Roger Daltrey Talks New Tour, Thoughts on Broadway’s ‘Tommy’ and Future of The Who 

Roger Daltrey. (AP)
Roger Daltrey. (AP)
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Roger Daltrey Talks New Tour, Thoughts on Broadway’s ‘Tommy’ and Future of The Who 

Roger Daltrey. (AP)
Roger Daltrey. (AP)

As Roger Daltrey hits the road on a short solo tour this June, he’s unsure if fans will ever see another tour from The Who.

“I don’t see it. I don’t know whether The Who’ll ever will go out again,” he told The Associated Press over Zoom.

The 80-year-old rocker has a “use-it-or-lose it-mentality” when it comes to his singing voice, so he finds it necessary to perform as much as possible, with or without The Who.

Recently, Daltry spoke with The Associated Press on the future of the band, his solo tour and his feelings on the Broadway revival of The Who’s seminal rock opera, “Tommy.”

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

AP: What do you think of the “Tommy” Broadway revival?

DALTREY: I’m glad the album is still out there; it means a lot to me. It’s the best opera ever written. I don’t particularly like it (the musical). It’s been altered and changed. I can’t imagine cutting some of the music in “Madame Butterfly,” or some other great operas.

AP: So, you think of it as a straight-up opera, as opposed to a rock opera?

DALTREY: It’s a fabulous opera. It was tongue and cheek at the time that we called it an opera. We did take a lot of chances with it. But since living with it and playing it on stage, and having seen lots of grand opera, I saw I had one in my hands. So, I’ve come to conclusion that it’s the best opera ever written.

AP: Tell us about the tour.

DALTREY: I’m bringing a band over from the UK of eight people, a very different sounding band with different instrumentation. No synthesizers. It’s just about having a lot of fun playing different songs, and obviously some Who classics. But we do them different. So it’s just something I love to do. And people seem to like it when I take it out there. So, I’m just going to put my toe in the water.

AP: So you’ll play solo material and The Who stuff?

DALTREY: Having a band like this gives me an opportunity to do a lot of things that I’ve done over the years with different artists, like the stuff I did with Wilko Johnson 10 years ago. I will do some solo stuff, plus some covers of other people that I really admire to make a night of entertainment and fun. So many people are retiring. All the good old boys are retiring and it’s very thin out there.

AP: Is getting out there in front of an audience what keeps your voice intact?

DALTREY: That’s always been the impetus for me ever since I had my voice problems out. You’ve got to keep using it. Just like anything else in the body. You stop walking, you lose the muscles in your legs. The voice is a similar thing. If you stop using those muscles in the voice box and the vocal cords, they’ll go soft on you and you’ll lose your voice. Mine is remarkable for my age.

AP: Simon Townsend is performing with you — not his brother, The Who’s Pete Townsend. What is it like supplementing one Townsend for another?

DALTREY: Simon Townsend is always in my solo shows. Simon has always been with me. Well, he’s a totally different guy than Pete, though he’s got very similar timber to his voice that suits my voice in the harmonies. He’s a great musician, fabulous guitarist and a great guy. You know, I’ve known him for 60 years.

AP: What’s the difference being touring with The Who and hitting the road solo?

DALTREY: It’s a lot less weight on my shoulders by myself. The Who feels like, I don’t know, heavier. It’s always much more relaxed and solo shows.

AP: There’s less pressure with a solo gig?

DALTREY: Because it’s the responsibility with The Who — there’s heritage and history to maintain that always need to be in a good light, so it puts a lot of weight on your shoulders. But with this band, I’ve discovered that I can go out there and have a good time and play any kind of music that I want.

AP: Can you give me an example?

DALTREY: I was doing some solo shows on a cruise, and I got this terrible allergy just before the first show. I ended up in hospital and didn’t know whether I’d make the cruise. But I did make the cruise. Anyway, I ended up having to do three shows back-to-back, and I’m thinking I was not able to have a sound check. I’m not going to get a rehearsal. But at least these three shows I can do.

Soundchecks are very important when you’re on the road. And I thought, “I know what I’ll do, I’ll show the audience a rehearsal.” And that’s what I did. I did the show as a rehearsal and talked about what’s going on the stage, what the roadies were doing, and what everyone was doing. And they really enjoyed it. If you can get away with that, you get away with anything.

