The Who frontman Roger Daltrey has opened up about the chances of the band touring America again.
Speaking to USA Today for a new interview, Daltrey spoke about the band’s latest live record ‘The Who with Orchestra: Live at Wembley’, the 79-year-old singer shared his thoughts on The Who touring the US again, saying he’s “very doubtful” it will happen, though he says “never say never”.
When asked if The Who have plans to tour America again, Daltrey said: “Nothing at the moment. I don’t know if we’ll ever come back to tour America. There is only one tour we could do, an orchestrated “Quadrophenia” to round out the catalog. But that’s one tall order to sing that piece of music, as I’ll be 80 next year. I never say never, but at the moment it’s very doubtful.”
Besides his age being a factor, Daltrey went on to explain that “touring has become very difficult since COVID”. He added: “We cannot get insured and most of the big bands doing arena shows, by the time they do their first show and rehearsals and get the staging and crew together, all the buses and hotels, you’re upwards $600,000 to a million in the hole.”
“To earn that back, if you’re doing a 12-show run, you don’t start to earn it back until the seventh or eighth show. That’s just how the business works. The trouble now is if you get COVID after the first show, you’ve [lost] that money.”
Daltrey’s take on touring comes after he told NME about the possibility of new music from The Who. Daltrey said: “What’s the point? What’s the point of records? We released an album four years ago [2019’s ‘WHO’], and it did nothing. It’s a great album too, but there isn’t the interest out there for new music these days. People want to hear the old music. I don’t know why, but that’s the fact.”
The frontman added that the band’s fanbase now ranges “from 80-years-old, all the way down to eight-years-old”, saying: “We’ve got quite a lot of young people in our audience these days. It’s quite interesting that they’re picking up on our music. But record companies, they just don’t do the same job as they used to.”
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Daltrey also spoke to NME about the long-delayed Keith Moon biopic, vowing that the film “will be made”. The project had first been in the works since 2005, and has experienced multiple setbacks.
Speaking to NME, Daltrey confirmed that he recently completed a script for the film and said he was determined to get it to the big screen. “I’m at a draft that’s ready to go to directors,” he explained.
“I’m waiting on a reply from a director that I was talking to prior to starting writing the script. I’m very pleased with the script, it will be made. As soon as soon as he’s finished the film that he’s on, he will read it and I’ll get a reply from him. Hopefully we’ll get it made ASAP.”