The Who announce final tour with Bay Area stop in September

(KRON) — To quote a different band from a similar era, “this could be the last time.” On Thursday, The Who announced they would be embarking on a final tour of U.S. and Canada, some 43 years on from the band’s original “Farewell Tour.”

That long-ago 1982 “farewell” failed to take, and by the ’90s, they were back at it.

Original Who drummer, Keith Moon, who famously passed out at a San Francisco show in the ’70s and was temporarily replaced by an audience member, died in 1978. But the other three of the band’s original members, guitarist Pete Townsend, singer Roger Daltrey, and bassist John Entwistle continuing to tour and make records together until Entwistle’s death in 2002.

Surviving members, Daltrey and Townsend, have soldiered on, until now it seems.

According to Live Nation, this summer’s “The Song Is Over” tour is a “truly grand finale” as the band calls time on a career that spans six decades now. Part of the ’60s “British Invasion,” The Who were contemporaries of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.

While The Beatles era is largely encapsulated in the ’60s, The Who, like The Stones rocked on through the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and beyond. Now, nearly 60 years since the band’s stateside breakthrough, the long-running British rockers are gearing up for one more U.S. outing.

“Every musician’s dream in the early ’60s was to make it big in the U.S. charts,” said Who frontman, Daltrey. “For The Who, that dream came true in 1967 and our lives were changed forever. The warmth of American audiences over the years have been inspirational to me, and reflect the feeling I remember getting after hearing the first rock records coming across the radio. Musical freedom!”

“Well, all good things must come to an end,” added guitarist Townsend. “It is a poignant time. For me, playing to American audiences and those in Canada has always been incredible. The warmth and engagement of those audiences began back in 1967 with hippies smoking dope, sitting on blankets and listening deeply and intensely. Music was everywhere. We all felt equal. Today, Roger and I still carry the banner for the late Keith Moon and John Entwistle, and of course, all of our longtime Who fans.”

One of rock’s most long-standing and iconic outfits, The Who appeared at Woodstock in 1969 and the Monterey Pop Festival two years earlier in 1967. One of the band’s most celebrated performances was at The Concert For New York City at Madison Square Garden following the 9/11 terror attacks.

They were inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

The Who’s “The Song Is Over” tour rolls through the Bay Area this fall when the band will play at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View. Tickets for the tour go on sale to the general public on Friday, May 16.