A: I kind of work with one in-ear monitor in one ear and the hearing aid in the other. You can manipulate them so that I get the best sound for hearing myself that I can on stage with this system. Fortunately.

Q: We spoke back in 1992 to preview the La Jolla Playhouse opening of "The Who's 'Tommy," which you attended here. You told me at that time: "You can hear a big change in my voice before and after 'Tommy.' It's like two different people. It was wonderful. It freed up my singing, and it gave me an identity." Was there any direct or indirect cause and effect between "Tommy" coming out in 1969 — and freeing up your voice — and then making your first two solo albums, "Daltrey" in 1973 and "Ride a Rock Horse" in 1975?

A: No, not really. I mean, my solo albums came because the Who was having so many long hiatuses from touring in those days. Because Pete used to write all the material, and he used to take time off to write it. That, for the rest of the band, was extremely painful because we were playing at our peak and we wanted to be out there, on tour, doing what we do.

I was sitting on my hands and the solo stuff was just something to keep me singing, basically, as simple as that. But I've never, ever wanted to be, you know, like Rod Stewart and The Faces, where Rod became bigger than the band. I never wanted it to be that way. The Who was my band, and that was always going to be the main priority of mine.

Q: in 1993 when I was covering the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductions, the drummer from the Doors, John Densmore, said to Doors' guitarist Robby Krieger: "Do you remember when we were playing at the Fillmore, and Jim (Morrison) thought he was Roger Daltrey and swung the microphone cord around and hit Bill Graham in the head?"

A: Ha ha ha ha ha!

Q: Did you ever have a mishap with the microphone when you were swinging it around on stage?

A: I usually hit myself! I've only ever hit one person deliberately with the microphone. Every time there's been some mishap, the microphone has always swung back and hit me, either in the kneecap — which is very painful — or, even worse, in the crotch. I twirled it because the Who was such a manic band, with Moon and Townshend, that it enlivened my side of the stage.

Q: I've got to ask: Who was it you deliberately hit?

A: I don't know who it was. All I know is that they're sorry that they threw something that nearly took my eye out on stage. I happened to see them do it. They were trapped in the crowd. And I was quite a good shot with that microphone ...

Q: Unlike Keith Moon, you never drove a car into a hotel swimming pool or threw TVs out hotel windows. Were you ever tempted to?

A: I thought then — and still think now — it was very much puerile behavior. You know, I was born during an air raid in World War II. I was older than the other members of the Who and came from a different area of London, which was much, much poorer — I can still remember food rationing if you can believe that. At the age of 15, I was kicked out of school and I went to work as a sheet metal worker.

To make it in the band, I was working eight hours a day doing sheet metal work, then coming home, swapping my clothes for something a bit cleaner, and going out working in the band at night. So, it's always been (dismaying) for me to see something so puerile and distracting as (hotel room destruction). I found it quite stupid, to be honest.

Q: What is the status of the oft-delayed Keith Moon biopic, and who would you like to play you in the film?

A: It's very much in the works. We are, at this moment, looking for directors. We'll cast it after we have the right director.

Q: You were a very young man when the Who recorded "My Generation," with its famous "hope I die before get old" lyric. Do you put yourself in a young man's frame of mind when you sing it now?

A: I sing it as a singer delivering it. I talk in the song, and I say: "Now, you talk about your generation, I'll talk about my generation." I don't pretend to be young. I sing the song.

Q: A big disappointment about the Who is how infrequently the band has made albums since the 1970s.

A: Well, you can't go back. It's always been a little bit of a weight on my shoulders that (Pete and I) have never managed to go into the studio and bang things around between us. I've written songs and laid them down — I'm not a slouch — and who knows what could come of them if we could collaborate?

Q: What would it take to make that happen?

A: (laughing) An earthquake!

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