LONDON (AP) — Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend of The Who have been performing together for more than 60 years and acknowledge they feel the effects of their long careers.
Daltrey, 81, discussed the impact of his years on the road during a performance for the Teenage Cancer Trust at London’s Royal Albert Hall late last week.
“The joys of getting old mean you go deaf. I also now have got the joy of going blind,” he said on stage, according to Sky News. “Fortunately, I still have my voice, because then I’ll have a full Tommy.”
“Full Tommy” refers to The Who’s 1969 rock opera about the character Tommy Walker, who becomes “deaf, dumb and blind” to the outside world.
Townshend, 79, revealed to the audience that he recently had knee-replacement surgery and quipped, “maybe I should auction off the old one.”
Two years ago, Daltrey and Townshend suggested that their long-running band might be nearing retirement.
“I suppose Roger and I, at some point, will look ahead and try to work out whether or not we want to do an Elton John and end it in some way,” Townshend told The Sun, referring to Sir Elton John’s farewell tour. “It’s difficult to make a decision going forward, to say we’re going to do this or that, because we don’t know how well we’re going to be or how fit we’re going to be.”
He added that he and Daltrey are “both old.”
“That in itself has a downside because, apart from what you can or can’t do on the stage, when you finish touring you come back to normal life — whatever it is that you decide to do to fill your time away from the road — and it’s harder and takes longer,” Townshend said.