The Who’s Roger Daltrey at 80: “I have to be realistic. I’m on my way out”

nme.com:

The Who’s Roger Daltrey has reflected on recently turning 80, saying that “he has to be realistic” and that he is “on the way out”.

Writing in a “backstage diary” for The Times, the iconic singer expressed his desire to slow down, after recently wrapping up his last year as the active curator of the Teenage Cancer Trust series of shows. “I have to be realistic,” he wrote. “I’m on my way out.

The average life expectancy is 83 and with a bit of luck I’ll make that, but we need someone else to drive things.” “I’m not leaving TCT – I’ve been a patron since I first met the charity’s founders, Dr Adrian and Myrna Whiteson, more than 30 years ago – and that will continue, but I’ll be working in the back room, talking to the government, rattling cages.” He also opened up about feeling nerves ahead of his recent shows: “We haven’t done anything for seven months and this winter’s been brutal.

I’ve been in hibernation. For the whole of January, I lost my voice completely.” “I live like a monk and if I went on tour for a week I’d be fit as a butcher’s dog again, but tonight, for the first time in my career, I think, ‘Blimey, this is hard.’” It comes after Daltrey recently announced a new “semi-acoustic” solo tour of North America, which will take place across nine dates in June.