- 6 weeks ago
Roger Daltrey has spent more than six decades as one of rock's most unmistakable voices, but these days he's thinking about what comes next. In a new conversation on Joann Butler in Studio With... , while on his current tour, A Great Night Out! , the 82-year-old frontman says this solo run could possibly be his last, as he looks forward to a more ordinary life and continued charity work. That doesn't necessarily mean The Who are done. Daltrey reveals that he and Pete Townshend recently rehearsed with longtime drummer Zak Starkey to see whether the band could possibly play shows next year. He also recounts the early days of how the band came together and the moment Keith Moon joined the group and instantly changed everything. Daltrey also revisits the famous stutter in 'My Generation,' explaining how an accidental vocal moment became part of one of The Who's most iconic songs. He gets candid about AI too, particularly the unsettling reality that technology can now replicate his voice. The conversation isn't all rock history. Daltrey also confirms the wild story connecting Jimi Hendrix to his wife Heather, reflects on their 55-year relationship, and shares the simple philosophy that still drives him: music should move people. This is a LifeMinute with Roger Daltrey.
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00:01Did you know right away that this was really something special?
00:04Yeah, it was like someone had put the key in the starter motor of the jet engine.
00:08Off it went.
00:09We did a rehearsal recently and Zach was the drummer.
00:12Is there going to be a reunion there?
00:14We did the rehearsal to see if we can still hit the notes, still get the drive.
00:20Who music demands an incredible amount of drive.
00:23How'd you come up with throwing your mic up like that in the air?
00:26I had to do something. I got very good.
00:28But the trouble is today, I twirl it out and I can't see where it's gone.
00:33I was the worst pinball player in the world.
00:35It used to go up and come straight down the hole.
00:38The long hole.
00:39This is possibly my last ever tour at this age.
00:43I want to enjoy a bit of ordinary life.
00:47Hi, this is Roger Daltrey and you're watching In Studio with Joanne Butler.
00:53I'm so happy to talk to you. Such an honor. You look amazing.
00:57How are you doing?
00:58I'm still standing.
01:01I'm having a great time.
01:03Playing some different songs and different music.
01:05I can experiment with a different soundscape of nine musicians.
01:12Nine musicians.
01:13We're having lots of laughs, lots of fun.
01:15It looks it.
01:16The clips I'm seeing, everybody's loving it.
01:19How did you decide what songs to do?
01:21What made the cut?
01:23We change them all the time.
01:25We try and add one or two every night.
01:28But every time we add one, we have to take one out.
01:30So it's a bit of a juggling match.
01:32But I try to find songs that I've loved over the years.
01:36And I've tried to find songs that have kind of caught up with themselves in what they've written about.
01:41I mean, I'm doing a Neil Young song, Rocking in the Free World.
01:47Oh, cool.
01:47Because that was written, you know, 40 years ago.
01:51And it probably means more today than it did at the time it was written.
01:56I mean, well, let's put it this way.
01:58I think there's more to be got out of the song in the top line of the melody.
02:03It's a bit, for me, it's a bit late.
02:06It's a bit Neil Young laid back when it should be an angry rock song, you know.
02:11Right.
02:11Because times are enough to make you angry, aren't they?
02:16Yes.
02:17What's different about walking on stage solo, sort of, versus on stage as part of the Who?
02:23Well, obviously, people's expectations are far lower.
02:27And keeping up the expectations that people have about the Who, you know, singing Love Rain or Me and those
02:34kinds of songs at this age and hitting the notes.
02:37And then have them say, I think it was all recorded.
02:41And they finally go, it's deflating, you know.
02:44And you've kind of sung your heart out for three months.
02:48Have they said that?
02:49Well, I've heard rumors, yeah, that people think it's recorded.
02:52It's not.
02:53It's me.
02:54I don't know how.
02:56It's up there, you know.
02:57It's way up there.
02:59Right.
02:59You can hear it's you.
