Guitarist Pete Townshend and singer Roger Daltrey — the core of The Who's creative friction — still can't agree on why they're getting back together for yet another round of Who shows, this time a full-blown run-through of the 1973 epic "Quadrophenia" album, along with other Who classics.

The upshot: Both insist they did it as a favor to the other.

Townshend said he wanted to develop "Quadrophenia" — the story about coming of age during England's early 1960s Mod era — into a traveling road show and eventual Broadway play. In the process, he figured, he could lend an old friend a hand.

Daltrey, Townshend said, is a "major rock star celebrity" who is adrift "like a number of other people who may be slightly disenfranchised by their bands breaking up earlier than they would like."

"It might turn out to be a really strong vehicle for Roger," Townshend, 51, said, noting that Daltrey and Who bassist John Entwistle lost $1.5 million on the "Daltrey Sings Townshend" tour of 1994. "But we'll have to see about that."

Uh … as if, said Daltrey.

"Basically he asked for my help in getting it together, and I wanted him to realize his dream," Daltrey said in a separate interview. "I got involved in it and, as usual, when I commit to something, I commit."

As for Entwistle, if hitting the road with The Who means he can make a little dough while scratching his musical itches, well, good thing.

"When you've got a big house and a studio to support, you have to go out and work," says Entwistle, 52, who on Tuesday will release his sixth solo album, "Thunderfingers." The Best of John Entwistle, a collection of his best solo songs re-recorded with the help of guitarists Peter Frampton and Joe Walsh. "You can't afford to sit on your bum and say, 'What a great career.'"

The Who has spanned 30-plus years, dozens of albums, hundreds of fights, millions of dollars, and, now, a third official reunion tour (which stops Sunday night at the CoreStates Center, Philadelphia). No matter what the real reason — and these Townshend-Daltrey spats can last for years with no resolution — for Who fans it means a chance to see the band in an arena for the first time since the 1970s.

The band's "farewell" tours of '82 and '89 were stadium-size sellouts.

And while "Quadrophenia" will be performed in its entirety, this is definitely a Who show with Who songs. Not nostalgia, Daltrey insisted. And despite Townshend's plans for "Quadrophenia," the band certainly hasn't gone Broadway.

"It's not Broadway," Daltrey, 52, said with a sneer. "It's first and foremost a rock 'n' roll show. It's definitely not even semi-Broadway. That would be the wrong thing to say indeed," although guest stars such as Billy Idol and Gary Glitter will be playing roles in the staging of the show.

"Pete loves Broadway. I hate it," Daltrey continued. "I know 'Tommy' was fairly successful, but it compromised itself much too much for me. I cringe when I hear them singing it sometimes. It becomes pretentious, that's the problem. There's something about rock 'n' roll where you have to have a rough edge about it … that you cannot get on Broadway. All it does on Broadway is it gets very loud."

Even if this is a rock show now, Townshend intends it for Broadway later. It could be a natural: it worked as a 1979 film vehicle for Sting, and "Quadrophenia" actually has a much more linear story line than "Tommy." Its protagonist, Jimmy, searches for identity through music and rebellion. And, in Townshend's words, "A young man has a bad day, basically, and that's really all there is."

"I've been working on a script for a shed (large amphitheatre) show of `Quadrophenia' for some time," Townshend recalled. "I'd agreed to play at this Hyde Park (London) concert in June for the Prince's Trust. Then, when I learned more about it, I learned that the expected audience was 150,000 people. And essentially I thought, 'What the hell am I going to do? Stand up there with a guitar?' "

Instead, "I swung the idea of doing a celebrity version of 'Quadrophenia' on the organizers," Townshend said.

The Who had never done "Quadrophenia" in its entirety. "It was down to technical problems in the early days," Daltrey said. "All those parts played on keyboard very easily nowadays had to be laid down on tapes. The band had to play to tape, which was incredibly restrictive, to say the least, and disastrous when the tape broke."

Besides singing songs from "Quadrophenia," The Who has been experimenting with Who classics in the new show as well.

"We do an acoustic version of `Won't Get Fooled Again' and some other acoustic songs now in the act," Daltrey said. "But we haven't got any new material, because Pete doesn't feel he can write it anymore."

The Who will perform Sunday night at the CoreStates Arena, 3601 Pattison Ave., Philadelphia. Doors open at 7 p.m. and Ocean Colour Scene opens the concert at 8 p.m. Tickets: $37.50 (third tier side-view seating only available). (215) 336-3600.