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In an interview with Esquire, 80-year-old guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend spoke about life on the road with Roger Daltrey in the new 17-date North American tour. “It can be lonely,” Townshend said. “I’ve thought, ‘Well, this is my job, I’m happy to have the work, but I prefer to be doing something else.’ Then, I think, ‘Well, I’m 80 years old. Why shouldn’t I revel in it? Why shouldn’t I celebrate?” When he appeared at the Teenage Cancer Trust event in London with Townshend at the start of this year, Daltrey was straightforward.

Daltrey will be 80 years old in May, and those touring years, he recalled in the interview with The Times, were the most physically and mentally taxing, even by the rigors of a rock and roll lifestyle. “In the days when I was singing Who songs for three hours a night, six nights a week, I was working harder than most footballers,” Daltrey said. “Now I’ve reached the grand old age of 80, it gets pretty grueling.”

Touring still provides opportunities to reflect on priorities and survival. “It does whet an appetite to think about how we should bow out in our personal lives, what we do with our families and our friends and everything else at this age,” Townshend continued. “We’re lucky to be alive. I’m looking forward to playing. Roger likes to throw wild cards out sometimes in the set, and we have learned and rehearsed a few songs that we don’t always play.”

For a band that has been together for almost 60 years, Townshend said, life on tour with Daltrey can be a lonely road. “It’s a brand rather than a band,” he explained. “Roger and I have a duty to the music and the history. We have a duty to the families who’ve lost John [Entwistle] and Keith [Moon] and to the Moon and Entwistle families, who have become millionaires because The Who still sells records. There’s also something more, really: the art, the creative work, is when we perform it. We’re celebrating. We’re a Who tribute band.”

The Who fans certainly want to celebrate, but Daltrey also expressed exhaustion as well as gratitude. In his chat with The Times earlier this month, he also addressed the question of retirement and hinted that the current tour may be the last. “This is certainly the last time you will see us on tour,” he told The Times. “It’s grueling.”

When he appeared at the Teenage Cancer Trust event in London with Townshend at the start of this year, Daltrey was straightforward. “Fortunately, I still have my voice, because then I’ll have a full Tommy,” he said to the audience, speaking of the title character in The Who’s seminal rock opera Tommy, first released in 1969. “Deaf, dum,b and blind kid.” He quipped, quoting the song.

Daltrey will be 80 years old in May, and those touring years, he recalled in the interview with The Times, were the most physically and mentally taxing, even by the rigors of a rock and roll lifestyle. “In the days when I was singing Who songs for three hours a night, six nights a week, I was working harder than most footballers,” Daltrey said. “Now I’ve reached the grand old age of 80, it gets pretty grueling.”

When asked if the band would play concerts in the future, Daltrey said he was not sure. “As to whether we’ll play [one-off] concerts again, I don’t know. The Who to me is very perplexing,” he said.

Despite the uncertainty over the future, he is confident in his current vocal range. “My voice is still as good as ever,” he said, as quoted in The Times.