like Mick Jagger — I’ve got so much respect for Mick, he’s incredible. And you just have to train.”

Daltrey has always been strong thanks to a physically demanding job he held as a teenager as a sheet metal worker.

“I used to have to unload, sometimes, 10 tons of steel in a day,” he said. “So, I kind of built up a very fit body, and I’ve managed to keep it going. I’ve been very lucky.”

Original drummer Keith Moon, who died in 1978 at age 32, and original bassist John Entwistle, who died in 2002 at age 57, were less fortunate, both dying accidentally from substance abuse issues.

“I’ve had a few close shaves with serious illnesses that have nearly taken me out,” Daltrey said. “But I just say, ‘Well you’ve taken on the wrong one, mate.’ I come back.”

Roger Daltrey’s die-hard fans

Daltrey today is jovial and quick to laugh, his zest for life apparent in his constant joking and easy smile. Which begs the question as to how he feels, at the age of 78, still singing one of the most iconic lines in classic rock: “I hope I die before I get old.”

“I still do,” he said, referring to lyrics from the band’s 1965 teen anthem, “My Generation.” “I think it’s a state of mind, age … I’ve met young people who seem to be incredibly old in their mind, and I’ve met old people that are incredibly young. You can’t measure age in years; you can’t measure a lifetime in years. A life is a life.”

And when the end does come someday for Daltrey, he said, he will never really be gone.

“I think life is eternal,” he said. “I don’t think there’s many, many lives. You are never going to escape this universe. A part of you will be somewhere in it, even if it’s a tiny bit of dust on Jupiter.”

For now, Daltrey remains in prime form. He rode out the past two years of the COVID pandemic pretty easily, he said, taking long walks through the rolling, green pastures of his sprawling farm in East Sussex, England. Rural as it is, however, is not so isolated that die-hard fans cannot track him down.

“They turn up at my door here,” he said. “I always try to make them welcome. I’ve seen a lot of stars have their

If you go

What: The Who in concert

Where: Hard Rock Live, Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, 1 Seminole Way, Hollywood

When: 8 p.m. Friday

Info: Ticketmaster.com or 800-653-8000

bodyguards, and they push the fans away. I’ve never been on that page. I don’t like that at all. They put you where you are. They pay your rent. You’ve got to be there for them.”

Still, there are some fans — who, almost with admiration, Daltrey calls “extraordinary, really industrial” — that take things a step further.

“We’ve had to pull them out from under the beds before,” he said, laughing aloud. “They know what time our plane lands, what hotel we’re staying at, under what name. And blow me if they’re not in the bloody room before you get there.”

There is no hint of judgment in Daltrey’s voice when he talks about the antics of star-struck fans. In fact, he said, he is occasionally one himself.

“I get very nervous,” he said. “It’s really funny … Not so much around all the guys I’ve known from the beginning — Paul McCartney and Ringo and all those people — we’re all mates, and it’s different. But if I met someone I’ve been

a fan of a very long time, even today, I go back to that little kid again.”

So, who could potentially render Daltrey speechless?

“It’s too late to meet Johnny Cash; he’s the only one I would have liked,” he said. “I’m glad I didn’t meet Elvis, cause I would have been disappointed. The time … that I had the possibility of meeting him, he was past his best. I’d rather carry his memory with me, which is fantastic.”

Daltrey and Townshend’s work with Teen Cancer America

No doubt, Daltrey has already met more stars and experienced more in his lifetime than most people could ever imagine. But today, he said, what brings him the most happiness is his work with Teen Cancer America, which he and Townshend founded in 2012 as an extension of the U.K.’s Teenage Cancer Trust.

Teen Cancer America has supported more than 106,000 patients at 43 hospital partners across the country. Daltrey said the organization focuses on those between the ages of 13 and 26 who do not fit easily into child or adult cancer programs.

“They have social habits that are completely alien to either group,” he said of the youths the charity serves. “The worst thing you can do is to isolate them with people they are not comfortable

with. They’ve already got enough emotional and mental issues to deal with without doing that.”

Additionally, Daltrey said, the forms of cancers that tend to affect younger people are rarer, increasing in frequency and not well studied.

“It needs to change,” he said. “I’ve got a feeling in my bones, and always have, that some of the big secrets of cancer are going to be found in that age group. If you’re not looking, you’re not going to find them, are you?”

Today, 58 years after The Who first began smashing their instruments onstage, Daltrey and Townshend rock on, despite the absence of Entwistle and Moon. And while they still thrill playing live, Daltrey said, touring is vastly different today than in the past.

“In the old days … it was just the four of us. We didn’t have the equipment, the hotels were Holiday Inns, which we got banned from continuously,” he said, laughing. “But we had so much fun. It is really, really, really weird. We had so much fun in those days, I can’t tell you. It was such a wonderful world to be in in those days. Everything was possible.”

What is still possible today is for anyone who has never had the electrifying experience of catching The Who live to do so, Daltrey said. In fact, it is a must.

“You must try to see Townshend once in your life,” he said. “He’s fantastic — the best I’ve ever heard in my life. And I’ve heard some pretty decent music.”

The Who's Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend kick off their 2022 North American Tour, “The Who Hits Back,” on Friday with a show at the 7,000-seat Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood. WILLIAM SNYDER/TRINFOLD