“I’m not gonna do the scream,” Daltrey insisted during a recent conversation with Billboard. “I’m gonna get the fucking audience to do the scream. I’ve done that scream for 55 years, and I’ve had enough of it. I don’t even want to try it now; it’s brutal on the vocal cords. They can do the scream, and I’ll do everything else. I’m more into singing these days. At the age of 80, I think I deserve to be.”
Described as “a mostly acoustic set of Who gems, rarities, solo nuggets and other surprises,” the upcoming trek will also feature Daltrey chatting with fans in nightly Q&A sessions.
“I just want to branch out and do something different,” the singer admitted, noting he’s gotten “good comedy” out of previous Q&A sessions. “It’s gonna be quite interesting. I’m just determined to enjoy myself and explore the freedom I’ve got to do what I want to do on this tour, and let’s see where it ends up.”
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.
I have an in-ear (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.
I 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.“You can hear a big change in my voice before and after ‘Tommy.’ It’s like two different people. It was wonderful. It freed up my singing, and it gave me an identity.”
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.
"And by the way, I’m on my way outThe average life expectancy is 83 and with a bit of luck I’ll make that, but we need someone else to drive things."
Roger Daltrey joked that his knees were sore after 24 years of begging bands to play his cancer charity shows free of charge.
Daltrey knows just how prone the mercurial Townshend is to changing his mind in a near-instant.
“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. But you know, Pete is a habitual liar.”
