Bankrate: I found it really funny in the film when you said, "The Who just wanted to be rich and famous, and we made no apologies for it." Having succeeded beyond most people's wildest dreams, is the whole thing as fantastic as you hoped?
Roger Daltrey: It's incredible! When I look at the numbers of people on this planet and how many people get to have a life as varied and interesting as ours, it's ridiculous. Talk about winning the lottery. I never cease to be amazed by it. But I haven't changed. I'm still the same guy looking out through the same pair of eyes.
Bankrate: The part about Jimi Hendrix stealing your act was also fascinating. Considering that he took so much from you, if The Who didn't exist, do you think Hendrix would have been quite the phenomenon he was?
Roger Daltrey: Oh yes, there's no question. His musical talent was immense, and as a showman he had his thing, but ... Pete was doing that stuff two years earlier, on the "Murray the K" show in early '67. We were doing that on "My Generation" in '65, way before Hendrix. Listen to the solo in "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere." That's all feedback, banging of guitars. Hendrix's whole show came from that. But his musical talent was enormous. We don't claim that without The Who, Hendrix would have been nothing. That's not the point.
Bankrate: Last year, Pete got a bit of press for supposedly ranting to a crowd in Jones Beach about how The Who can't get airplay these days. How would you define your and Pete's place in music today?
Roger Daltrey: I can't. Objectively, from inside it, I can't. I really can't. That has to be in the ears of the audience, but it is hard for every band now to get airplay. You've got to realize that something like 90 percent of the music you're hearing on the radio is chosen by a computer.
Bankrate: That's so depressing.
Roger Daltrey: It is incredibly depressing. That's a fact of life these days. It's marketing, and it's incredibly sad. It's a sad state we're in.
Bankrate: You've been trying to put together a movie about Keith Moon. What is the status of that?
Roger Daltrey: The status is still trying to get a script that's good enough for me, and it's very difficult. It may never happen. I'm starting to think now maybe it won't, I don't know. It does get very discouraging sometimes. I still think there's a film there, but there's one scene I gotta find before it can take off, and I haven't found that yet.
Bankrate: Are you completely spearheading this project?
Roger Daltrey: No. No. It's my project, but Mike Myers is involved with me in it, and he's been trying to get a script, but he's having the same trouble I have. (Editor's note: If the project gets off the ground, "Austin Powers" star Myers is hoping to play Moon.) But I really do need to sit down, because I've been on the road for 13 months. I need to sit down with a writer and see if we can iron out the final wrinkles in it, because it's so close to being a script worth making.
Bankrate: So what's your exact role on this project?
Roger Daltrey: I basically got the rights to it, and the good will of The Who.
Bankrate: So you're just making sure that it lives up to ...
Roger Daltrey: Yeah. Ultimately, my purpose is ... I've always felt that if what I've done in the last 15 years on this project is to get in the way of bad Keith Moon films being made, so be it. There have been attempts to make quite a few bad ones.
Bankrate: What does the future hold for you and Pete as far as The Who is concerned?
Roger Daltrey: Doing what we do. Hopefully making more records. Pete's writing at the moment and playing more shows on stage. We're enjoying it now. We don't feel we have to try so hard anymore. Do we really have to prove anything anymore? We just want to enjoy the fact that we're lucky enough to have been here, and our job is to entertain people. That's what we're gonna do.
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