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At 80 years old, Pete Townshend is hitting the road again, this time for a 17-date North American jaunt with The Who and long-time bandmate Roger Daltrey. It’s something that Townshend admits can feel lonely as both members of the band age, but he still expresses gratitude for being able to play the music of The Who.

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

Townshend concedes that, in recent years, he has felt that tug-of-war between tiredness and gratitude that likely hits most artists who’ve spent decades in the spotlight. Although The Who has been a constant for Townshend for almost 70 years, he acknowledged that the band has now become more than just that to its audience. “It’s a brand rather than a band,” he continued. “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 and Entwistle, of course, were the late former members of The Who, drummer Keith Moon and bassist John Entwistle, who tragically both died young, in 1978 and 1979, respectively. The latter part of Townshend’s quote, however, hints at how being on the road together is making both men face bigger questions about their priorities at this point 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,” Townshend adds. “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.”

The 17-date North American tour, which started last weekend, may be The Who’s swan song, and Townshend admitted that, 50 years in, the thrill of being on stage in front of a crowd has not worn off completely. “It’s a thrill rehearsing songs that we don’t often do, and it takes away the element of predictability now and then,” he says. “It’s surprising what you get used to, and suddenly it’s a bit strange not to do it.”

Roger Daltrey Speaks on Health, Touring, and Plans to Follow

Daltrey, for his part, has also been effusive in his appreciation of the run, telling attendees at a Teenage Cancer Trust charity show in London this past February that, before Townshend took the stage, he was pleased to report that he could still sing. “Fortunately, I still have my voice because then I’ll have a full Tommy,” he told the audience, gesturing to the title character in The Who’s 1969 rock opera. “Deaf, dumb, and blind kid.” (He was quoting, of course, from that song.)

In an interview with The Times earlier this month, Daltrey echoed those words, with a greater sense of finality that likely will have many longtime fans of The Who reading between the lines for any signs of hope. “This is certainly the last time you will see us on tour,” Daltrey told the interviewer. “It’s grueling.”

Touring the North American leg of The Who’s current run can be taxing on the vocal cords of an 80-year-old man singing for two hours a night. Daltrey reflected on the commitment it used to take to perform The Who’s body of work, especially during its peak years, in which the band would hit the road for months at a time, when time off was rare and no-shows for performances were an almost unheard-of occurrence. “In the days when I was singing Who songs for three hours a night, six nights a week, I was working harder than most footballers,” he recalled. “At my age now, 80, I can’t do that anymore.”

He was less forthcoming about the possibility of future one-off shows or performances in the future. “As to whether we’ll play [one-off] concerts again, I don’t know. The Who to me is very perplexing,” Daltrey said. As a lifelong fan, it’s an answer I can’t argue with.

But while Daltrey may be unsure of what the band will do long term, he has no such uncertainty when it comes to his voice. “My voice is still as good as ever,” he told The Times. It’s a sentiment he echoed at the Teenage Cancer Trust charity event in February as well, telling the audience, “For my age, I’m lucky to still have my voice, it sounds great, we’ve got something tonight.” Whether audiences in North America this summer will be able to hear that same voice is perhaps the biggest question mark hanging over the 17-date run. If it is the band’s final tour, then this summer will mark the last chance for fans in the United States and Canada to see both Daltrey and Townshend under the Who moniker.

But as Townshend reminded us in his comments, even at 80 years old, the appreciation they have for being able to perform the music of The Who is also an expression of survival. “We’re lucky to be alive,” he said.