03:01I don't know what they're talking about.
03:03You can hear it's you.
03:04Yeah, exactly.
03:04It's there, you know.
03:05Especially when you tell the audience to do the scream for you.
03:10Now, yes, I let them go in with the sore throats.
03:14That's funny.
03:14I've had enough of it.
03:17How do you do it?
03:18Your voice, it still sounds beautiful, Roger.
03:20I've been given a gift.
03:22I've been given a gift and I realized it was a gift.
03:25And I'm determined to use it as long as it's still there.
03:28But if it does start to go, it went on me in the early 2000s.
03:34I had a pre-cancer thing growing on my vocal cord.
03:38Wow.
03:38But I solved that problem.
03:40I was really unhappy.
03:41I was coming off stage very unhappy because I couldn't hit the notes I wanted to.
03:46And I felt like I was cheating the audience.
03:50If that ever happens again, I retire.
03:52It's as simple as that.
03:53Right.
03:54Makes sense.
03:55It seems like you've always respected it, though, over the years, you know.
03:59What did you do to, you know, hone it?
04:04Well, I stayed physically in good shape.
04:07You know, the vocal cords are only a muscle.
04:10You have to respect yourself as an athlete.
04:13Yes.
04:14You do.
04:14And it's as simple as that.
04:16Yeah.
04:16Unless you're a sloppy kind of, you know, country singer or whatever.
04:21Or you just sing in one key all the time.
04:23Yeah.
04:23And there's quite a few that do that.
04:25And they get away with it.
04:26It's good luck to them.
04:27I would never get away with that.
04:29Right now.
04:30I like to change the key after every song.
04:32Right.
04:34And you say this is possibly your last solo tour and it comes right after, of course.
04:38I think it's possibly my last ever tour.
04:41Yeah.
04:41I mean, it's simple as that at this age.
04:43I want to enjoy a bit of ordinary life.
04:47I do a lot of work with the charities I work for, which are to do with adolescent and young
04:55adult cancer.
04:56Yes.
04:57And we're doing great work there.
04:59And so it's not like I'll be doing nothing.
05:04Yeah.
05:04I should be very busy, but doing other things.
05:07What is one of your favorite songs to sing?
05:10Well, in this show, I love giving it all away, which was my first hit single as a solo artist.
05:17And at the time, it was all by accident.
05:19I had no intention of having a solo career.
05:23I just made a record because I heard a songwriter who was writing incredible songs.
05:29His name was Leo Sayer.
05:31Yeah.
05:32And he was looking for a record deal.
05:34So I said, well, write me a song and I'll record it and see if it gets any interest.
05:37Who wrote it?
05:38And of course, Leo Sayer's career went.
05:42And what a great singer he is.
05:45So giving it all away is possibly my favorite.
05:49There's something about that song.
05:51I don't know whether it's the top line of the melody or the words that connect with people.
05:59Every time I play it, the room kind of goes silent.
06:03It's very weird.
06:04You can almost hear a pin drop.
06:06It's very strange.
06:07Wow.
06:08That's so cool.
06:09What was the process like for you back in the day?
06:12Did you ever think of yourself as an actor kind of playing a role each time you were singing those
06:16songs?
06:17Yeah, I do try and I can't sing a song from the head.
06:21I could never have an autocue on stage because one, I couldn't bloody see it now.
06:28But for me, I can't read a song and sing it.
06:32Never could.
06:34I could never do guide vocals in the studio because I couldn't read the lyrics.
06:39It doesn't come from that part of me.
06:41It has to come from my heart.
06:43It has to come out of the brain into somewhere else.
06:48But if you're reading, it can only be in the brain and only ever stays in the brain.
06:52I haven't got that ability to transpose that immediately.
06:56What about my generation, the stutter?
06:58What's the truth behind the stutter?
06:59Where did it come from?
07:00I did used to stutter quite badly.
07:03And we used to take amphetamine at the time sometimes to stay up,
07:07because we'd been doing two shows in the night time and then in the studio all day.
