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Sir Roger Harry Daltrey (born 1 March 1944) is an English singer, musician and actor. He is the co-founder and lead vocalist of the Rock music band the Who, known for his powerful voice and charismatic stage presence. His stage persona earned him a position as one of the "gods of rock and roll".
Daltrey's hit songs with the Who include "My Generation", "Pinball Wizard", "Won't Get Fooled Again", "Baba O'Riley", "Who Are You" and "You Better You Bet". He began a solo career in 1973 while still a member of the Who, and has released ten solo studio albums, five compilation albums and one live album. His solo hits include "Giving It All Away", "Free Me", "Without Your Love" and "Under a Raging Moon".
The Who are considered one of the most influential rock bands of the 20th century and have sold over 100 million records worldwide. As a member of the band, Daltrey received a Lifetime achievement award from the British Phonographic Industry in 1988, and from the Grammy Foundation in 2001. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. He and Pete Townshend received Kennedy Center Honors in 2008, and The George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement at UCLA on 21 May 2016.
Daltrey was ranked number 61 on Rolling Stones list of the 100 greatest singers of all time in 2008; Planet Rock listeners voted him rock's fifth-greatest voice in 2009. Daltrey has also been an actor and film producer, with roles in films, theatre, and television. In June 2025 Daltrey was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the Birthday Honours for services to charity and music.
Daltrey attended Victoria Primary School and Acton County Grammar School in west London, the same school Pete Townshend and John Entwistle attended. He showed academic promise in the English state school system and was top of his class in the eleven-plus examination, after which he went to Grammar School.
Daltrey's first guitar, a cherry red Stratocaster replica, he made himself in 1957. He joined a skiffle group called the Detours who needed a lead vocalist, and produced it when they told him to bring a guitar. His father bought him an Epiphone guitar in 1959 and he became the band's lead guitarist.
He also became the band's leader, and gained a reputation for using his fists to impose discipline. According to Townshend, Daltrey "ran things the way he wanted. If you argued with him, you usually got a bunch of fives, a". Daltrey explained, later in life, that this harsh approach came from the tough neighbourhood in which he had grown up, where arguments were resolved by fighting. He was expelled from school, and Townshend wrote in his autobiography, "until he was expelled, Roger had been a good pupil."
They discovered in 1964 that another band was performing as the Detours, and discussed changing their name. Townshend suggested "the Hair" and Townshend's room-mate Richard Barnes suggested "The Who". The next morning, Daltrey made the decision for the band, saying "It's the Who, innit?"
The band's second single, "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere", was a collaboration between Daltrey and Townshend. While Townshend was developing into an accomplished composer, Daltrey was gaining a reputation as a singer and front-man. The Who's stage act was energetic, and Daltrey's habit of swinging the microphone around by its cord on stage became a signature move. His Townshend-inspired stuttering expression of youthful anger, frustration and arrogance in the band's breakthrough single, "My Generation", captured the revolutionary feeling of the 1960s for young people around the world and became a trademark sound. His scream near the end of "Won't Get Fooled Again" was a defining moment in rock and roll. By 1973, Daltrey was experiencing success with his solo projects and acting roles. While the other members of the band were recording the music for their sixth studio album Quadrophenia, he took the opportunity to examine the Who's financial books and found they had fallen into disarray under the management of Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp. Lambert was Pete Townshend's artistic mentor, and challenging him led to renewed tension within the band. During a filming session, in an incident that Daltrey later claimed was overblown, Townshend and Daltrey argued over the schedule, Townshend hit Daltrey over the head with his guitar, and Daltrey responded by knocking Townshend unconscious with a single blow.Giuliano, p. 103
In the Who's milestone achievements, Tommy (1969), Who's Next (1971), and Quadrophenia (1973), Daltrey became the face and voice of the band as they defined themselves as rebels in a generation of change. When Ken Russell's adaptation of Tommy appeared as a feature film in 1975, Daltrey played the lead role. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for "Best Acting Debut in a Motion Picture", and appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine on 10 April 1975. He worked with Russell again, starring as Franz Liszt in Lisztomania, and collaborated with Rick Wakeman on the soundtrack of the film.
