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The Who made a huge announcement last week about their farewell tour in the US, which will begin in Florida on August 16 and end in Las Vegas on September 28 - remain "unconvinced" about staging the same goodbye in their home country. The Express can now explain exactly why they're investing their time in America, where they feel their most devoted fans live.

"American music fans were different... they really, really, really listened," Pete Townshend shared. He added that when they'd started out playing shows at common rooms in British universities, they didn't quite get the same awe-struck reaction from weed-smoking revellers that they had done across the pond. "People sat down and had a drink or rolled a joint," he recalled, "whereas in America there was this sense that there was something else going on, that there was a much more intimate relationship."

He and frontman Roger Daltrey reminisced over one of their first ever shows in the US, a high school gym, where the crowd stood "open-mouthed" before "going absolutely nuts" at seeing Pete smash his guitar.

Some of their fondest memories were of touring the US in the 1960s, where they ended up playing iconic festivals like Monterey and Woodstock, alongside the likes of Jimi Hendrix.

Explaining why approval in the US meant so much to him, Roger beamed during a video call from his mansion in Sussex: "You've got to remember where we come from.

"We were in post-war England, the land of Spam sandwiches, and everybody's dream was to make it successfully in America. Every young musician was dreaming of that, because that was where we first heard rock music coming from."

It was their 1967 appearance at Monterey Festival, California, which truly "cemented them into American pop culture" and changed life as they knew it forever, with Pete previously thinking he'd only be a member of The Who for a year before leaving.

He was "nervous" as they'd be sharing the bill with home-grown legends such as Janis Joplin, Otis Redding and Jimi Hendrix, with the latter smashing his guitar like Pete did and performing "mind-f*****g shows".

He recalled: "Brian Jones was there - he flipped a coin for whether or not Jimi went on stage before we went on. I felt it was wrong for the Who to go on after Jimmy, to be honest, because I felt he was a superior performer!"

The Who will start their farewell tour in the USA on August 16, while