07:14So the hours of the day were short.
07:16So we made the most of them.
07:19And amphetamines used to make my stutter worse.
07:22So the first time it came in, I came in wrong.
07:27I got it right on the second people.
07:34And we left it in.
07:35And our producer at the time, who was our manager, Kit Lambert, said,
07:40oh, you've got to keep that in.
07:43That's going to sell the record.
07:44And it did.
07:45Amazing.
07:46And you founded The Who.
07:47What drew you to the guys?
07:49What drew them to me?
07:52I didn't get drawn to them.
07:53What drew them to you?
07:55Exactly.
07:55What drew them to you?
07:56Well, Pete and John, both Pete and John were in the same school as me.
08:01But I got kicked out of school at the age of 15.
08:04And, of course, they stayed on to 16, 17.
08:09But I still used to see them on the street because you couldn't hide them.
08:14They were very individual characters.
08:16And I met John walking along the road one day and he had over his shoulder,
08:20he had a homemade base.
08:23Very funny looking base, but he made it himself.
08:28And I said, do you want to come and play with my band to see if you enjoy it?
08:34And he came along and he's obviously a musical genius.
08:40He had a quality about him.
08:42So I thought, well, I found my bass player.
08:45And then after about six weeks with John and me and the band,
08:49I was a sheet metal worker, which is not very conducive to guitar playing.
08:55You come home and your hands are all shredded
08:57and you've got to put these strings on your fingers.
09:00You go, oh, maybe not.
09:02So John said, well, I know a really good guitarist.
09:05Should I bring him along?
09:07And sure enough, he brings Pete Townsend along,
09:10who again I recognized from school because you could never hide Pete Townsend in the crowd.
09:15He was like a nose on a stick, you know.
09:21And Pete came along and he'd been playing banjo in a traditional trad band, you know, jazz band.
09:29And he played guitar like no one else I'd ever heard.
09:33And I thought, I've got this individual bass player.
09:36Now I've got this individual guitarist.
09:38We were on the way to something special here.
09:41Even though we were copying what was in the hit parade at the time.
09:45I thought this is, this is on the way to something special, but we couldn't find a drummer.
09:51And we didn't find a drummer for probably 18 months.
09:55Tried different drummers out.
09:57Had to get rid of the original drummer we had.
10:00And every time you get rid of someone that you've been in a band with, it's painful, you know.
10:05It's never easy.
10:07And we were still all good friends, but it's painful at the time.
10:11But you have to do it to move on.
10:14And then one day we were still looking for drummers.
10:17And it was in, I think it was either late 1963 or very early 1964.
10:25And this little kid turned up and asked to play drums with us.
10:28And he had great big round moon shaped eyes.
10:32And he got on the drums.
10:34And that was Keith Moon.
10:36And everything gelled together.
10:37It was an extraordinary moment.
10:39Did you know right away that this was really something special?
10:42Yeah, it was like someone had put the key in the starter motor of the jet engine.
10:48Off it went.
10:50Amazing.
10:51And he broke the drum kit that he borrowed.
10:55Because he had to sit in on someone else's drum kit.
10:58And he broke their drum pedal.
11:00Oh, no.
11:03When I interview drummers, I always ask who their favourite drummer was.
11:07And Keith Moon, boy, comes up a lot, of course.
11:10Well, he was so original.
11:11I mean, he was unlike any other drummer out there.
11:14And far off from being sloppy.
11:16Yes.
11:16He was ultra, ultra slick.
11:19But he just played different.
11:22I don't know.
11:23He was like a pair of knitting needles.
11:25Knitting with about 10 balls of wool.
11:28And making music, you know.
11:31It was extraordinary.
11:32You all are.
11:33You all are.
11:34But you all seem so different.
11:36Different personalities.
11:38Yeah, we were.
11:39And Keith and I, initially, in the beginning, we didn't used to get on at all.