The Who's drummer, Keith Moon, died in 1978. The band continued working after his death, but Daltrey thought that new drummer Kenney Jones had been the wrong choice. The Who broke up in 1983 when Townshend felt that he could no longer write for them.
The band reformed in 1989 for a 25th Anniversary Tour, which also celebrated the 20th anniversary of their rock opera Tommy. The tour featured a large backing band, with guest appearances by Steve Winwood, Patti LaBelle, Phil Collins, Elton John, and Billy Idol. Daltrey managed to complete the tour in spite of an abdominal ailment, for which he later received surgery.
In 1996, Pete Townshend was approached to produce Quadrophenia for the Prince's Trust concert at Hyde Park, London. Daltrey agreed to help to produce a one-off performance, and the opera was to be performed with a large backing band. On the night before the show, Daltrey was struck in the face by a microphone stand swung by Gary Glitter and the accident fractured his eye socket. There was concern that he might not be able to perform, but Daltrey covered the bruises with an eye patch and completed the show as scheduled. Townshend took the production on tour in 1996–97 as the Who.
After the success of the Quadrophenia tour, the band returned as the Who with a five-piece line-up for tours in 1999–2000, and they made a major impact at the Concert for New York City in 2002. After Entwistle's death in June 2002, Daltrey and Townshend decided to continue with an already planned tour, with bassist Pino Palladino taking Entwistle's place. They also completed a brief tour in 2004. In 2006, they released the Who's first studio album of new material in twenty-four years, Endless Wire, which led to suggestions that the much-discussed artistic tension in the Who lay between Daltrey and Townshend. The band undertook a world tour in 2006–07 in support of the album.
In February 2010, Townshend and Daltrey, headlining as the Who, performed the half-time show at Super Bowl XLIV in Miami Gardens, Florida, and were seen by 105.97 million viewers across the world. In March 2010, Townshend and Daltrey, with an extensive backing band, performed Quadrophenia at the Royal Albert Hall in London as a tenth-anniversary charity benefit for the Teenage Cancer Trust. Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam sang the part of the Godfather and Tom Meighan of Kasabian sang the part of Aceface.
Daltrey also wrote a song titled "Crossroads Now" for the Who, which grew from an onstage jam in 1999.Soeder, J. (May 2002) The Plain Dealer Another Daltrey song, "Certified Rose", was rehearsed by the Who shortly before the death of John Entwistle. The band had intended to play it, as well as Townshend's "Real Good Looking Boy", during their 2002 tour, but it was dropped after Entwistle's death. It was rumoured that a studio version had been recorded during the Endless Wire sessions which may have featured Entwistle's basslines from 2002, but Townshend later stated that no such recording had been made. A more recent recording of "Certified Rose" was released on Daltrey's tenth solo studio album, As Long As I Have You (2018).
Daltrey's second solo studio album, Ride a Rock Horse, was released in July 1975. It was his second most commercially successful solo album.
When Leo Sayer launched his own career as a singer, Daltrey called on a widening group of friends to write for and perform on his albums. Paul McCartney contributed the new song "Giddy" to One of the Boys (1977), where the band included Hank Marvin of the Shadows, Eric Clapton, Alvin Lee and Mick Ronson, as well as calling on a member of the Who, John Entwistle.
McVicar (1980) was a soundtrack album from the film of the same name, in which Daltrey starred and also co-produced; it featured all the other members of the Who at that time (Townshend, Entwistle, and Kenney Jones). McVicar included two hit singles, "Free Me", and "Without Your Love", Daltrey's best-selling solo recording.
His fifth solo studio album, Parting Should Be Painless (1984), received negative reviews and was his poorest-selling studio album up to that point. In it, Daltrey had vented his frustrations after the break-up of the Who by assembling a set of roughly autobiographical songs. They included a track contributed by Bryan Ferry ("Going Strong"), and a cover version of the Eurythmics ("Somebody Told Me"). Daltrey said the album covered musical areas that he had wanted the Who to pursue. The title track of the next studio album, Under a Raging Moon (1985) was a tribute to the Who's drummer, Keith Moon, who had died in 1978 at the age of 32.
