Photo: AFP
The Who have no plans for a farewell tour, but guitarist Pete Townshend is certain that the band will hit the road again by next year at the latest.
Speaking with Q104.3 New York's Jim Kerr Rock and Roll Morning Show on Wednesday, Townshend explained that while there are many decisions to be made, he and frontman Roger Daltrey fully intend to work out the details of a tour at some point this year.
"We certainly will [tour], I don't know when," Townshend explained. "Maybe later this year in '24, maybe early '25, but we will definitely be back."
He acknowledged that there has been some confusion about whether he and Daltrey actually want to tour again with The Who. Townshend reportedly declined an offer for a Who tour this year, but he tells Q104.3 that was only because his schedule was too busy with other projects, including the revival of The Who's Tommy musical on Broadway.
"Roger is out doing a few shows at the moment," Townshend noted. "We were offered a tour as a final tour by Live Nation in August and I turned it down. But I didn't turn it down because they wanted it to be marked up as a 'final tour.' I turned it down because I'm involved in Tommy, I have some other projects that I'm working on, and my year is really busy so I turned it down. But there will be a tour soon, without question."
Townshend said that a longstanding source of dissonance is that he and Daltrey have fundamentally different relationships with performing live. Townshend admitted that his own ambivalence for playing live is unusual for someone in his position (as a legendary rock star), and abnormal to many of his peers, including Daltrey.
"My feeling about performing is very different to [Roger's], but very different to pretty much everybody that I know," the guitarist admitted. "I don't get much out of it. I don't enjoy it that much. I'm not a natural-born performer, but when I look at myself on the stage after I've got an adrenaline rush, I have always managed to pull off some amazing stuff. But it's never really fulfilled me in the same way that sitting in a studio does and writing a song, writing music or even writing words, lyrics.
"For me, there's no drive to perform, no anxiety to get in front of an audience and be validated," he continued. "I get that from people responding to my work as a writer and a composer and a recording artist. Some people just love being in front of an audience, and Roger is one of those people. He comes alive, you know. ... He fronts the band in the most incredible way. I'm a little bit blasé."
Go here for tickets and more information about The Who's Tommy on Broadway.