The Who’s Roger Daltrey admits he is going blind
Roger Daltrey revealed that he’s currently going blind to a live crowd at a recent show for The Who when they made their comeback earlier this week.
The band were playing their first of a two-show run at London’s Royal Albert Hall for the Teenage Cancer Trust when the singer revealed details of his condition.
Referencing the well-known fact that his hearing has been severely damaged from years of extensively touring raucous live shows, Daltrey said, “The problem with this job is that you go deaf,” before adding, “And now I’ve been told that I am going blind.”
While Daltrey refrained from adding any further details to confirm the diagnosis, he did flippantly reference the band’s 1969 rock opera title character to make light of the situation, saying “Thank God I’ve still got my voice. If I lost that I’ll go full Tommy.”
Daltrey has made several public statements about his health, claiming that he “has to be realistic” about his age because he is “on the 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,” he continued. But at 81 years old, he along with Pete Townshend played an action packed show at London’s Royal Albert hall, reeling off a string of the band’s major hits.
The shows are in support of the Teenage Cancer Trust, a charity Daltrey founded back in 2000 and has been an active campaigner for ever since. In n 2024, he announced he was stepping down from a curation role, allowing The Cure’s Robert Smith to take over in 2026 to curate the series of concerts at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
“I’m not leaving TCT – I’ve been a patron since I first met the charity’s founders, Dr Adrian and Myrna Whiteson, more than 30 years ago – and that will continue, but I’ll be working in the back room, talking to the government, rattling cages,” he said.
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