Pete Townshend on The Who’s future: ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen’

Pete Townshend admits the future of his band The Who remains uncertain, but he hopes he and bandmate Roger Daltrey can continue performing together and even release new music.

In a recent interview with The Daily Beast, the 79-year-old guitarist shared what’s next for the iconic band as he marks the release of his 14-CD box set “Live in Concert 1985-2000.”

“I don’t know what’s going to happen with The Who. I hope Roger and I can find common ground and find a way to work again, maybe without an orchestra, because I think we’ve done that,” Townshend said.

“But there was also a sense that we were in the final touring phase of our career. …I was encouraged by what Roger was doing on his solo tour. It seemed to me that if we got a little band together and decided to throw shit at the wall, it could be really cool.”

However, Townshend shared that the relationship between him and the band’s singer is not really good, so it is difficult to know whether they can arrange time to work together again.

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“Roger and I don’t talk. We don’t talk. So it can be hard to find something that we’re both interested in. But I think it’s possible,” he said.

Formed in London in 1964, the British rock band has seen members come and go over its 60-year history. The classic line-up included Townshend, Daltrey, bassist John Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon. Unfortunately, Entwistle and Moon have passed away.

When explaining why he would not force Daltrey to work with him in the studio if Daltrey did not want to, Townshend recalled the time when he “bullied” his bandmates into working on the studio album “Quadrophenia”.

“I’m not going to try to bully Roger into doing anything. I don’t want to have the job that I had at the time of ‘Quadrophenia,’ which was bullying everyone in The Who into doing exactly what I wanted to do,” he said.

“It worked, yes. But it wasn’t fun. And in the end, Roger beat me. I asked for it, but he beat me. Anyway, I’m still hopeful. I’m certainly not saying we’re not going to do anything, but Roger and I still have a long way to go. And once we get over that, we’ll see what happens.”

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