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Pete Townshend is touring again, this time on a 17-date North American run with bandmate Roger Daltrey. The Who guitarist is 80 and can be honest about the cost of touring at this stage of his career and how it can be a lonely business, even as the duo is grateful for the opportunity to play live.

“It can be lonely,” Townshend told an interviewer. “I’ve thought, ‘Well, this is my job, I’m happy to have the work, but I prefer to be doing something else.’ Then, I think, ‘Well, I’m 80 years old. Why shouldn’t I revel in it? Why shouldn’t I celebrate?”

Townshend went on to elaborate on the mix of fatigue and gratitude he’s experienced as he’s reflected on his life in The Who. The band is so much more than what he and Daltrey originally signed up for so many years ago. “It’s a brand rather than a band,” Townshend said. “Roger and I have a duty to the music and the history. The Who [still] sells records — the Moon and Entwistle families have become millionaires. There’s also something more, really: the art, the creative work, is when we perform it. We’re celebrating. We’re a Who tribute band.”

Moon, The Who’s drummer, and Entwistle, the bassist, died in 1978 and 1996, respectively. Their families have since profited from the band’s legacy as a live act. At the same time, Townshend acknowledged a nagging feeling that the work of performing on stage leads to bigger questions about how he and Daltrey are spending their time at this stage in their lives. “It does whet an appetite to think about how we should bow out in our personal lives — what we do with our families and our friends and everything else at this age,” he continued. “We’re lucky to be alive. I’m looking forward to playing. Roger likes to throw wild cards out sometimes in the set, and we have learned and rehearsed a few songs that we don’t always play.”

For The Who, the age of these performances, at least, is still more than 50 years. Even after all that time, rehearsing the songs they rarely play still gives them something to look forward to on tour and keeps things from feeling stale.

Roger Daltrey: We’re Touring for the Last Time. It’s Exhausting

Townshend is joined by Daltrey, who is 80. The singer has been more direct in his estimation of the road work. While performing with Townshend in London earlier this year, at the Teenage Cancer Trust charity benefit show, Daltrey let the crowd know that he was in good health, or at least good enough to keep going. “Fortunately, I still have my voice, because then I’ll have a full Tommy,” he told the audience, before quoting the eponymous main character of The Who’s 1969 rock opera, Tommy. He paused and continued: “Deaf, dumb, and blind kid.”

Daltrey further elaborated on the exhaustion of these performances and the possibility of what will come after the tour in an interview published in The Times earlier this month. His interview, which has been circulating on fan sites and social media, carries the weight of finality for listeners who have seen The Who perform for several decades. “This is certainly the last time you will see us on tour,” Daltrey said. “It’s grueling.”

The singer continued, “I can remember when we used to do three-hour nights at the old Marquee club in London for months at a time, six nights a week, and I was working harder than most footballers. Now at 80, it’s just so draining. I’m knackered.”

The toll of live performances while attempting to sing as powerfully as Daltrey is known to have changed since those years. When The Who were most active in touring, it was easy to build stamina. The same was true for audiences, who were used to more raw performances from singers and musicians.

Asked if the band might do one-off concerts after this tour, Daltrey was equivocal. “As to whether we’ll play [one-off] concerts again, I don’t know,” he said. “The Who to me is very perplexing.”

For concertgoers, the band’s current run across North America may be a last chance to see The Who perform together under the same banner. For Townshend and Daltrey, the gigs serve as a celebration and a farewell, acknowledging the years spent together and the history they helped create in the music industry.

As much as The Who are about performing songs, at this stage, it is also a chance to honor and be present with the people in their lives: their children, their friends, and their family. The reasons to carry on and give what they can to the audiences have less to do with fame and celebrity and more to do with survival and living long enough to do what the band has done, for better or worse. “We’re lucky to be alive,” Townshend told his interviewer, which is a matter of perspective and also the essence of their decision to continue on the road together.