Pete Townshend says Roger Daltrey's "devotion to The Who is absolute, whereas mine isn't"

25 March 2025, 13:50

The legendary Who guitarist and songsmith has discussed his different approach to the band.

Loading audio...

The Who's Pete Townshend has suggested that he and bandmate Roger Daltrey have a very different approach to their time in the legendary band.

Townshend - who's best known as the band's guitarist and primary songwriter - has talked about his 1979 rock opera Quadrophenia being updated for the ballet by Sadler's Wells, with orchestration by his wife Rachel Fuller.

As reported by BANG Showbiz, asked by The Sunday Times about whether he'd be inviting Daltrey along to watch the adaptation, he replied: "I’ll certainly invite Roger to come and see it, but he might feel awkward about it because I think he feels I have an extramural life that is in competition with his. His devotion to the Who is absolute, whereas mine isn’t."

Despite Townshend's recent comments, Roger Daltrey's ambivalence towards continuing on with The Who has been well documented in recent years.

Back in 2024, the Substitute singer hinted that he was happy to move on from the band, but it was up to his bandmate.

Asked if there was any more to come from the rockers, he told The Times: "I can’t answer that. I don’t write the songs. I never did. We need to sit down and have a meeting, but at the moment I’m happy saying that part of my life is over."

Read more:

Townshend may say he has less "devotion" to the Mod band, but in 2024 he did reveal he'd “met with Roger [Daltrey] for lunch a couple of weeks ago,” and that they were on “good form”.

He teased: "We love each other. We’re both getting a bit creaky, but we will definitely do something next year."

Whether or not The Who announce more live shows this year, it's clear that Daltrey doesn't see the point in creating new music.

"What’s the point?" he told NME: back in 2023. "What’s the point of records? We released an album four years ago, and it did nothing. It’s a great album too, but there isn’t the interest out there for new music these days.

"People want to hear the old music. I don’t know why, but that’s the fact."