The Who have parted ways with Zak Starkey, the band’s drummer since 1996, apparently over a disagreement about his playing at their Royal Albert Hall gig last month.
A representative for the band suggested the decision was mutual and came in the wake of their performance for the Teenage Cancer Trust (TCT).
“The band made a collective decision to part ways with Zak after this round of shows at the Royal Albert Hall. They have nothing but admiration for him and wish him the very best for his future.”
The Who’s Roger Daltrey is a patron of TCT and until 2024 acted as curator for their annual gig series at the London venue.
But a review of the band’s March gig in the Metro suggested that Daltrey was complaining onstage about Starkey’s performance.
It said that the frontman paused their final song, The Song Is Over, and told the audience: “To sing that song I do need to hear the key, and I can’t. All I’ve got is drums going boom, boom, boom. I can’t sing to that. I’m sorry guys.”
Starkey, son of Beatles drummer Ringo Starr and Maureen Starkey, gave a statement to People magazine about his firing. “I’m very proud of my near 30 years with the Who. Filling the shoes of my godfather, ‘uncle Keith’” – the band’s original drummer, Keith Moon – “has been the biggest honor and I remain their biggest fan. They’ve been like family to me.
“After playing those songs with the band for so many decades, I’m surprised and saddened anyone would have an issue with my performance that night, but what can you do?” he continued, referencing the London gig.
Starkey had appeared to be aware that the news was coming – and not on the warm terms shared by the Who’s representative – when he shared a tongue-in-cheek post on Instagram at the weekend.
Beneath a photo of himself and Daltrey, Starkey wrote in all caps: “Heard today from inside source that Toger Daktrey [sic] lead singer and principal songwriter of the group unhappy with Zak the drummer’s performance at the Albert Hall a few weeks ago is bringing formal charges of overplaying and is literally going to Zak the drummer.”
Starkey joined the band full time during their 1996 Quadrophenia tour. He was introduced to drumming by the Keith Moon, a family friend who gave him a drum kit for his eighth birthday.
Starkey has also played with Oasis – although the lineup for the band’s upcoming reunion tour is yet to be officially announced – Johnny Marr, the Lightning Seeds, Sly and Robbie, and his father.
He performs in the recently formed supergroup Mantra of the Cosmos, also featuring Shaun Ryder and Bez of the Happy Mondays and Black Grape, and Andy Bell of Oasis and Ride. In January, the band was forced to cancel a live date when Starkey suffered a blood clot in his leg. “This is now completely healed and does not affect my drumming or running,” he said in the statement to People.
Starkey said he now planned to “take some much needed time off with my family, and focus on the release of Domino Bones by Mantra of the Cosmos with Noel Gallagher in May, and finishing my autobiography written solely by me.”
