Roger Daltrey ends 'Won't Get Fooled Again' with scream: 'I've had enough'

Connecting via Zoom from across the pond, Roger Daltrey happily declares, “I'm really looking forward to a tour! I'm out there to have a good time this time.”

Daltrey doesn't want to make any mistakes on his many tours with The Who, mind you — most recently the symphonic tours that began with Pete Townshend in 2019. But his upcoming nine-date North American run, which kicks off June 12 in Vienna . Va., is something else entirely, described as “a mostly acoustic set of Who gems, rarities, solo nuggets and other surprises,” along with Q&A opportunities for the audience.

“I've done all these years with The Who, and I've done my solos and charity gigs and all that,” Daltrey says. Advertising sign. “I just want to branch out and do something different where I have different instruments and I can stop using tape loops. It just creates a whole new sound and gives me the freedom as a singer to put in some other people's songs that I've loved over the years. It will be quite interesting. I'm just determined to enjoy myself and explore the freedom I have to do what I want to do on this tour and see where it goes.”

But don't ask what those songs will be.

“I'm not going to talk about songs,” says Daltrey. “A lot of people reveal songs. There are no surprises with concerts these days, because everyone wants to see the setlist. I'm sick of it. The internet has ruined my live shows. Who wants to know what's next? People forget about surprises. I can not stand it.”

Perhaps, it is suggested, it is just a public with a weak bladder who wants to pick the right spot to visit the toilet? “Then why don't you start listening to the bloody toilet show?” he says laughing.

One song Daltrey is waiting to perform is The Who's “Won't Get Fooled Again,” but, he adds, “We don't use tape for the instrumentation. We do it on real instruments. It just takes it off the rails and gives me more That said, Daltrey notes, “I'm not going to scream. I've been screaming for 55 years. I don't even want to try it now. It's brutal on the vocal chords, and I'll do everything else. At 80, I deserve to be.”

Daltrey's band for the tour includes Who musicians Simon Townshend (Pete's younger brother) on guitar, violinist Katie Jacoby and Billy Nicholls on mandolin and vocals, rounded out by Jody Linscott on percussion, guitarist Doug Boyle , bassist John Steve West, harmonica. Geraint Watkins on keyboards and accordion and drummer Scott Devours. “I like putting bands together where we're a real band and everyone gets the spotlight and there's camaraderie,” says Daltrey. “For me a band is more than a selection of great musicians. you can sometimes have five great musicians on stage and there's no chemistry at all and it falls on its face. That won't happen here.”

As for the Q&A portion of the evening, Daltrey did something similar for a show in England in 2022 and enjoyed it. Fans will be able to submit written questions in boxes in the venues before the show, then the band will go through them backstage and pick “the most interesting ones…and I'll pull them out of a hat. It makes for a lot of fun and you can get a good comedy if you're lucky.”

The tour, meanwhile, is just one of the projects Daltrey has on the go these days. He has no plans yet to record another solo album – his last, As long as I have you out in 2018 — but it's not out of the question. “I don't really think about it,” he says. “If something comes along that I find interesting and challenging and musically progressive, I'll do it.” Meanwhile, he continues to work on a biopic about the late Who drummer Keith Moon, which he has been attached to for many years. Daltrey has a script ready that will be finalized once he finds a director, which is the next step in the process.

“This took me a long time. I want to make it while I'm still alive to promote it,” he says. “I try not to do that (typical) kind of biopic. There are some good ones out there. I thought Amy Winehouse (Back to black) was better than the reviews it got. I thought (star Marisa Abela) was really good, actually, because I knew Amy. But was it a movie? I'm not so sure. I think it's a TV movie, and that's the problem cinema has right now. What are you making it for — streaming or theaters? And I suggest that if you make great movies, you should consider theater. You have to take them to the theater and blow their minds. You never get carried away on TV, do you?'

Daltrey is also considering a second book to follow his memoir in 2018 Thank you very much Mr. Kibblewhite: My Story, which would delve further into the shyness and insecurities he felt in the early days of The Who. “I didn't really go deep enough in my first book,” he says. “A lot of it was scary, but I didn't show it. I have to write about it.' The Who itself, meanwhile, is back on Daltrey's mind, who claims “I don't really think about it.”

“I'll do it if Pete wants to do it, he really wants to do it and do it right,” Daltrey explains. “As far as I'm concerned, do we need another Who tour? We were a great team and two of our members died, and it's been different ever since. Likewise, there is a chemistry between Pete and me. I love him very much. There is something special there, but it takes both of us burning and wanting to be there. So if he really, really wants to do it, I'll even show up with a broken leg and deliver it to you.”

But if The Who never return, Daltrey says he's satisfied the band did their bit – and then some. “We did everything I could have wished for, and more. I thought it ended with the ultimate presentation of Pete Townshend's music, which is out with the orchestra while retaining the thunder of a rock band. That's what the music was worth.”

Daltrey's upcoming tour includes:
June 12 / Wolf Trap – Filene Center / Vienna, VA
June 14 / OLG Stage at Fallsview Casino / Niagara Falls, ON
June 16 / Bethel Woods Center for the Arts / Bethel, NY
June 18 / The Capitol Theater / Port Chester, NY
June 20 / Leader Bank Pavilion / Boston, MA
June 22 / Tanglewood – The Koussevitzky Music Shed / Lenox, MA
June 25 / Meadow Brook Amphitheater / Detroit, MI
June 27 / Murat Theater at Old National Center / Indianapolis, IN
June 29 / The Pavilion at Ravinia / Highland Park, IL