The Who Fire Longtime Drummer Zak Starkey For “Overplaying” At Recent Shows

Zak Starkey's tenure as live drummer for the Who has apparently come to a close. Following a run of four Teenage Cancer Trust benefit gigs in London last month, a spokesperson for the band said in a statement yesterday that they "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 standard wasn’t as high as everyone wanted," an "insider" told The Mirror. “It’s a little acrimonious to say the least."

Starkey, whose dad is Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, appeared to get ahead of the news with a wacky Instagram post earlier this week, saying he was facing "formal charges of overplaying." He wrote: "HEARD TODAY FROM INSIDE SOURCE WITHIN WHOSE HORSES NOSE 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 AND BRING ON A RESERVE FROM ‘THE BURWASH CARWASH SKIFFLE ‘N’ TICKLE GLEE CLUB HARMONY WITHOUT EMPATHY ALLSTARS’ THIS HAS BEEN CONFIRMED BY WHOSE LONG TIME MANAGER WILLYA YOUWONTYOUKNOW."

As a kid, Starkey spent a lot of time with the Who's most famous drummer Keith Moon, who some might argue was a bit of an "overplayer" himself. Starkey joined the band in 1996; guitarist Pete Townshend has said that they invited Starkey to be a permanent member, but Starkey opted just to be their touring drummer instead. Either way, it doesn't seem like the Who have much touring left in them: At the first of those Royal Albert shows, Townshend, who turns 80 next month, said he'd just undergone a knee replacement, and 81-year-old frontman Roger Daltrey said he was going deaf and blind.

At their last Royal Albert show, however, when the Who played their 1971 song "The Song Is Over" live for the first time ever, Daltrey made his dissatisfaction clear, stopping the song because Starkey's drumming was too powerful. "To sing that song I do need to hear the key, and I can’t," he said. "All I’ve got is drum sound: boom, boom, boom. And I can’t sing to that. I’m sorry guys."

“I’m very proud of my near thirty years with The Who,” Starkey shared in a statement to Rolling Stone. “Filling the shoes of my Godfather, ‘uncle Keith’ has been the biggest honor and I remain their biggest fan. They’ve been like family to me. In January, I suffered a serious medical emergency with blood clots in my right bass drum calf. This is now completely healed and does not affect my drumming or running.

“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? I plan 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. Twenty-nine years at any job is a good old run, and I wish them the best.”