If Pete Townshend is the “brains” behind the music of The Who, then singer Roger Daltrey is certainly the “heart.” The microphone-twirling singer with larger-than-life pipes is one of the greatest singers that rock and roll has ever produced, delivering Townshend’s high-concept songs with equal parts power and beauty. I was able to catch up with Daltrey over the phone ahead of the band’s stop of the “Moving On” tour at Madison Square Garden. We spoke about touring with an orchestra, putting himself into the character of Townshend’s songs, and new music from the legendary band.
“I can’t sing a song from the head. I have to sing from the heart,” – Roger Daltrey
Roger Daltrey. Photo: Getty Images
How has touring with an orchestra been on the “Moving On” tour?
Roger Daltrey: Amazing. Challenging to start with because it was a big learning curve for Pete. I’ve had a lot of experience working with orchestras. Pete’s had a bit with them, but not with a whole rock band as well. It was a big challenge for him and he had a big hill to climb but he’s done it and it’s working out amazingly well. And he’s really enjoying it! I actually had an email from him yesterday that said he’s “looking forward to going back out on tour,” which is an amazing statement from Pete Townshend!
In my talk with Pete, he said that he leaves creating the setlists to you because your voice is your “instrument.” How has working with the orchestra shaped your setlists on this tour?
Roger Daltrey: Well, I don’t think about it too much. People are going to want to hear the familiar songs and they’re also going to want to hear a few of the obscure pieces we haven’t done in a long time. But the thing about this tour is that it’s a completely different musical experience than seeing The Who ever before. It’s as though our music should have always been classical, which is really weird. Even though it’s heavy rock, the orchestrations in this thing just enhance Pete’s writing quality. It makes it like you are hearing the music, like it’s brand-new for the very first time. The setlist is, in some ways, the least important part of the evening. You’re hearing these songs with all of these different sounds in them. … It does something to the body that only music with an orchestra can do. It’s really incredible. It’s worked. The audiences are really going away happy with this one. But where else could we have gone? We’ve done all of our big albums, and we’ve done our hits. There was really nowhere else to go but to present ourselves with a challenge to rise to. The orchestra really gave us that platform.
You have said that this new album is the band’s best work since “Quadrophenia.” What can you tell us about the new material? Has the enthusiasm for this new album carried over to the stage?
Roger Daltrey: I’ve never had enthusiasm for the studio [laughs]! I love the stage, that’s my main [love]. Pete’s the one who is in love with the studio. Who albums for me — especially that the band is now a duo of just Pete and myself — it’s a really weird experience. We’ve gone down the Elton John road; two rooms [laughs]. He presented these songs to me that would have made a fantastic Pete Townshend solo album. That’s what I said to him. I had to find my way into these songs and I wasn’t sure that I could do it. After a lot of listening and juggling about — I always juggle his topline melodies — he gave me permission to change lyrics and change the tense of songs to make them work. Of course, you had to add a few ad-libs and things like that onto them. It’s become an incredible Who album, I do have to say. I was very skeptical to start with.
Have there been songs over the years that Pete has chosen to sing lead on that you wished you could have sung?
Roger Daltrey: Yes. He’s written songs for me in the past I hadn’t sung. I can’t sing a song from the head. I have to sing from the heart. It’s almost an acting job for me, as the singer. I have to be in the character who’s living those words. It’s a strange space. Of course, I’m working with someone else’s material. When you get songs at the quality of Townshend’s writing … I can write songs but they’re not at that quality. When you do that, it presents you with a challenge and of course you want to rise to it and deliver as best you can. I’m proud to say, what I’ve added to this album has made it a fantastic Who album. Whereas before, it was a fantastic Pete Townshend solo album.
The current “Moving On” tour has been getting rave reviews from both critics and fans alike. People, including Pete, have been saying that your voice is maybe the strongest it has ever been. How do you keep your voice in such great shape?
Roger Daltrey: I take care of it. Every day is a different day. I take care of it and I work a lot because singers have to work. If I had any real length of time off now, my voice would be gone in six months. That’s for sure. I have to use it and stretch it and make it work for me all the time. It’s like a car: You have to service it regularly.
Lately, the band has been playing a lot of songs from “Quadrophenia” and “Tommy” on the road. What draws you to revisit those albums and what makes them still so emotionally powerful onstage all of these years later?
Roger Daltrey: It can only come from “the performance.” My approach to that is every night I go out there, even if I’ve sung a song a thousand times, in that moment when I sing “Love Reign O’er Me” or any of those songs, I’m doing it for the first time. I’m giving it my all. I’m giving it everything I’ve got, at that moment in time. Which is exactly how it was when I first did it.
The Who is responsible for so many songs that have stood the test of time and have resonated on such a universal level. Why do you think the themes of these songs have remained so powerful over the years?
Roger Daltrey: It’s the quality of the writing. We got lucky by accident. Who would have thought that “The Who by Numbers,” we were 30 years old when we did that album, but it’s one of my favorite albums now! It’s an album that is dealing with the awareness of the middle-aged syndrome creeping up on you [laughs]. We were 30 years old! F—ing hell! Now we’re here at 75 and it seems like, what were we worried about? It’s amazing for it to happen by accident. I’ve chosen the songs to play from that album and he [Pete] was really shocked by the ones I had chosen. I had chosen them for all of the reasons that they had touched on the things that men had to go through at that age. That middle-aged angst starts to creep in and every song on that album is kind of perfect. But at the time, people were going, “What the f—k is this?”
Is there any way that the band will sneak in a few songs from the new record on the road?
Roger Daltrey: We’re going to do a couple. But the one limitation with working with an orchestra is that it’s much more difficult to change the setlist. You have to change the whole music of the whole orchestra. You can’t juggle it up, it doesn’t work like that. They play to the dots [laughs].
Make sure to go see The Who at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, September 1.
