Roger Daltrey, front man for The Who, has conceded that like his founding band member Pete Townshend, he’s losing his hearing. That’s not to mention the other health issues he’s suffering from which the rigours of touring are exacerbating. He says “I was having terrible trouble hearing what I was singing and it did get to me. In fact, I’ve been suffering for quite a few of the previous tours. I never understood that if you sweat as much as I used to every night, you drain your body of salts.”
Poor ‘ol Roger has had a number of health scares lately, with a cancer scare leading to pre-cancerous growths being removed from his vocal cords, as well as being “almost hospitalised” after a previous tour. He’s not the only one suffering – Pete Townshend barely has any hearing left. Daltrey confirmed “Pete [Townshend] is having terrible hearing problems at the moment,” adding “There’s nobody I’d rather be on stage with than Pete. But equally, I don’t want to be on stage with him destroying the last bit of his hearing. That would be completely foolish. He’s a composer.”
However, the 67 year old isn’t ready to throw in the towel – yet. In fact, here’s the hook – we can no doubt expect a tour announcement somewhere in the world for the band soon, because supposedly his voice is better than ever. “We’re in the last bits of our career,” he says. “I feel that we owe it to the public that supported us all these years to go down with us. I had a real scare with my voice a couple of years ago, but now I’m singing better than ever. And it made me just want to use it till the day I can’t.”
