The Who: Q&A with Roger Daltrey

The Who’s legendary frontman Roger Daltry talks about performing in Abu Dhabi, the delicate relationship with guitarist Pete Townshend and his most memorable live experience.

Roger Daltrey of The Who performs at 12-12-12, a concert benefiting The Robin Hood Relief Fund to aid the victims of Hurricane Sandy presented by Clear Channel Media & Entertainment, The Madison SquarShow more

The Who’s legendary frontman Roger Daltrey talks about performing in Abu Dhabi, the delicate relationship with guitarist Pete Townshend and his most memorable live experience.

Isn’t it amazing that 50 years into your career, you can still find things to do for the first time, such as making your Middle East debut in Abu Dhabi on Sunday at the Formula One After-Race Concert?

It is absolutely wonderful. We do have a certain amount of regrets and there are some places that we should have toured a long time ago. The reason was that Pete [the guitarist Pete Townshend] was never keen on touring. But now that the sands of time are ticking, he is more keen to tour than ever.

We are looking at new territories to play. For example, The Who have never been to South America or China. We went to Australia in 1967 and we came back in 2005. We never went to Japan until 2007. I mean, it’s crazy that we didn’t see more of these places. And here we are now coming to Abu Dhabi and we are looking forward to it.

Your last world tour had you performing the classic 1973 album Quadrophenia in full. How does it feel to hit the road again with 50 years’ worth of songs to choose from?

It is quite different. The Quadrophenia tour was very musical and theatrical. This tour is much more fun and everyone will have a good time. Sure, there is nostalgia in there but most musical events are about nostalgia. People see bands that only came out five years ago and they still want to hear the hit that got them started. There is nothing wrong with having good memories. This show is more free, fun and we can have a joke and chat to the audience. With the Quadrophenia tour, we didn’t speak to the audience at all for an hour and a half.

Speaking of memories, I read that you have detailed recollections of nearly every concert The Who performed.

That’s really strange. If anyone can give me a name of a show I can immediately recollect it. I think it is down to it being the one part of my life that I have been totally focused on. The other moments, between shows, I just can’t remember. I mean they are totally missing from my memory and that is kind of worrying.

That raises the question, what has been your most memorable moment on stage?

There was one night where I was doing a show in South Carolina. I wasn’t feeling very well, I had a burning fever and that night was very humid. We were doing a three-hour show. There was a point where I was going to totally collapse and I just felt someone holding me up. I didn’t know what it was or who it was, it just felt like there was someone standing beside me. I looked around to thank the person and there was nobody there. Then, later in the show when I came around a bit and I had some fluids, I remember looking down at the floor and I saw this giant praying mantis looking at me. I will never forget that night – someone held me up that wasn’t there, and a praying mantis enjoying a Who show.

When The Who have long breaks you are always working on other projects, whether it is music, film or theatre. Where does your work ethic come from?

When you come from a poor background and you want something so bad, it is very hard to hold people back from their dreams. For me, it goes back to before the band. I was a bright kid but I was never comfortable at school. I went to this academic school and I was eventually kicked out, and as I was leaving, I remember the headmaster looking at me and said: “You will never make anything of your life” – and I turned around and said: “Oh, yeah, I will show you.” Looking back, I really have to thank him for that. I always had a good work ethic. But I don’t know what drove me to do what I did. I don’t know what drove Pete to write those songs or what made the chemistry the four of us in the band had to make the music we made. It seems to me there is a bigger hand at work and I think it is more than a coincidence.

Does everything with The Who rest on your relationship with Pete Townshend?

There is definitely a balance. Pete is a head man and I am heart man. I am a glass-half-full person. I am always positive about moving on and letting go. Pete has a lot of turbulent and emotional things going on within and he manages to put them to paper and write those songs. I have to then take what Pete is thinking in his head and transmit that to people’s hearts. That is the symbiosis that we are lucky to have found.

Listening to those vintage rock bands from the 1960s and 1970s, I always found The Who’s music to be the most emotionally resonant of the lot. Would you agree with that?

A friend said this profound thing about The Who recently. He said all the bands from that era are great. I agree with him because for me The Rolling Stones are the best rock ’n’ roll band out there. The difference, my friend said, between The Who and all these other great bands out there is that they play at you and The Who play to you. There is a lot of sense in that, because it comes down to the words. Pete has a way of capturing the words and feelings that most of us couldn’t express.

Finally, Abu Dhabi is the first show of what might be your last tour. Are there still nerves on opening night?

Not really. I wouldn’t say it was nerves. The best way to put it is that it is like a trip to the dentist. You go to enjoy the gas.

• The Who perform at du Arena on Sunday. Doors open at 7pm. A two-day race-day pass that includes entry to the show (and the Pharrell Williams concert on Saturday night) begins from Dh1,785 from www.yasmarinacircuit.com