Daltrey's final studio album of the 1980s, Can't Wait to See the Movie (1987), featured the track "The Price of Love", co-written by David Foster which was also featured in the 1987 movie The Secret of My Success, starring Michael J. Fox.
On his only studio of the 1990s, Rocks in the Head (1992), Daltrey's voice ranged from a powerful bluesy growl in the style of Howlin' Wolf, to tender vocals shared with his daughter Willow on the ballad "Everything a Heart Could Ever Want".
Daltrey appeared in the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992, singing the hard rock Queen song "I Want It All", in homage to his friend Freddie Mercury who had died the previous year one day after a public announcement that he had AIDS.
To celebrate his 50th birthday in 1994, Daltrey performed two shows at Carnegie Hall in New York City. A recording of the concerts was later issued on CD and video, entitled , and is sometimes called Daltrey Sings Townshend. The success of these shows led to a US tour under the same name, featuring Pete Townshend's brother Simon Townshend on lead guitar. Phil Spalding played bass in the first half of each show and John Entwistle played bass in the second half. An Australian leg was considered but eventually scrapped.
A fan of the Premier League football club Arsenal F.C., Daltrey wrote and performed a specially commissioned song, "Highbury Highs", for the 2006 Highbury Farewell ceremony after the final football match was played at the Arsenal Stadium ground. "Rock legend to pay tribute to Highbury" . Arsenal F.C.. Retrieved 8 August 2015 Daltrey's performance was part of Arsenal's celebration of the club's 93 years at Highbury as it prepared to move to a new stadium.
Daltrey embarked on a solo tour of the US and Canada on 10 October 2009, the "Use It or Lose It" tour, with a new touring band he called "No Plan B" on The Alan Titchmarsh Show. The band included Simon Townshend on rhythm guitar and backing vocals, Frank Simes on lead guitar, Jon Button on bass guitar, Loren Gold on keyboards, and Scott Devours on drums. Eddie Vedder made a guest appearance at the Seattle show on 12 October. In 2010, Daltrey and No Plan B appeared for several dates with Eric Clapton, including Summerfest held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
On 15 March 2018, Daltrey announced the forthcoming release on 1 June of a new solo studio album, As Long as I Have You. He appeared on BBC One's The Graham Norton Show on 13 April 2018 to promote the single taken from the album.
In May 2021, Daltrey announced a return to touring, with the solo Live and Kicking Tour, starting in August 2021. The tour was rescheduled and carried out during the summer of 2022.
On 12 January 2009, he headlined a one-off concert with Babyshambles at the O2 Academy Bristol for Teenage Cancer Trust. On 5 July 2009, he joined the Jam's lead vocalist, Paul Weller, on stage at Hop Farm Festival in Paddock Wood, Kent for an encore of "Magic Bus". In 2011, Daltrey recorded a duet on the song "Ma seule amour" with French singer and composer Laurent Voulzy for his seventh studio album Lys and Love.
In November 2014, while staying at the Mar Hall Hotel in Bishopton, Renfrewshire, ahead of the Who's gig at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland, Daltrey joined local band Milestone for an impromptu rendition of "I Can't Explain". The band were playing at a wedding reception in the hotel.
Suddenly each and everyone stopped caring about the down-pouring rain. When the Who took the stage we couldn't do anything but to reach for the sky and howl. Anyone who has ever thought of calling these gods old men and dinosaurs should be deeply ashamed. The reports we've heard from around the world were true: Live rock doesn't get any better.
After 1999, it became common for Daltrey to play guitar during both the Who and solo shows. He played a Versoul Buxom 6 handmade acoustic guitar on the Who's 2002 tour. Daltrey owns a Gibson Everly Brothers Flattop acoustic guitar which he played on the Who and solo tours in the late first decade of the 21st century. On his 2009 tour, he played Pete Townshend's "Blue, Red and Grey" on an Ashbury cutaway tenor EQ ukulele.
