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Roger Daltrey is unsure The Who will ever return to the U.S. to perform.
The frontman has openly wondered in recent years about the longevity of his voice, but he added in a new interview with USA Today that other factors — beyond health — play into his thinking.
The Who are preparing to tour the U.K. and Europe with their 'The Who Hits Back' tour this year. The same tour made its way around the States last year.
Daltrey said he'd love to bring the band's orchestra-backed Quadrophenia show to the U.S., but that seems like a long shot at the moment, and there are currently no plans to organize it.
"I don't know if we'll ever come back to tour America," he said. "There's only one tour we could do, an orchestrated Quadrophenia to round out the catalog. But that's one tall order to sing that piece of music, as I'll be 80 next year. I never say never, but at the moment it's very doubtful."
He continued, echoing concerns his longtime partner guitarist Pete Townshed detailed in a 2021 interview: the live touring business has changed dramatically since the COVID pandemic shut it down.
"We cannot get insured, and most of the big bands doing arena shows, by the time they do their first show and rehearsals and get the staging and crew together, all the buses and hotels, you're upwards of $600,000 to a million in the hole," Daltrey said. "To earn that back, if you're doing a 12-show run, you don't start to earn it back until the seventh or eighth show. That's just how the business works. The trouble now is if you get COVID after the first show, you've [lost] all that money."
Back in 2019, Daltrey estimated that "within the next five years" his singing voice would leave him for good. Later that same year — after The Who performed the concert that became their latest live album, The Who With Orchestra Live at Wembley — Daltrey underwent vocal surgery.
This past February, Daltrey pulled the plug on a solo show in Florida because he worried he was close to damaging his voice again.