‘So it’s easy to see why musicians would go for a bit of Dutch courage here, a bit of something else there. ‘You are completely naked up there and you will be judged. ‘I don’t think anyone who hasn’t done this job can understand how hard it is particularly with nerves,’ he says.
He says he only became angry with his bandmates when it started to affect their performances. He was famously thrown out of the band for a week for physically attacking Moon, who was providing drugs for the others. He told me to never touch chemicals and I believed him because he was the man.’ ‘I also got warned off chemicals very early on by the man who made Purple Haze. But I was in a band with three alcoholics and someone had to be straight. ‘I wasn’t a goody-goody I dabbled in the natural,’ says Roger. He was the only one in the band not to touch the heavy stuff. He has lost his two other bandmates, Keith Moon and John Entwistle to drugs. But when he is creative, some of the music he makes is incredible and we’ve been together for 50 years we’re like brothers.’ ‘He’s incredibly complex bordering on madness. ‘If I was Mick I would just say, “Yeah, I’ve got a small ****, who cares? I’ve done all right with it!”’ cackles Roger. We talk about how the two Rolling Stones have fallen out over Richards’ book in particular the claims that Mick is not well endowed. They are as infamous for their rows as Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and Roger says they still fight like ‘cat and dog it’s creative differences’. The pair have been together for 50 years since meeting at Acton County Grammar School in West London.
I don’t want to do a tour and have him end up completely deaf.’ ‘He deafened himself in the recording studio, and when we last performed he had to stand right next to the speakers to hear anything. ‘Pete is almost stone deaf,’ he says sadly. Still going strong: But Daltrey admits he does not know when he and Who bandmate Pete Townshend will perform together again And he admits he does not know when they will perform together again. It’s the first time he has done the show without main songwriter and other surviving bandmate Pete Townshend. I enjoy singing being in touch with something that is inside of me.’īut as he tours the country with his Tommy Reborn show, 40 years after he first sang its lyrics, and then moves on to America where The Who have an even bigger following, he is his band’s sole emissary. Rock musicians have never been this age before and so we are in the land of the unknown really. ‘If I stopped for even a year my voice would slowly deteriorate until it’s not there at all. ‘I have deliberately kept singing because I have to at my age,’ he says.
But instead of leading the singer gently into retirement (with a fortune estimated to be £32 million he hardly needs the money) he’s working harder than ever. His throat still has to be checked twice a year and it could ‘go pop’ at any time. ‘I got lucky - I found probably the best throat guy in the world and he got me back to a voice that is probably better now that it has been for years.’ ‘I was finding it difficult to sing, the notes were becoming more difficult and taking up more energy. ‘That was a bit of a scare because I didn’t know what it was,’ he recalls. Last year Roger had emergency surgery after doctors found a pre-cancerous growth behind his vocal chords.
‘Building work and guitar playing don’t mix’ he laughs. He has just finished decorating his house, which is why he is exercising his fingers with a tightly rolled up handkerchief. ‘You can’t do it unless you have incredible stamina.’ ‘You have to keep fit being a singer - that’s part of the job,’ he says.
#Roger daltrey daltrey full#
Physically, Roger is in incredible shape with a full head of hair and a physique you wouldn’t mess with. Yes, I’m a grandfather, but in some ways I feel the same as when I was younger.’ ‘Every day, I visit a mate of mine who is 85 he’s old in years but has the brain of a teenager. Rock idol: Daltrey, pictured here in his younger days, is still outspoken and opinionated
0 kommentar(er)
