Roger Daltrey claims rock is dead and only rap music matters

In an outspoken interview with The Times, Roger reflected upon the boisterous nature of The Who back in their sixties heyday when he and Pete Townshend would regularly exchange blows.

“That’s why we’re a boy band,” the 72-year-old told explained. “Boys like to fight. There’s still a danger about the Who, but then rock music is a safety valve and it has probably prevented a Third World War: it releases the tension of youth and let’s face it, youth is aggressive by nature.”

Lamenting the apparent death of his genre, Roger added: “The sadness for me is that rock has reached a dead end. The only people saying things that matter are the rappers, and most pop is meaningless and forgettable. You watch these people and you can’t remember a bloody thing.”

Roger went on to say that repercussions of World War II helped shape his generation of rock stars.

“I’ve always thought it had something to do with our parents being shell-shocked from the war,” Roger said of the blossoming music scene in the sixties.

“Every time there was a thunderstorm my mum would push us under the table. Nothing was talked about. It meant we had a blank canvas to put our statements on, but we didn’t know it was significant at the time.”

In the same interview conducted on the road at Desert Trip Festival in California, Pete Townshend extraordinarily professed to despising performing live.

“I’m such a boring f***er,” Townshend told the newspaper. “It means nothing to me. I would be a liar if I said, ‘It was really fun, man. It was great!’ It wasn’t great. It was a gig. I did it and I got paid.

“The fact is, I don’t really like performing. But I’m good at it. I’m lucky to be good at something. I could have worked in an abattoir.”

Other artists who have ‘killed off’ rock music in recent years include Gene Simmons and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea.