Well, there seems to indeed be a silver lining to every cloud: If guitarist Pete Townshend’s tinnitus forces him to an unfortunate, early retirement (this is the cloud part), at least part of the Who will go on—and perhaps with a member of Led Zeppelin (this is the silver bit). The Who’s Roger Daltrey told BBC 6Music that if the two surving Who members must part, he’d dig working with a new axeman, specifically, Jimmy Page:
I’d love to do something, I’d love to do an album with Jimmy Page. He needs a singer to drive him. I’m a great blues singer. I don’t sing the blues with The Who, but that’s what I used to be before Townshend started writing. I used to be a great blues singer.
There’s no word yet on whether Page is up for some jamming with a fellow classic rock icon, but the odds are that he isn’t sitting around waiting for Robert Plant to call.
As for Townshend, “If my hearing is going to be a problem, we’re not delaying shows – we’re finished,” he said. “I can’t really see any way around the issue.”