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It’s a touring life for Pete Townshend. After reuniting with Roger Daltrey for a spring series of performances that the pair called mini-reunions, the English rockers are hitting the road again. This time, it’s a 17-date North American trek with the band, and the aging guitarist is clear-eyed about touring in his eighth decade.

“I have to admit, at the moment, life on the road is lonely,” the 80-year-old Townshend told CBS Mornings in an interview with his longtime Who bandmate. “I’ve thought, ‘Well, this is my job, I’m happy to have the work. But actually, I’d rather be doing something else.’ But then I think, ‘Well, actually, I’m 80 years old. Why shouldn’t I revel in it? Why shouldn’t I celebrate?”

It’s a reflection of the touring grind but also an appreciation for the gift that keeps on giving in terms of concerts and travel. With each new tour announcement, Townshend and Daltrey, who are now both 80, take stock of their band, the future, and what it all means at this stage in life.

Townshend went on to say that when he and Daltrey consider what they’re doing with the music now, decades after The Who first became a household name, the band is less a musical act and more a brand. “It’s a brand rather than a band,” he said. “Roger and I have a duty to the music, to the history, the Who still sells records, and the Moon and Entwistle families have become millionaires. So, 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.”

The mentions of the late drummer Keith Moon and the late bassist John Entwistle speak to the history and ongoing success of The Who. The band has outlived half of the original lineup, and their influence as performers and creators still sends concertgoers into a frenzy. At the same time, Townshend also says that it triggers thoughts about one’s own life and what could or should be more important.

“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 added. “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.”

In other words, even 50-plus years in, Townshend and Daltrey know that playing some of those deep cuts can mean the difference between some nights feeling like rote performance art and other evenings where there is the possibility of discovery.

Roger Daltrey Shares Honest Health Update on Tour with Who

The Who’s frontman Daltrey, of course, has been just as introspective. When he took the stage with Townshend in London in March as part of a benefit concert with the Teenage Cancer Trust, he gave a heart-to-heart speech to the crowd that doubled as an update on his health.

“I’m very lucky in this respect, because as long as I can still sing, I’ll still have a full Tommy,” Daltrey said, referencing the title character of the band’s legendary 1969 rock opera. Quoting another famous line from the album, Daltrey added, “Deaf, dumb, and blind kid.”

He was referencing his condition and told the audience, “I am all of those things.”

In an interview this month with The Times, Daltrey continued with a similar sentiment and put a finality on the current run of dates in North America. “This is certainly the last time you will see us on tour,” he said. “It’s grueling.”

He went on to say that it takes a toll, especially in the most active periods of their careers. “When I was singing Who songs for three hours a night, six nights a week, I was working harder than most footballers,” he said. At 80, that kind of strain is taking its toll.

It’s less clear as to whether or not the group will ever consider one-off concerts again. “As to whether we’ll play [one-off] concerts again, I don’t know,” Daltrey told the Times. “The Who to me is very perplexing.”

He, too, was resolute when it came to his voice and the concerns that fans might have about his continued performance. “My voice is still as good as ever,” he said, leaving little doubt that he has the power and energy for a career-best performance in his eighth decade.