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For the past several years, rock legend Pete Townshend has been playing his way around the world on tour with long-time bandmate Roger Daltrey. The pair recently kicked off their 17-date North American run, and Townshend, now 80, says that life on the road can sometimes be a lonely one despite his gratitude and love for performing live.

The Who has a long and storied history of touring and releasing chart-topping music. For Townshend, decades after The Who first exploded onto the music scene, playing live is more important than ever, though for different reasons. The Who is no longer just a band but rather a “brand,” he said in an interview.

“It’s a brand rather than a band now,” Townshend explained. “Roger and I have a responsibility to the music, the history of the band. The Who [still] sells records, the Moon and the Entwistle families have become millionaires, and they’re millionaires by the grace of Who fans buying these records.”

The Who | Live in Toronto 2019 (Remastered) from Pete Townshend on Vimeo.

Townshend is referencing late drummer Keith Moon and late bassist John Entwistle. In his comments, Townshend indicates that his time playing on the stage helps him appreciate his survival, his own family, and friendships: “The art, the creative work, is when we perform it. We’re celebrating. We’re a Who tribute band.”

Life on the road can be difficult, and while The Who continues to perform around the world, Townshend admits that “performing makes you think” about his and Daltrey’s future and their relationship with the band.

“I am a little sick of it at the moment, but the way we approach the work seems to me to make perfect sense in terms of the creative process. We’re paying respect to these great songs and the songwriters like Goffin and King and all the great people who wrote these timeless songs. But it also does whet an appetite to think about how we should bow out in our personal lives — what we do with our families and our friends and everything else at this age.”

Townshend’s comments are a reminder to fans that, at 80 years old, both Daltrey and Townshend are lucky to be alive and will continue to make music together, even if The Who as a band has an uncertain future.

Roger Daltrey on Touring, Health, and The Future

While on the same Teenage Cancer Trust charity show in London at the beginning of this year, frontman Roger Daltrey also spoke directly to fans and gave an update on his current health while still onstage with Townshend. Daltrey quipped to the audience, “Fortunately, I still have my voice because then I’ll have a full Tommy,” a reference to the title character from the band’s iconic 1969 rock opera. He continued, “Deaf, dumb, and blind kid,” quoting the famous lyric.

In an interview with The Times earlier this month, Daltrey got more candid, though his remarks about what the future may bring for The Who have some fans worried that it might be The Who’s last hurrah.

“This is certainly the last time you will see us on tour. It’s grueling,” Daltrey said. “In the days when I was singing Who songs for three hours a night, six nights a week, I was working harder than most footballers.”

The 80-year-old rocker added, “As to whether we’ll play [one-off] concerts again, I don’t know. The Who to me is very perplexing.” Life on the road can be difficult, and while The Who continues to perform around the world, Townshend admits that “performing makes you think” about his and Daltrey’s future and their relationship with the band.