Roger "probably the end"

[Brian Cady <brianinatlanta2001@xxxxxxxxx>]

Another Roger interview from the Denton
Record-Chronicle (requires registration):
http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/features/musicpoprock/BI_THEWHO.4f683467.html

The Who: 'It feels like this is gonna be the end' 
Roger Daltrey talks about the Who after the death of
John Entwistle 
09/19/2002 

The band that declared "Long Live Rock" in the '70s is
once again pondering its own demise. 

"This might be the end," says the Who's singer Roger
Daltrey, speaking by phone during a break on the
group's U.S. concert tour. "And probably, it is the
end. But we're going out in a blast." 

It's not the first time the electrifying British group
has threatened to pull the plug. In 1982, the Who
staged a much-ballyhooed "farewell tour," only to
change its mind and regroup for a series of
greatest-hits tours. 

The latest maybe-goodbye comes a few months after the
death of John Entwistle, the band's bassist since it
formed in 1964. It never fully recovered from the 1978
death of madman drummer Keith Moon, and now, without
"the Ox" anchoring the group, the Who's prospects seem
dim. 

But the real mystery is why the band went ahead with
its U.S. tour just days after Mr. Entwistle died of a
cocaine-induced heart attack. It's a touchy subject,
and one of several topics Mr. Daltrey's handlers warn
reporters against asking about. 

"No John death questions, or future of the Who, or
Pino, or thoughts behind continuing the tour, etc,"
says an e-mail laying out the "parameters" of the
interview. ("Pino" is Pino Palladino, the bassist
hired to replace Mr. Entwistle on tour.) 

After much discussion, the singer's publicist agrees
to lift the restrictions for this interview, and Mr.
Daltrey begrudgingly talks about deciding to carry on
after "the hammer's blow of John's death." 

"Of course, there's part of us that thought ... [we
should cancel the tour]. All of those things went
through our mind. But we made our decision, and I
think we made the right one. Life goes on, and we're
very lucky to be alive. Life is precious, and we
should enjoy it." 

Although Mr. Daltrey implies the decision was a
collective one, guitarist-bandleader Pete Townshend
says otherwise. 

"Roger left entirely to me the decision as to whether
or not to go on with the tour," Mr. Townshend wrote in
the "Pete's Diaries" section of www.petetownshend.com.


"I think ... [Roger] hoped in his heart it would not
be over so suddenly. ... I don't feel I know for
certain that John would have wanted us to go on. I
simply believe we have a duty to go on, to ourselves,
ticket buyers, staff, promoters, big and little
people. I also have a duty to myself and my dependent
family and friends." 

With the best seats priced between $150 (for
Saturday's show in Dallas) and $504 (in Los Angeles),
the Who's U.S. trek is expected to be one of the most
lucrative tours of the summer. But Mr. Daltrey
bristles when asked what role money played in deciding
that the show must go on. 

"Listen," he says, "we have to put bread on our ...
[expletive] family's table, too. What do we live on?
We don't eat grass. ... We get criticized for getting
paid large amounts of money, and when you actually
work out the amount of tours we do, we earn a very,
very good living, but we're not
multi-multibillionaires. We haven't got our own
private jets. We rent them when we're on the road." 

So far, reviews from the tour have been mostly
favorable. But Mr. Daltrey works himself into a lather
over the handful of "hacks" who've dared to suggest
the Who is past its prime. 

"I've read a few reviews that criticized us for going
through the motions, and I beg to differ. I'm never
going through the ... [expletive] motions," says the
57-year-old singer. 

"The shows have been incredible. I've never seen
Townshend play guitar like this since, God, 1969. He's
on fire. He's never been bad, but I'm talking
stratospheric now." 

Joining Mr. Townshend and Mr. Daltrey onstage is
longtime keyboardist John "Rabbit" Bundrick and
drummer Zak Starkey  son of Ringo Starr  who's
toured with the Who since 1996. But all eyes and ears
are on Mr. Palladino, a veteran bassist who's played
on hundreds of records by the likes of Eric Clapton,
Phil Collins and Rod Stewart. 

"It was a stretch for him, because he hadn't played
any of these songs before. But he's doing extremely
well," Mr. Daltrey says. "He's the perfect choice.
He's one of the best session players in the world, and
he could mimic John perfectly if that's what we wanted
him to do, but we don't. He adds his own stuff to the
songs and makes them different. ... And as soon as he
starts playing, John exists within the music anyway 
he's just intrinsically there." 

After the tour ends Sept. 28 in Toronto, the singer
plans to sit down and sort out his feelings about the
death of Mr. Entwistle and the future of the Who. 

"Right now, I don't know how I feel. You have to
remember this all happened at the beginning of the
tour. I haven't stopped moving my body in the last
three months, and I can't say I'm speaking very
coherently about it," he says. 

"I might feel differently a few months from now, and
if anything develops after the tour, it'll be a bonus.
But at the moment, it feels like this is gonna be the
end. And if it is, I'm going to go out singing better
and with more passion than I've ever sung before." 

E-mail tchristensen@dallasnews.com 


=====
-Brian in Atlanta
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