“This is the longest time in my life I haven’t worked,” he said.

Valli, in a phone interview from his home in Los Angeles, talked about returning to the stage after 16 months of being sidelined by the pandemic as well as the latest iteration of “Jersey Boys,” the hit musical that charted the rise of the Four Seasons.

This interview was edited for space and clarity.

Q: You’ve got the shot, the vaccine. How long ago did you get it?

A: As soon as it was available.

Q: Are you at all nervous about going out there with crowds?

A: No, I’m probably more nervous about flying.

Q: You’re 87 years old. Elton John is getting ready to do his farewell tour. Neil Diamond doesn’t play live anymore. Touring is not easy. Why do you do this?

A: Well, basically, just because I love to do it. I have done nothing else for my whole life. [I] don’t have to stop doing it unless I get to the point where I feel I can’t do it anymore.

Q: Do you feel it now when you get back to rehearsals?

A: I won’t really be able to answer that question until I start traveling. The traveling is so much worse than the performing. It’s a lot harder.

Q: You’ve been doing some of these songs for 60 years. Are there songs you love to sing the most? Are there songs you say . . . Do I have to do “Sherry” again?

A: You have to approach it as though you’re doing it for the first time as far as the audience is concerned. They never get enough of that because maybe they see you once a year or maybe once every other year. They’re not getting it as often as you’re doing it.

Q: I’ve seen people like Brian Wilson over the years. He’ll do “Good Vibrations” and “In My Room,” but he’ll also do some of the quirkier and more eccentric or lesser known things. Do you get the urge to throw in “Soul of a Woman” or records that weren’t quite as appreciated in their time?

A: You do, but there’s just a certain amount of time that you have to perform. We do our performances for about two hours. We can actually go to three hours and do all songs that were chart records. There’s just not enough time.

Q: Frankie, your voice is a very special voice. And you’ve been doing this for a long time. What do you do to keep it up? Do you have to do voice exercises?

A: You have to sing a song on the side. You know, it’s like a body builder — he keeps his body in great form and he has to do it regularly. Now, whether I’m working or not, I mean, I sing.

Q: Going back to Brian Wilson . . . These days, he delegates some of his higher parts to different guys. He sings a lot of the Mike Love parts. Is that something you do, or you think of doing as time passes?

A: No, I haven’t gotten to that point where I’ve had to do that. So I really haven’t given it any thought. I guess we’ll see what happens after this year.