He’s the feisty frontman of one of the greatest rock bands. And through it all, his rock-solid family and Sussex home have been his sanctuary
He’s famous for that scream on Won’t Get Fooled Again, the furious rebellion of My Generation and a whole lot of bare-chested, microphone-swinging. But today Roger Daltrey – singer, actor, former trout farmer and philanthropist – is sitting quietly in the corner of a cosy, softly-lit room in a genteel Georgian hotel in central London.
He stands up to shake my hand and greets me with a warm, slightly crooked smile (he broke his jaw as a child). He’s 74 and still in great shape, looking sharp in a crisp black shirt with slim-fitting black jeans, a full head of curls and his blue-tinted glasses.
So how did he balance his rock career and home life? “Some of my friends in the business found it hard to readjust to a normal family existence after the madness on the road. Me? No problem. I lived in the moment. If the moment involved standing in front of thousands of people with a drummer passed out on his drums, I’d deal with it. If it involved hosting 100 aunts and uncles, nieces, third cousins and nephews twice removed, no problem,” he says. “I used to import the whole family by coach on Christmas Day, about 60 of them, to have a beano in Sussex. I remember Christmas 1976 when Dad looked me in the eye and said, ‘Isn’t it grand?’ He was happy and that meant the world to me.”
He seems very down to earth, happy in his own skin. He’s the only member of The Who who never got into hard drugs and he’s been married for a mighty 51 years. “Heather and I were in the first flush of marriage when the kids started coming along: Rosie and then Willow three years later. When we had our son Jamie in 1981 I got to have a go at the hands-on dad routine. It didn’t matter how crazy things got on the road, I knew I was always coming back to stability,” he says.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة December 2018 من Sussex Life.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة December 2018 من Sussex Life.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
TAKE YOUR TIME
Dean Edwards’ new cookbook features delectable recipes that you can slow cook or stick in the oven. Here’s a selection of the best
Decorative art
Not simply functional, treat your walls like an extension of your personality
ON THE FRONT FOOT
The rugby legend took the reins at Sussex County Cricket Club in 2017, rekindling his love for a sport that first won his heart on the village cricket fields of North Yorkshire
NAKED AMBITION
In the 1980s, Christine and Jennifer Binnie partied with Boy George and Marilyn and bared all as performance art collective The Neo-Naturists. Now they are working together to gain the recognition they feel they deserve
ROCKET MAN
Astronaut Tim Peake has come a long way since growing up in Westbourne and attending Chichester High School for Boys: 248 miles above Earth, to be precise. But, he says, life on the International Space Station has a lot in common with family caravanning holidays
Revolution man
Lewes’ most famous resident Thomas Paine may be the greatest propagandist who ever lived. But how did a humble customs and excise officer ignite the touchpaper for revolution in not one but two countries?
THE DIARY
17 exciting things to do this month in East and West Sussex
All in a day's work
Meet Tim Dummer, who has helped keep Midhurst’s Cowdray Estate shipshape for an impressive five decades
My favourite Sussex
Bruce Fogle is an author and a vet with a practice in London who has lived in West Sussex with his wife, the actress Julia Foster, since 1989. He recently became president of RSPCA Mount Noddy near Chichester
10 OF THE BEST Meat-free restaurants in Brighton and Hove
Brighton is often rated one of the most vegan-friendly cities in the UK. What these restaurants prove is that plant-based food doesn’t have to be puritanical – at all of these places you’ll find big flavours and a desire to push the envelope