11:45Because in Keith's mind, the drums should be on the front of the stage.
11:50So I used to tell him to F off.
11:55And put up with drumsticks being thrown at me for the first two years.
11:59What do you think kept it intact for so long, when so many bands imploded?
12:03Well, one, it pays the rent.
12:07It's never been the same since Keith died.
12:10I can't pretend it has.
12:12We were firing on all cylinders.
12:14We could throw anything out there and make something of it.
12:18That kind of disappeared when Keith died.
12:21But we found Zach Starkey.
12:23Yes.
12:24We tried Kenny Jones, who is a great drummer.
12:26But a straight drummer just does not work with the Who.
12:30Yeah.
12:31It just does not work.
12:32What's going on with Starkey?
12:34Zach Starkey, he's not Keith Moon, but he comes very close.
12:38Is there going to be a reunion there?
12:40I don't know.
12:40I don't know whether we'll...
12:42We did a rehearsal recently, and Zach was the drummer.
12:46We love Zach.
12:47We do love Zach.
12:48Sometimes the road doesn't love Zach.
12:51The road?
12:52It gets on top of him.
12:53And so it becomes difficult, but we love him.
12:56And he was drumming at the rehearsal, and we did the rehearsal to see if we can possibly
13:02do shows next year, still hit the notes, still get the drive.
13:07Who music demands an incredible amount of drive?
13:11And without that, it would be, you know, Herman's Hermits without Herman.
13:17Good analogy.
13:18You guys, well, not you, more Keith and Pete, legendary for destroying instruments.
13:24What did you think of that?
13:26At the time, it was like a kid writing, spraying his name in graffiti on a wall.
13:32Yeah.
13:33I'm here.
13:34And that's what it did.
13:36You know, it made people sit up and notice.
13:39It became very expensive, and we didn't make any money for a very, very long time.
13:47I mean, years.
13:48And the first guitar that was broken, that was for me, as someone who used to make the
13:54first guitars that the band used to play.
13:56Did you?
13:57Yes.
13:59Well, we were post-war England.
14:01You know, you've got to remember, this wasn't America.
14:05We couldn't go and just go out and buy a guitar.
14:08You could buy a house for the same amount of money.
14:13So, to see that first guitar smash was extremely painful to me.
14:18But it did pay the rent in the end.
14:20It sure did.
14:22Wow.
14:23When you look back on your long career, what are some of your favorite memories?
14:27Going home.
14:29No, no.
14:30Did you always know you wanted to sing?
14:33All I ever wanted to be was a good singer.
14:35I used to sing in a church choir, and I could have been an opera singer, but I didn't.
14:41I like opera.
14:42I like listening to the melodies and the orchestras, the orchestral parts.
14:48And I like the singing.
14:50But then, I've been to a lot of grand operas, and I've looked at the lyrics.
14:54And they are, they leave a lot to be desired.
14:58Yeah, you had the best.
15:00You're spoiled now.
15:01Did you have any formal training?
15:03No, no, no, no.
15:04Oh, my God.
15:05No, I think you have to be, I think, I don't know.
15:08I know it's an opera thing, and they love it.
15:11But I've heard really good singers go into the meat grinder, and the formality kind of knocks out their characters.
15:21I don't know.
15:23That's what happens to my, that's how it sounds to my ears.
15:26Yeah, that makes sense.
15:28Who were your influences growing up?
15:30Oh, you name it.
15:32Right from Hank Williams onwards.
15:34You know, he was the first guy I heard.
15:37My uncle used to play Hank Williams records, and I said, this is good.
15:41This is good.
15:42And then, obviously, it was Little Richard and Elvis and Chuck Berry and then the blues.
15:48Del Shannon, all those people.
15:50We were expected to play all those hit songs that those guys had in the clubs and the pubs every
15:58time we played.
16:00So, you learned a lot.
16:02And what about Tommy?
16:03I have to ask you about that.
