Townshend a proud rock statetsman

Pete Townshend says that he's proud that the Who's legacy has now spanned three generations. Townshend and Roger Daltrey, the only two surviving members of the band, will hit the road in June, and later this year will release their first new album in almost 24 years.

The guitarist told Britain's ITV that he's proud to be perceived as an elder rock statesman, explaining that, "Normally it's the old dad who nudges his 10-year-old boy and says 'Look it's the guitarist from the Who.' Nowadays it seems a lot to be the other way round, 10-year-old kids nudging their dads saying 'That's Pete Townshend' and that's down to (our performance at last summer's) Live 8."

Roger Daltrey added that he sees a direct correlation between '60s rockers and the bluesmen of yore: "It's like the reaction we used to give John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf and all those black Americans playing blues in the '60s. We used to really look up to them and communicate with them in a musical sense and it feels like the Who have stepped up that level now."

The Who kick off their 14-date European summer tour on June 25th in Leeds, England, at Harewood House. U.S. gigs are expected for later this summer, possibly in August or September.

The band's new album is rumored to be titled either WHO2, or possibly the tongue-in-cheek Who's Left, a reference to the fact that half the band is now dead. Drummer Keith Moon and bassist John Entwistle had drug-related deaths in 1978 and 2002, respectively.