The Who will “definitely” return in 2025, according to Pete Townshend – see what else the guitarist had to say below.
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Townshend spoke to The Standard recently, where he revealed that The Who will “do something next year”. Though he never explicitly shared what the band’s plans entail, his comments suggest that the band could be hitting the road sometime in 2025.
He revealed that he had “met with Roger [Daltrey] for lunch a couple of weeks ago,” and that they’re in “good form”. “We love each other. We’re both getting a bit creaky, but we will definitely do something next year.”
The guitarist went on to explain: “The album side of it… Roger’s not keen. But I would love to do another album and I may try to bully him on that. The last big tours that we’ve done have been with a full orchestra, which was glorious, but we’re now eager to make a noise and make a mess and make mistakes.”
This isn’t the first time in recent months that Townshend has discussed the possibility of new The Who music or live dates. In June, he said when speaking to NME that he was “pretty sure” there would be more Who shows, and that “the story of the end of The Who is gonna be when either Roger or I drop dead or can’t function anymore on the stage”.
On the topic of anew record, he said: “If there was a need or a place for a Who album, could I write the songs for it within six weeks? Of course I fucking could, it’s a piece of cake. The problem is I don’t think Roger wants to do it again. For me it would be a joy because I love writing songs, I love writing to a brief, I love having a commission, I love having a deadline and I love the feedback.”
In March, Townshend teased that the band had one “final” thing left to do before they “crawl off to die” and teased a farewell tour. Less than a month later, he retracted his statement, saying he was “being sarcastic”.
Meanwhile, Daltrey in March said he’s “on [his] way out” and that he “has to be realistic” about future plans. And when NME asked Daltrey about the possibility of a new album last year, he laughed: “What’s the point? What’s the point of records? We released an album four years ago [2019’s ‘WHO’], and it did nothing. It’s a great album too, but there isn’t the interest out there for new music these days. People want to hear the old music. I don’t know why, but that’s the fact.”