Daltrey is among those who brought the harmonica into British popular music. Harmonica brands he has used include Hohner and Lee Oskar.
Daltrey uses Shure microphones. Their cords are taped to strengthen the connection to the microphone and to avoid cutting his hands when he swings and catches it. He commonly uses a standard Shure SM58, but has also used Shure SM78 (in 1981), Shure model 565D Unisphere 1, and Shure model 548 Unidyne IV. Daltrey also uses a hybrid monitoring system, with one in-ear monitor supplemented by floor wedges.
In October 2018, Daltrey published his memoir, Thanks a Lot Mr. Kibblewhite: My Story. The title is a reference to the man who threw him out of grammar school, enabling him to go into a successful music career.
In 1990 Daltrey was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio as a member of the Who. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame also included three songs that Daltrey recorded with the Who on the list of 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll, including: "My Generation", "Go to the Mirror!", and "Baba O'Riley". In 2005, Daltrey received a British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors Gold Badge Award for special and lasting contributions to the British entertainment industry.
In 2003 Daltrey was honoured by Time magazine as a European Hero for his work with the Teenage Cancer Trust and other charities. In the New Year's Honours List published on 31 December 2004, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to Music, the Entertainment Industry and Charity.
As a member of the Who, Daltrey was inducted in 2005 into the UK Music Hall of Fame. In December 2008, he and Pete Townshend were honoured with America's most prestigious cultural awards as recipients of the 31st annual Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, D.C., by the then-president of the United States, George W. Bush. On 4 March 2009, three days after his 65th birthday, Daltrey accepted the James Joyce Award from the Literary and Historical Society of University College Dublin for outstanding success in the music field.
On 12 March 2011, he received the Steiger Award (Germany) for excellence in music. In November 2011, Daltrey and Pete Townshend received the Classic Album Award for Quadrophenia from the Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards at the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm, London.
In July 2012 Daltrey received an honorary degree from Middlesex University in recognition of his contributions to music.
Daltrey has received numerous awards for his music, including Best Blues Album in the British Blues Awards 2015 alongside Wilko Johnson.
In 2019 Daltrey was the recipient of the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. He received his Golden Plate along with Pete Townshend and presented by Awards Council member Peter Gabriel of Genesis.
In June 2025 Daltrey was made a Knight Bachelor in the Birthday Honours for services to charity and music.
Daltrey performed at the first ChildLine Rocks concert at London's the O2 on 13 March 2008. In 2009, Daltrey was a judge for the 8th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists. In the same year, he appeared on stage with Michael J. Fox for the "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Cure Parkinson's" benefit. In April 2010, he headlined the Imagine A Cure II show honouring the legacy of the Beatles' John Lennon, which raised money for the Puget Sound Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer charity. In 2011, Daltrey became a patron of the Children's Respite Trust for children with disabilities.
In 2011, Daltrey, Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, and Julie Andrews provided funding for Robert S. Langer's research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology into vocal cord repair for victims of cancer and other disorders. On 4 November 2011, Daltrey and Pete Townshend launched the Daltrey/Townshend Teen and Young Adult Cancer Programme at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, to be funded by the Who's charity Teen Cancer America. The launch, followed on 5 November by a fund-raising event, was also attended by Robert Plant, and the Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl. Daltrey also announced that a portion of ticket sales from his solo tours would go to fund the teen cancer centres. In 2012, he offered his support to a project helping unemployed young people in Heathfield, East Sussex, run by Tomorrow's People Trust.
Daltrey was previously a supporter of the British Labour Party, but he withdrew his endorsement, citing his opposition to the "mass immigration" policies put in place under the Blair government. In 2018, he criticised Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, describing him as a "communism".
Daltrey supported Britain Brexit the European Union (EU). He wrote in The Mirror: "Whatever happens, our country should never fear the consequences of leaving. We went into the Common Market in 1973. Do you know what was going on before we went in? It was the 1960s. The most exciting time ever – Britain was Swinging Sixties. Films, Theatre, Fashion, Art and Music.... Britain was the centre of the world. You got that because Britain was doing its own thing. It was independent. Not sure we'll ever get that again when we're ruled by Bureaucracy in the European Union." He again criticised the EU in 2019, saying, "If you want to be signed up to be ruled by a fucking mafia, you do it. Like being governed by FIFA".
