'I hope I die before I get old.' Pete Townsend wrote those lyrics back when getting old seemed a million years away. Now, the veteran rocker says that it's time to retire from the road and he and Roger Daltry say that 2015 will bring a farewell tour.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Daltrey said that the Who will be hitting the road in 2015 -- for "the last big tour," as he put it. But he pointed out that the group will most likely still record and play occasional shows until they're dead.

Townsend and Daltry both agree that the 'farewell tour' doesn't mean that they won't continue to play in front of an audience, but it does mean no more huge shows like they have always played.

And even though Townshend's comments seemed to reflect that the tour will coincide with the Who's 50th anniversary, Daltrey once again stepped in with some clarification. "Our anniversary is actually right now," he said. "We were the Who 50 years ago this month. To us, 2015 is just another year."

While details haven't been settled on yet, Daltrey said the tour -- unlike the band's most recent, which featured the playing of the 1973 classic 'Quadrophenia' in its entirety -- will focus on the Who's entire career, drawing from the large catalog of songs that fans want to hear. "Most people that want to come to a show want to hear what they grew up with," he said. "Let's not kid ourselves. We will always sell more tickets if we play the hits. That's a fact."

In the meantime, Daltrey said that he and Townshend may make a new record, but they would play those songs in a different setting, not as part of the 2015 tour. So yeah, maybe this isn't the very last tour, after all. We've heard this before from the Who. And even Daltrey offered a possible stage scenario for the band after the, um, farewell tour.

"Maybe that means sitting down in a theater for a couple of weeks," he told Rollng Stone. "That means you travel to once place, but you're stationed there. You aren't touring. It's the touring, the schlepping, that kills you. The music is a joy. The two hours onstage every night is a joy, even though it's incredibly strenuous. The schlepping and changing hotels every day, that can become incredibly hard work."

 

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