16:04What's a favorite memory you have of working on that movie?
16:07Ann-Margaret, Elton John?
16:09Ann-Margaret was very difficult.
16:11It was very difficult to pretend that Ann, beautiful Ann, was my mother.
16:17That was a bit of a stretch.
16:23But that was great fun to make, and working with Ken Russell was a dream.
16:27Yes.
16:28It was so inventive.
16:30Oh.
16:30Ann Elton was so gracious on that film.
16:33What a star he is.
16:35Yeah.
16:35Oh, so many legends, including yourself.
16:38I still watch it sometimes, and I get goosebumps watching that movie.
16:41It's a mad film.
16:43No, it was.
16:44It was.
16:44I mean, we used to start the day and think, what are we going to do today?
16:47And we just used to make it up as we went along.
16:49It was good.
16:50Like the piece where, what is it, come to this house.
16:55And we'd turn up outside this house.
16:57It was a very normal-looking house.
16:58And Ken would say, what could we do different?
17:02He said, do you think you could go and sit up on the chimney?
17:06Oh, jeez.
17:08I used to climb up the drain pipe and get on the roof and climb on the chimney.
17:13Oh, my God.
17:14What about pinball?
17:16Did you know how to play?
17:17No, I was the worst pinball player in the world.
17:20I mean, I really, it used to go up and come down and straight down the hole.
17:25The wrong hole.
17:28Did you ever learn how to play?
17:30No.
17:31No, no.
17:32I'm seriously the worst pinball player.
17:35I don't know.
17:36The pinball, as soon as I get on it, it's almost like it freezes.
17:41Something happens.
17:42I don't know.
17:45Well, you're a good actor.
17:49What's something your current self would tell your younger self?
17:52Oh, I don't know.
17:54Never give advice.
17:58You're always going to be wrong.
18:00And I have to ask, is it true that Jimi Hendrix wrote Foxy Lady about your wife, Heather?
18:05Yes.
18:06Jimi was trying to take Heather home the same night as I took Heather home.
18:11So she became Foxy because he didn't get her.
18:16I love that.
18:17And I've been with her for 55 years now, and I'm starting to like her, you know?
18:22I'm starting to.
18:23I love it.
18:23What do you attribute it to?
18:25What's your secret for sustaining that long?
18:27I don't know.
18:28The rock star life.
18:30Well, she must.
18:31No.
18:33We're soulmates.
18:34She's an amazing woman.
18:35She's an amazing woman.
18:37And we've got a wonderful family.
18:39And we've got a wonderful family.
18:40And I've been very lucky.
18:41I, you know, we've had our ups and downs like everybody else has in, in life.
18:46But, you know, you have to work out what's really important in the end.
18:50And when you're really in love and you really connect, you know, it's there.
18:55You can't cheat it.
18:57That's not to say other things don't pop up that, you know, make it difficult at times,
19:03but you get, you work through them and you hang on to what you know is valuable.
19:08What does music do for people?
19:10It's one of the last great freedoms we have now being taken over by AI, which is kind
19:16of scary.
19:17I know.
19:17I know.
19:18It's really.
19:20Woo.
19:21But there again, it also leaves the opportunity for non-AI music to be even more popular than
19:29it has been.
19:30How so?
19:31How do we fight it?
19:32I don't think you can fight it.
19:34You just have to, just have to, you have to make sure it's copyrighted properly.
19:39Yes.
19:39And copyright is a big issue.
19:40Yes.
19:41Because, you know, my voice is a copyright to me.
19:44The fact that they can now copy my voice and make it say anything they like is kind of
19:49scary.
19:49It sure is.
19:51Understatement.
19:52I don't know if they could ever copy yours, so we don't have to worry about that.
19:56Well, they can.
19:57I mean, I'm sorry, but they can, you know, that's the trouble.
20:00Do you have any favorite singers of today that you like?
20:03Most of them are old singers from the past.
20:06Me too.