In 2017, Daltrey opined that a "dead dog" could have defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2016 United States presidential election. In 2018, he denounced the MeToo movement, saying: "I find this whole thing so obnoxious. It's always allegations and it's just salacious crap."
In 2021, Daltrey criticised "the woke generation" in an interview with Zane Lowe's Apple Music 1 podcast, arguing that younger generations are limiting themselves by stifling and undoing creative freedoms that had emerged through the artistic revolutions of the 1960s. He elaborated by saying "It's terrifying, the miserable world they're going to create for themselves. I mean, anyone who's lived a life and you see what they're doing, you just know that it's a route to nowhere."
On 1 March 1994, his 50th birthday, Daltrey received a letter from a woman who claimed to be his daughter from a brief relationship in the interval between his marriages. Daltrey later met two more daughters who were born during this period in the late 1960s. All three had been adopted, and had grown to adulthood before meeting their biological father. Daltrey stated that Heather had joined him in welcoming them to their extended family. As well as his eight children, Daltrey has fifteen grandchildren.
In 1971, Daltrey bought a farm at Holmshurst Manor, a Jacobean country house near Burwash in East Sussex. In 1981 he opened a trout farm, Lakedown Trout Fishery, designing its four spring-fed lakes himself. The business is now run by his son Jamie.
Daltrey announced onstage in 2018 that he had suffered hearing loss as a result of exposure to loud noise levels during performances and was now "very, very deaf". He urged audience members to use earplugs.
In 1978, during the recording of the Who's eighth studio album Who Are You, Daltrey had throat surgery to remove nodules. During a solo tour in 2009 he began finding it harder to reach the high notes. In December 2010 he was diagnosed with vocal cord dysplasia and consulted Steven M. Zeitels, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Voice Center and professor at Harvard Medical School. Zeitels performed laser surgery to remove a possibly pre-cancerous growth. Both surgeries were considered successful, and Daltrey has regular checks to monitor his condition.
Daltrey has an allergy to cannabis that affects his singing voice. When second-hand marijuana smoke from an audience has affected his performance, he has occasionally interrupted the concert to request that people not smoke it. Daltrey has stated that he has never taken hard drugs.
Daltrey is a supporter of Arsenal F.C.
In a 2019 interview with The Times, bandmate Townshend revealed that Daltrey is an Atheism, "I believe in God, he doesn't."
Collaborations with other artists
Other recordings
The RD Crusaders
Discography
Solo
(Formed by Richard Desmond and Daltrey in 2003 to raise money for charitable causes. Featured performers were Gary Brooker, Gary Moore, Greg Lake, Lulu, Margo Buchanan, Robert Plant, Russ Ballard, Sam Brown, Simon Townshend, Steve Balsamo, Steve Smith, and
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Acting career
+ List of acting performances in film and television
Further reading
External links
Categories: Official Website, 1944 Births, Living People, 20th-century English Male Actors, 21st-century English Male Actors, 20th-century English Male Singers, 21st-century English Male Singers, Actors From The London Borough Of Ealing, Actors From The London Borough Of Hammersmith And Fulham, Atco Records Artists, Atlantic Records Artists, British Harmonica Players, British Rhythm And Blues Boom Musicians, British Soft Rock Musicians, Cancer Fundraisers, Commanders Of The Order Of The British Empire, Decca Records Artists, English Eurosceptics, English Film Producers, English Male Film Actors, English Male Singer-songwriters, English Rock Musicians, English Male Rock Singers, Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award Winners, Kennedy Center Honorees, Male Actors From London, No Plan B Members, People Educated At Acton County Grammar School, People From Burwash, Polydor Records Artists, Singers From The London Borough Of Ealing, Singers From The London Borough Of Hammersmith And Fulham, The Who Members, Knights Bachelor
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