The Who’s Roger Daltrey Opens Up About Health Struggles — and Staying Grateful

The Who‘s legendary lead singer Roger Daltrey has announced he’s going deaf and blind. At a Who benefit concert in London last month, Roger, 81, told the crowd, “The problem with this job is that you go deaf. And now I’ve been told that I am going blind.”

“Thank God I’ve still got my voice. If I lost that I’ll go full Tommy.”

The Pinball Wizard singer didn’t go into specifics regarding his fading eyesight, but he did talk about the inevitability of aging and death upon resigning as curator of the annual Teenage Cancer Trust concerts shortly after turning 80.

“I have to be realistic,” he wrote. “I’m on my way out. The average life expectancy is 83 and with a bit of luck I’ll make that, but we need someone else to drive things.”

Daltrey and guitar maestro and songwriter Pete Townsend, 79, are the only surviving founding members of the groundbreaking band. Drummer Keith Moon tragically overdosed in 1978 at age 32, and bassist John Entwistle died in 2002 at age 57.

The Who once made the Guinness Book of Records for being the loudest rock band.

And when Behind Blue Eyes singer Daltrey admitted being “very, very deaf” during a solo concert in 2018, he told the crowd, “Take your f**king earplugs with you to the gigs.”