Roger Daltrey

Roger Daltrey, the lead singer of the Who, launched a concurrent solo path in 1973 just as internal fractures deepened for the band following the release of Quadrophenia. Born in London on March 1, 1944, he spent his formative years in the Shepherd’s Bush area alongside future bandmates Pete Townshend and John Entwistle, joining them in the Detours while still in his late teens. Over the ensuing years he emerged as one of rock’s most commanding frontmen, establishing that reputation most forcefully on the Who’s 1971 landmark album Who’s Next; onstage he projected a strutting, aggressive image that included swinging his microphone in wide, lasso-like arcs.

His initial foray away from the group arrived with the 1973 self-titled album Daltrey, which relied heavily on songs from the then-unknown Leo Sayer and marked a clear shift from the Who’s established hard-rock approach. The Who reassembled to record The Who by Numbers in 1975, the same year Daltrey issued his second solo effort, Ride a Rock Horse, and took on acting parts in two Ken Russell productions: Lisztomania, in which he portrayed composer Franz Liszt, and the screen version of Tommy, where he played the central character. While the Who entered an extended break, he put out One of the Boys in 1977 and appeared in the 1978 film The Legacy. During the period after drummer Keith Moon’s death, Daltrey co-produced and starred in the biographical picture McVicar about the notorious train robber John McVicar; fellow Who members contributed to its soundtrack, which functioned as a complete Daltrey record and blended the aggressive rock style of the band with the pop leanings of his earlier solo releases. Once the Who formally split in 1983, his subsequent solo albums adopted a consistently harder rock direction, highlighted by 1985’s Under a Raging Moon. Alongside the Who’s 1989 reunion trek he maintained a schedule of occasional screen and television work and delivered the solo album Rocks in the Head in 1992.

Marking his fiftieth birthday, Daltrey mounted two consecutive evenings at Carnegie Hall in 1994; the performances were later compiled as A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and the Who, with an accompanying DVD following in 1998. The next year he joined Darlene Love and Zak Starkey for a Royal Albert Hall concert billed under the British Rock Symphony banner. Backed by a full orchestra and gospel choir, the program drew on classic Who material along with songs from their peers; a related studio album appeared afterward, succeeded by broader tours across Europe and the United States and a live DVD in 2000. He revisited the Albert Hall in November 2000 to headline the first Teenage Cancer Trust benefit concert there. Becoming a patron of the organization, he supervised an annual series of high-profile shows at the venue that continued well into the following decade.

In May 2006 he unveiled the specially commissioned song “Highbury Highs” at the ceremony marking Arsenal’s final match at North London’s Highbury Stadium. By 2009 he was back on the road in the United States with a band that featured Pete Townshend’s brother Simon, a lineup he kept intact for a 2011 Teenage Cancer Trust presentation of Tommy. In November 2013, only six months after his friend and ex-Dr. Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson received a pancreatic-cancer diagnosis, Daltrey joined him in the studio for Going Back Home, an album of reinterpretations spanning Johnson’s catalog; the project debuted with a show at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in February 2014. He further supported the cause by cutting a version of Townshend’s “Let My Love Open the Door,” directing all proceeds to Teen Cancer America.

While the Who conducted their 2014–2016 anniversary tour, Daltrey tracked his next solo collection, which surfaced in 2018. As Long as I Have You, issued on Polydor, showcased guitar work from Townshend, keyboard contributions from Mick Talbot, and additional guitar from Sean Genockey. Alongside original material the record incorporated covers of songs originally recorded by Nick Cave, Stevie Wonder, Stephen Stills, and others.