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Guitarist Pete Townshend is, once again, on the road. The Who rock legend is currently touring with Roger Daltrey in North America, this time for 17 concerts. At 80 years old, the thought of what life is like on the road comes up, and, as with so many things, Townshend had a lot to say on the topic, particularly the upsides and downsides of touring at this stage in his career.

“I think touring is lonesome sometimes. I’ve often said, ‘Well, this is my job. I’m happy to have the work, but I kind of prefer to be doing something else’ he said in a new interview with Rolling Stone. “Then, I think, ‘Well, I’m 80 years old. Why shouldn’t I revel in it? Why shouldn’t I celebrate?”

Townshend’s description of the nature of touring and life on the road for a band like The Who has been on the road in some form for decades upon decades. There is a tinge of both gratefulness and fatigue. The who he once thought was just a band is something of a brand at this point: “It’s a brand rather than a band,” he said. “Roger and I have a duty to the music and the history, and The Who still sells records, so Moon and Entwistle’s families are millionaires. There’s also something more. The art, the creative work, is when we perform it. We’re celebrating. We’re a Who tribute band.”

Townshend’s reference to Keith Moon and John Entwistle, the band’s late drummer and bassist, could be an indicator of the end times for The Who in some sense. The interview itself was more of an examination of the stage work, performance, and all it meant at his age, but Townshend got into deeper stuff at the tail end of his response. “It does whet an appetite to think about how we should bow out in our personal lives — what we do with our families and our friends and everything else at this age. We’re lucky to be alive. I’m looking forward to playing,” he added. “Roger likes to throw wild cards out sometimes in the set, and we have learned and rehearsed a few songs that we don’t always play.”

The Who is still capable of surprises after all these years of doing the same shows all the time, and Townshend did elaborate that they were rehearsing “songs that we don’t always play.” Who knows — perhaps Townshend and Daltrey will throw a curveball or two. Perhaps they won’t.

Roger Daltrey: ‘This is the Last Time You’ll See Us on Tour’

Roger Daltrey, on the other hand, went into far more introspective territory. In a more extensive interview with The Times in the U.K. this month, the frontman more directly addressed what it meant to be touring in 2022. “This is the last chance,” he said during the chat. “This is certainly the last time you will see us on tour. It’s grueling.”

For The Who’s live performances, and to put it succinctly, Daltrey’s voice is still what it is all about. When performing in London earlier this year at a Teenage Cancer Trust charity event with Townshend, he took a moment to address the audience before asking for their support for cancer research.

“Fortunately, I still have my voice, because then I’ll have a full Tommy,” he told the crowd, referring to the title character of The Who’s full-length 1969 rock opera Tommy. As a wink to the well-known chorus, he added: “Deaf, dumb, and blind kid.”

Expanding on his thoughts, Daltrey went on to get into what it meant for The Who to perform in 2022. “In the days when I was singing Who songs for three hours a night, six nights a week, I was working harder than most footballers,” he continued. “If you look at my back, it’s bent double because I was on my feet for so many hours and had to project the voice.”

For all but the most hardened fans, this may well be the end of an era and the last chance to see the 80-year-old Daltrey front The Who. Daltrey, in his own words, has stressed the uncertain nature of the band’s future, but also what it means to carry the torch on stage, and what it may mean to hang them up for good.

“I don’t know if we will be able to do these again, because it’s so physically challenging,” Daltrey said. “As to whether we’ll play [one-off] concerts again, I don’t know. The Who to me is very perplexing.”

While it’s hard to know exactly what will happen next, it sounds as though the answer, whether in the form of future tours or individual performances, will come in due time, if at all. In a nod to fans who are still concerned that he may have lost the power in his voice, Daltrey remains upbeat and certain of his abilities. “My voice is still as good as ever,” he said.

All of which brings us to North America, at least for this go-around. Whether or not Townshend and Daltrey take the stage for another tour, and one beyond the current 17 dates, this could well be a chance for fans in North America to say goodbye in a way they haven’t yet. This run is both a swan song and a celebration of a career that has lasted longer than either Townshend or Daltrey can remember. If it is the end of an era, the time on stage that they are on has become a reminder to the pair that they are alive.

“We’re lucky to be alive,” Townshend had said.