THE WHO HITS 50!

Friday, 7:30 p.m. | Rogers Arena Tickets: From $66.80 at Ticketmaster

"I don't think it's the kind of music you could ever cruise through," says The Who's Roger Daltrey, shown performing alongside guitarist Pete Townshend. GETTY IMAGES

THE WHO AT 50

Hearing and health woes aside, band still putting on the miles

JANE STEVENSON

Roger Daltrey has no problem talking 'bout his generation. The 72-year-old frontman for The Who says he and guitarist Pete Townshend, 70, don't know if The Who Hits 50! anniversary trek will be their last.

"In our heads we want to go on as long as we can," Daltrey says. "And our bodies, you kind of physically know, you're coming to the end of that type of show. That's not to say you can't play your music in different ways. But equally, our music, having got that energy and that kind of urgency that is within it, I'm not so sure whether I want to be involved with singing in that way. I don't think it's the kind of music you could ever cruise through. When you get to a certain age, that would be the only way you could do it. So I just hope I have the wisdom to stop when I feel that coming."

After last year's North American leg was postponed, The Who Hits 50! is now finally making its way across Canada. We caught up with Daltrey at his home in England to talk music, aging and his brush with death after coming down with viral meningitis last year.

Q How are you able to still illicit those famous screams of yours at age 72?

A I don't know. I've been very lucky, incredibly lucky (given) last year, got very close to the wire, for a few days there. I love what I do which is important, but I seem to have come out of that illness, and meningitis is a serious illness I've come out of it, my body's a bit wobbly in places, but my voice seems to be better than ever. I don't understand why, but it happened.

Q Just how sick did you get?

A It was agony. My blood cell count was flat. They thought I had leukemia … I was in hospital for three-and-a-half weeks. It was not fun.

Q How do you keep your voice in shape?

A If you don't use it, you lose it, simple as that. And too many of our generation, they think they've made it and they come off the road for four or five years and don't sing and before they know it the muscles that you need to be there for you, to hit the notes, have disappeared. And you can get them back. But sometimes you leave it too long and it's gone forever.

Q How do you keep your famous body in shape?

A I do about 20 minutes in the gym these days. Hardly anything. I'm getting lazier and lazier. I do a lot of walking. I love to walk. Five miles a day I average.

Q How do you and Pete feel this tour is going?

A We're having a great time. But we kind of feel we wish we'd done more when we were younger, when the original band was together. I was going out doing silly little solo things of my own just to keep singing. So there is a bit of, kind of wishful thinking that we'd done things a bit differently.

Q What's your relationship like with Pete these days?

A (Jokes) We don't see each other. We don't speak. No, we only see each other on the plane, really. Pete sticks to himself. He tends to sleep all day and stay awake all night and I'm the opposite. I get back and keep a routine where I get to bed by at least two in the morning and getting up by 10. That's my routine.

Q Do you two ever discuss making any new music?

A We always talk about it and it's always a dream and it's always a possibility. It's finding a new way to present it … But it's always a possibility, yes.

Q Do you have specific memories of touring in Canada?

A Always good times. Always lots of fun. There's something about Canada, it doesn't feel quite so pressured as America, as the U.S., and right from the very early days we always had fun. Toronto was always a great city for us, as was all the way across Canada. I remember flying to Saskatoon in 1968 in a (plane) with a one-inch gap around the door which was tied up with a rope. Need to make the gig, you know. It was fun times. When we first went across Canada it was in a bus, and that was very early days when all these cities, which are now fabulous modern cities, were literally a one-(horse) town. Saskatoon and places like Calgary. It was the Wild West.

Q How's your hearing?

A My hearing's dreadful. We're all going deaf. We're all wearing hearing aids. I suggest to everybody over the age of 50 that has been going to loud concerts for years and years and years, go and have your hearing tested. You'd be surprised what you're missing. It's unbelievable. Most people over the age of 60 are lip-reading. And it's all our fault!