Roger daltrey serves up a summertime musical treat

Sixty years after forming the Who, rocker Roger Daltrey is back on tour. And he says fans can expect a stark departure from his previous shows. The Who, with bassist John Entwistle,

guitarist Pete Townshend and drummer Keith Moon, conquered the charts with such hits as “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” “My Generation,” “I Can See for Miles,” “Substitute” and “You Better You

Bet” and fattened its artistic legacy with ambitious works including rock operas _Tommy_ and _Quadrophenia_. The British rock band also raised the live performance bar with Moon’s savage

bashing and Townshend’s guitar windmills. Daltrey rose as one of the most iconic showmen in the rock era, a golden-maned, bare-chested howler in a fringed suede coat twirling a microphone.

Breakups, reunions, infighting, substance abuse and reckless behavior also crop up frequently on the group’s résumé. Keith Moon died at 32 of a sedative overdose in 1988. Entwistle died at

57 of a heart attack in 2002. Daltrey, 80, and Townshend, 79, have continued to carry the battle-frayed banner, but are they in the final stretch? Who knows — not even Daltrey. He spoke to

AARP from his farm in Sussex, England, where he lives with his wife, Heather, and shares details of his new tour, his relationship with Townshend and the secrets to his long marriage. _This

interview has been edited for length and clarity._ THIS TOUR’S INTIMATE APPROACH IS A RADICAL DEPARTURE FROM THE LAST TWO BIG WHO TOURS. I’ve got some different instrumentation. I’ve got a

squeeze-box, piano, no synthesizers. Violin, mandola. It allows me to open up some of the old Who classics in ways that present them as different songs. It’s really refreshing to have the

freedom to not be tied to tape loops and to be able to generate sounds and moods that get washed out in really loud rock ’n’ roll. Of course, Townshend’s lyrics are so good, they work in any

formula. YOU’RE NOT JUST SINGING PETE’S SONGS. I do loads of songs. I have a long solo recording career. I do those and songs I recorded with other people. I did an album, _Going Back Home

_(2014) with Wilko Johnson. It’s very breezy, down-home, different from anything Pete would have written. It’s absolutely liberating. The whole idea is, it’s a miserable world out there at

the moment. Let’s have a good night out. If anything can dig us out of the hole the world’s in, music will do it. I get a chance to get closer to the audience. They can leave questions at

the box office, and I go through them before the show and answer the interesting ones onstage. WHAT ARE FANS MOST CURIOUS TO KNOW ABOUT YOU? The color of my underpants. I really don’t know.

They never cease to amaze me, especially the really loyal fans, who seem to turn up at every show. Actually, they’re all mad. I think it’s a psychosis. I do appreciate their support, but I

do find it peculiar. Roger Daltrey performs the iconic rock opera "Tommy" at the Agganis Arena in Boston on Sept. 17, 2011. Robert E. Klein/AP IN 2011, YOU STAGED THE WHO’S _TOMMY_

ON A SOLO TOUR. WAS IT CHALLENGING TO TACKLE THAT ON YOUR OWN? That’s what I liked about it. I like things that challenge me. I don’t like to just go through the motions of what we always

did. [When] I did the orchestra shows with _Tommy_, that’s the first time it was ever played in its entirety. Even in its day, we never ever played “Welcome.” I ended up with an opinion that

 _Tommy_ is probably the best opera ever written.