AP: With a career that began in the mid-1960s, what has been the biggest change you’ve seen over the years?

DALTREY: Age. (Laughs.) I mean, see the elders growing up with us out in the audience, but equally, we have got an enormous number of young fans, which I’m astounded by. So, it changes all the time. But obviously our audience, they’ve grown up with us, so age is the thing you notice most.

AP: Mick Jagger is on the road with the Rolling Stones at 80 years old. Will The Who ever tour again?

DALTREY: I don’t see it. I don’t, I don’t know whether The Who will ever go out again. I don’t know. I don’t think like that. If we’ve got something to do, something which was progressive and interesting and there was a reason to do it, then we would go out. But at the moment I can’t see it.



Video Game Performers Will Go on Strike Over Artificial Intelligence Concerns 

SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
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Video Game Performers Will Go on Strike Over Artificial Intelligence Concerns 

SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)

Hollywood's video game performers announced they would go on strike Thursday, throwing part of the entertainment industry into another work stoppage after talks for a new contract with major game studios broke down over artificial intelligence protections.

The strike — the second for video game voice actors and motion capture performers under the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — will begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The move comes after nearly two years of negotiations with gaming giants, including divisions of Activision, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co., over a new interactive media agreement.

SAG-AFTRA negotiators say gains have been made over wages and job safety in the video game contract, but that the two sides remained split over the regulation of generative AI. A spokesperson for the video game producers, Audrey Cooling, said the studios offered AI protections, but SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee said that the studios’ definition of who constitutes a "performer" is key to understanding the issue of who would be protected.

"The industry has told us point blank that they do not necessarily consider everyone who is rendering movement performance to be a performer that is covered by the collective bargaining agreement," SAG-AFTRA Chief Contracts Officer Ray Rodriguez said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. He said some physical performances are being treated as "data."

Without guardrails, game companies could train AI to replicate an actor’s voice, or create a digital replica of their likeness without consent or fair compensation, the union said.

"We strike as a matter of last resort. We have given this process absolutely as much time as we responsibly can," Rodriguez told reporters. "We have exhausted the other possibilities, and that is why we’re doing it now."

Cooling said the companies' offer "extends meaningful AI protections."

"We are disappointed the union has chosen to walk away when we are so close to a deal, and we remain prepared to resume negotiations," she said.

Andi Norris, an actor and member of the union's negotiating committee, said that those who do stunt work or creature performances would still be at risk under the game companies' offer.

"The performers who bring their body of work to these games create a whole variety of characters, and all of that work must be covered. Their proposal would carve out anything that doesn’t look and sound identical to me as I sit here, when, in truth, on any given week I am a zombie, I am a soldier, I am a zombie soldier," Norris said. "We cannot and will not accept that a stunt or movement performer giving a full performance on stage next to a voice actor isn’t a performer."

The global video game industry generates well over $100 billion dollars in profit annually, according to game market forecaster Newzoo. The people who design and bring those games to life are the driving force behind that success, SAG-AFTRA said.

Members voted overwhelmingly last year to give leadership the authority to strike. Concerns about how movie studios will use AI helped fuel last year’s film and television strikes by the union, which lasted four months.

The last interactive contract, which expired in November 2022, did not provide protections around AI but secured a bonus compensation structure for voice actors and performance capture artists after an 11-month strike that began in October 2016. That work stoppage marked the first major labor action from SAG-AFTRA following the merger of Hollywood’s two largest actors unions in 2012.

The video game agreement covers more than 2,500 "off-camera (voiceover) performers, on-camera (motion capture, stunt) performers, stunt coordinators, singers, dancers, puppeteers, and background performers," according to the union.

Amid the tense interactive negotiations, SAG-AFTRA created a separate contract in February that covered independent and lower-budget video game projects. The tiered-budget independent interactive media agreement contains some of the protections on AI that video game industry titans have rejected. Games signed to an interim interactive media agreement, tiered-budget independent interactive agreement or interim interactive localization agreement are not part of the strike, the union said.