LouisWhile Pete Townshend’s ongoing tinnitus problem threatens to dock the Who for the foreseeable future, Roger Daltrey is already lobbying to work with another guitar god who’s on the lookout for a vocalist. “I’d love to do an album with Jimmy Page. He needs a singer to drive him. I’m a great blues singer,” Daltrey told BBC 6Music. “I don’t sing the blues with the Who, but that’s what I used to be before Townshend started writing. I used to be a great blues singer.”
As Rolling Stone previously reported, Page seemed eager to return to the live stage in 2010 after spending last year mostly on the sidelines, watching his Led Zeppelin counterparts like Robert Plant, who released Raising Sand with Alison Krauss and is reportedly working on a solo album, and John Paul Jones, who joined the supergroup Them Crooked Vultures, take on other musical projects. “Next year I have every intention of playing music live and manifesting it,” Page said late last year. “I’ve got the music waiting, and that’s what I’ll be doing.”
Before any possible collaboration with Page takes place, Daltrey will first hit the road with another of rock’s greatest guitarists. As Rolling Stone reported, the Who frontman and current RS cover star Eric Clapton will embark on a joint tour starting February 25th in Pittsburgh.
Starting with their Super Bowl XLIV halftime show, 2010 was expected to be a big year for the Who, with a tour to follow the band’s most-watched performance ever. However, Townshend continues to suffer from the tinnitus that has plagued his hearing for years.“If my hearing is going to be a problem, we’re not delaying shows. We’re finished. I can’t really see any way around the issue.”
The guitarist was introduced to a new in-ear monitor that might prevent any further damage, and he’ll give the device a test drive when the Who play their only scheduled date of 2010, a March 30th Teenage Trust Cancer benefit concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall where the band will perform its classic Quadrophenia in its entirety.
