Roger Daltrey built his first guitar and settled the Who's name
In 1957 a London schoolboy carved himself a copy of a cherry red Stratocaster, then joined a skiffle group called the Detours. Seven years later, with another act already using that name, the band argued over alternatives until Roger Daltrey decided for everyone the next morning: they would be the Who.
Daltrey arrived on 1 March 1944 at Hammersmith Hospital, in the middle of a wartime air raid. His father, an insurance clerk, was called up, and baby Roger and his mother were sent off to a farm in Scotland. Back in West London he topped his class in the eleven-plus and went to Acton County Grammar, the school Pete Townshend and John Entwistle also attended, though he was eventually expelled.
His father bought him an Epiphone in 1959 and he became lead guitarist and boss of the Detours, a leader who, by Townshend's account, answered arguments with punches; Daltrey blamed the rough streets he grew up on. Once Townshend began writing the songs and I Can't Explain became a hit in early 1965, his grip loosened. Late that year the others threw him out after he attacked Keith Moon over drugs, then took him back a week later on probation. He said losing the band would have meant a life of sheet metal work.
Instead he became the face of the group. Swinging his microphone by its cord became his trademark, his stammering vocal on My Generation caught the mood of sixties youth, and the howl he let loose late in Won't Get Fooled Again became one of rock's great moments. In 1973, digging into the accounts while the others recorded Quadrophenia, he found the band's finances in a mess under its managers, which strained his relations with Townshend.
Acting followed: he played the title role in Ken Russell's 1975 film of Tommy, earning a Golden Globe nomination, and portrayed Franz Liszt in Lisztomania. After Moon died in 1978 and the band split in 1983, they reunited in 1989 for a 25th anniversary tour. On the eve of a 1996 Hyde Park Quadrophenia show a swinging microphone stand broke his eye socket, and he performed anyway behind an eye patch. He was knighted in June 2025.
Source: Roger Daltrey