20:07I mean, losing Dolly was losing an extraordinary voice.
20:11Her voice was just something else, wasn't it?
20:14Yes.
20:15There was so much joy in her voice.
20:17Yes.
20:17Even when she sang the saddest song, there was a kind of, I don't know, something special
20:22going on there.
20:23Yeah.
20:24Yeah.
20:24Like yours.
20:25Well, I hope it's there.
20:26I mean, I don't hear it, but I try to touch people with the words, make the words move
20:32people.
20:33That's all I care about.
20:34Music should move people.
20:36Otherwise it's soulless.
20:37And that's what I'm trying to do with Rockin' in the Free World.
20:41When you hear the way I sing it, it's so different than the way Neil sings it.
20:45But I think now it's a rock song.
20:48Does he know you're doing it?
20:50I don't know.
20:51I don't care.
20:52It's cool.
20:54How'd you come up with throwing your mic up like that in the air?
20:57From being bored and everybody else jumping around and doing something.
21:00I felt like a spare prick at a wedding.
21:03Sorry.
21:04Excuse me.
21:06You're good.
21:08So I had to do something.
21:10So I started twirling it and the twirls got bigger and I got very good.
21:18But the trouble is today, I twirl it out and I can't see where it's gone.
21:24So it leads to some funny moments and it can be very dangerous.
21:29And Simon, Pete Townsend's brother, Simon's on guitar with you?
21:34Yep.
21:34I thought that was neat.
21:35He's been my right hand man for many, many years.
21:38Wow.
21:39That's cool.
21:40Yeah.
21:40You can't get enough of those Townsends.
21:42No.
21:43He's been my right hand man for 40 years.
21:46Wow.
21:47That's cool.
21:48What is your best life advice?
21:50My best life advice?
21:52I don't think about things like that.
21:54I mean, live every day as though it's your last.
21:59That's a good one.
22:00Because one day it will be.
22:01Yeah.
22:02That's right.
22:03What's the first record you ever bought?
22:06The first record I ever bought, actually paid for, was a Howling Wolf record.
22:11Oh, cool.
22:12I love it.
22:13I had a lot given to me, but that was the first one.
22:16What's your favorite comfort food?
22:18Comfort food?
22:19I'm not a foodie.
22:20No?
22:21No.
22:22It's one of those things that has to be done.
22:24A bit like going to the bathroom.
22:27That's how you maintain your shape.
22:30What's something you want to do you haven't done yet?
22:33I would like to go to Antarctica, but I don't think I'll ever make it.
22:38I'm not a good sailor.
22:42I've heard that they can get some rather rough weather down there and the cruises that go
22:47there aren't very big.
22:49And I'm not very good with seasickness.
22:53Yes.
22:54But I would just love to see.
22:56I love looking at landscape.
22:59I'd like to go to Patagonia and I might do that one.
23:02Oh, it sounds good.
23:03What's the best thing you've seen so far in your travels, your favorite place?
23:08My favorite place.
23:09I still love the deserts.
23:10I love the canyons.
23:12I love the Andes when I first saw the Andes in Chile.
23:17Like I said, I'd like to go further down to Patagonia, but we didn't have time when we went.
23:22But I might go down there later on this year.
23:25I don't know.
23:26Oh, I love it.
23:27I hope you make it.
23:28You're such a beautiful person.
23:30Thank you so much for your many, many gifts, Roger.
23:34Well, thank you for the support.
23:35You know, you've got to remember this.
23:37None of us do anything without the support of our fans.
23:40And I've always been eternally grateful for the support that the Who fans have given us.
23:46It's been amazing.
23:47It really has been incredible.
23:49Well, you've given us so many gifts.
23:52So thank you.
23:53All the best to you.
23:54Thank you so much, Roger.
23:55All right.
23:56All the best.
23:56All the best.
23:56The rest of your tour.
23:57Bye!
23:57Bye!
23:58Bye!
23:59Bye!