Roger Daltrey has a long history with Leo Sayer. Not only did he help launch the British pop-rock singer’s career, but he also gave him advice that kept it going.
Sayer was a virtual unknown when he co-wrote 10 of the 12 songs for Daltrey’s self-titled debut solo album in 1973. But by 1977, he was not only known as a gifted songwriter but also as the singer of the hits “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” and “When I Need You.”
Sayer has released more than 20 albums, won a Grammy Award, and still hits the road for live shows at age 77.
Daltrey, 81, previously spoke about meeting Sayer through a mutual friend who brought him to his studio in the early 1970s.
“‘There was this young kid and he was playing and singing all these incredible songs, but he couldn’t get a record deal,” Daltrey told Goldmine magazine of Sayer in a 2023 interview. “So I just off-the-cuff said to him, ‘Why don’t you write a few songs for me and I’ll do a solo album and see if that helps you, see if it gets you recognized for being a songwriter, and it just might give you a leg up in the business.’”
Daltrey noted that not only did Sayer show up with 10 songs in less than two weeks, but that he soon secured a record deal and “had an enormously [successful] pop career.”
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More than 50 years later, both Daltrey and Sayer have two of the most well-preserved voices in rock and roll, and it’s all due to the advice The Who frontman followed.
In an interview on UK’s Good Morning Britain, Daltrey said he never touched hard drugs because he didn’t want to ruin his voice.
“When the drugs first started to come around in the early ‘60s with the Mods it was mostly amphetamines, and they dry you out, and if they dry you out, you can’t sing very well, and all I ever wanted to be was a good singer,” he said on the British program, per the Pueblo Chieftain.
“I have never ever tried, I must be one of the only people my age who has never had a line of cocaine,” the rock legend added.
Daltrey also passed that advice down to his Sayer.
In a 2023 interview with The Catalyst, Sayer admitted that he experimented with drink and drugs “very lightly” early on, but took heed of Daltrey’s tip to protect his voice.
“Roger Daltrey told me right from the start – he’s still relatively healthy for his age and still has that voice – he said ‘Leo, you’re going to be the most boring guy in the band. You’re going to be the guy who goes to bed early. Doesn’t party with the rest of the dudes. Doesn’t take all the drugs that the other guys are taking,’” Sayer recalled. “Because Roger never took anything …. he said ‘you’re going to be the boring guy that everybody else will call the lightweight. But in 30, 40 years’ time, you’re gonna have the same voice.’ And he was right.”
“And the last time I talked with Roger, this is what we talked about,” Sayer added. “He said, ‘Didn’t we do the right thing?”
