-5135-4734-8f29-e6e0d4a4c6b4.jpg\")
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