While Pete Townshend says The Who will tour again, he tells NME the band has been dead for 22 years.
“I think it’s been over for a long time," says Townshend. "The Who machine died when [bassist] John Entwhistle died [on June 27th, 2002], because we were hanging on by a thread in a sense.
"John had already left the building in the way that [drummer] Keith [Moon] had already left the building. John had gone so deaf that he couldn’t hear himself play. So although he was still very virtuosic, a lot of the time he would be making mistakes and he couldn’t hear it. There was this sense that he was on his way out. [Singer] Roger [Daltrey] and I had a decision to make as to whether or not we would try to keep the flame burning, the brand going, when he died, and we were about to do a tour so we decided to do it. And that tour worked out to be quite successful.”
As for The Who's future, Townshend says he would "prefer that the band adjusted itself to the audience that wants to see it, rather than just saying, ‘We need to fill arenas in order to go home with enough money to make the whole thing worthwhile’...
"It’s sad to say that a lot of dedicated Who fans come to every show in order to see Roger hit me in the face again, for me to smash him over the head with a guitar or for one of us to drop dead..."
And, like U2, the Eagles, and Dead & Company, he's interested in playing the Sphere in Las Vegas.
"Just as a crazy, narcissistic art school thing. It’s interesting as a venue because it challenges you to beat the fabric of the theatre.”
But, don't look for him to transform the band into holograms.
“If somebody wants to do it I don’t know that I would stop them, but they’re not gonna get me in one of those grids.”
And, as far as new music, he says, "I don’t think there is [a need it]...
“So where I am at the moment is I’m thinking ‘well, I might write the songs and then say to Roger, either you sing on them or I’m gonna put them out as a solo album and Who fans will love me for it.'"
The Who's last album was a self-titled effort in 2019. Townshend's last studio album was 1993's Psychoderelict.
On July 26th he will release a massive box set, Pete Townshend - Live in Concert 1985-2001, which brings together all of his live solo recordings that were only available through his website, Eel Pie.
Roger Daltrey is down to the last three shows on his U.S. tour -- tonight (Tuesday) in Rochester Hills, Michigan just outside Detroit; Friday in Omaha, Nebraska; and Sunday in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Illinois.
IN OTHER WHO NEWS....
The Who’s rock opera “Quadrophenia” is about to become a…ballet! Sadler’s Wells and Universal Music U.K. have announced that “Quadrophenia, a Mod Ballet” will premiere in 2025 in the U.K. It will feature dancers telling the story of the troubled Mod Jimmy and will be set to an orchestral version of the album. “Quadrophenia” was the sixth studio album from The Who in 1973. It was also turned into a movie back in 1979. Speaking on first hearing the orchestral take on the album, and thinking a ballet would be great, guitarist Pete Townshend shares “I knew we had something that would resonate with new audiences, and also bring joy, as it had in its other iterations for decades.”