Roger Daltrey: 'Not only am I going deaf, I'm also now going blind'
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San Francisco Chronicle
13 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
The Who's Roger Daltrey fears he won't make it through final tour
Roger Daltrey, the 81-year-old frontman of The Who, says he's not certain he'll make it to the end of the band's final U.S. tour — a run that includes a Bay Area stop this fall. 'This is certainly the last time you will see us on tour,' Daltrey told the Times of London in an interview published Friday, Aug. 1. 'It's 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'll play concerts again, I don't know. The Who to me is very perplexing.' The band, best known for its late 1960s/early '70s songs like 'My Generation' and 'Pinball Wizard,' is scheduled to perform at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View on Sept. 21. 'I'm going to be 82 next year. Fortunately, my voice is still as good as ever. I'm still singing in the same keys and it's still bloody loud, but I can't tell you if it will still be there in October,' Daltrey said. 'There's a big part of me that's going: I just hope I make it through.' Health concerns cast a shadow over the tour. Daltrey continues to feel the effects of a meningitis infection he suffered nine years ago, which disrupted his internal temperature regulation and has left him vulnerable during performances. 'It's done a lot of damage. Every time I start singing in any climate over 75 degrees, I'm wringing with sweat, which drains my body salts,' he explained. 'The potential to get really ill is there and, I have to be honest, I'm nervous about making it to the end of the tour.' 'There's no point. Can't f—ing see it!' he said. 'I've got an incurable macular degeneration.' The Who has declared farewell before, most notably in 1982 with a U.K. and North American tour later commemorated in 'Who's Last.' But the band continued to return, including a 1989 reunion tour, a 70-date 'long goodbye' in 2015, and a 2019 to 2021 run supporting 'WHO,' its first new album in more than a decade. Now in their 80s, Daltrey and guitarist Pete Townshend vow this time is really the end. Still, Daltrey's committed to giving fans a show worthy of the band's legacy. 'I want to give the songs the same amount of passion as I did the first time round,' he said. The tour comes after a period of internal tension, including a public split with longtime drummer Zak Starkey, son of Ringo Starr. Daltrey briefly acknowledged an incident during a show at London's Royal Albert Hall that led to what he called a 'character assassination' by Starkey. 'Pete and I retain the right to be The Who. Everyone else is a session player,' Daltrey said. 'You can't replace Keith Moon. We wanted to branch out, and that's all I want to say about it. But (Starkey's reaction) was crippling to me.'
NBC Sports
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Lambert-Smith among Hall of Fame game standouts
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Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Yahoo
Roger Daltrey Labels Zak Starkey's Exit Comments ‘Character Assassination'
Four months on from the shows that sparked Zak Starkey's departure from The Who, Roger Daltrey has attempted to set the record straight. Starkey and The Who have been in and out of the spotlight since April following the back-and-forth that Starkey had been fired from the group, only to be welcomed back ahead of his eventual departure – which Starkey clarified was not him being 'fired' but rather 'retired.' More from Billboard Katy Perry Fan Collapses on Stage During Lifetimes Tour Stop in Detroit Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst Attends His Own Lookalike Concert in Nebraska David Roach, Junkyard Vocalist and Frontman, Dies at 59 Initially, a spokesman for The Who had claimed that 'the band made a collective decision to part ways with Zak after this round of shows at the Royal Albert Hall,' referring to a pair of gigs the month prior. Addressing the gigs in an interview in June, Starkey detailed his version of what had happened at the shows in question. 'What happened was I got it right and Roger got it wrong,' he told The Telegraph. According to a report from The Who's Royal Albert Hall shows, the recently-knighted Daltrey had stopped several songs mid-performance, citing difficulty hearing the band over the drums. Per Starkey's recollection, the group played the rarely-performed 'The Song is Over,' and a lack of rehearsal meant that Daltrey 'came in a bar early.' The result was a call from band manager Bill Curbishley who shared the bad news with Starkey. 'He says, 'It's my unfortunate duty to inform you,'' Starkey remembered. ''That you won't be needed from now on. Roger says you dropped some beats.'' Though Starkey would admit to having dropped the beats, Daltrey himself has attempted to set the record straight in a new interview with The Times. 'An audience can see what's happening on stage and have a complete misunderstanding of what's actually going on,' he said in relation to the Royal Albert Hall gigs, before turning his attention to Starkey's comments. 'It was kind of a character assassination and it was incredibly upsetting.' According to Daltrey, the moment that inspired the troubles is related to the technical setup of The Who's live show, which features electronic drums piped in through in-ear monitors. 'It is controlled by a guy on the side, and we had so much sub-bass on the sound of the drums that I couldn't pitch,' Daltrey explains. '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't. That's all that happened.' As Daltrey concluded his focus on the topic, he also gave a brief insight into how it was that Starkey's membership in the band was left under a cloud of confusion for a number of weeks. 'Pete [Townshend] and I retain the right to be the Who,' he explained. 'Everyone else is a session player. You can't replace Keith Moon. We wanted to branch out and that's all I want to say about it. But [Starkey's reaction] was crippling to me.' In late July, The Who hit the stage in Italy as part of their The Song Is Over Tour, which touches down in North America later this month. 'This is certainly the last time you will see us on tour,' Daltrey confirmed to The Times. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
