It's been a tumultuous time for Zak Starkey, whose firing, re-hiring, and subsequent re-firing from the Who has been causing quite a stir in elder rock circles. The drummer and son of Ringo Starr has evidently had a lot of unclear back-and-forth with the Who's lead singer Roger Daltrey, but we haven't heard much from his bandmates about the whole ordeal -- that is, until very recently, when the band's guitarist and primary songwriter Pete Townshend remarked on it in a new interview with iNews. It sounds like he's just as confused as the rest of us.
As a refresher: The drama with Starkey began, at least publicly, after the Who played a run of shows at London's Royal Albert Hall that didn't seem to go too great. Daltrey, who at 81 is over two decades Starkey's senior, complained to the crowd: “All I’ve got is drum sound: boom, boom, boom. And I can’t sing to that. I’m sorry guys.” That lead to a bunch of drawn-out misunderstandings between Daltrey and Starkey, exacerbated by the status of Starkey's supergroup Mantra Of The Cosmos and the forthcoming Oasis reunion, which at that point hadn't confirmed their lineup (Starkey also used to play in Oasis). Here's what Townshend had to say about it all:
I couldn’t see anything wrong [with Starkey's playing]. What you see is a band who haven’t played together for a long time. But I think it was probably to do with the sound. I’ve lost my sound man as a result.
I think Roger just got lost. Roger’s finding it difficult. I have to be careful what I say about Roger because he gets angry if I say anything about him at all. He’ll be sacking me next. But that’s not to say that he sacked Zak. It’s a decision Roger and I tried to make together, but it kind of got out of hand
I didn’t invite [Starkey] in, right? Roger invited him. And at that time, I don’t know quite why he chose Zak, but Zak is another Keith Moon. He comes with real, real bonuses and real, real difficulties.
Townshend's final thoughts: "I will miss Zak terribly. But quite what the story is, I don’t fucking know. I really don’t know." Meanwhile, at least according to Starkey, his dad has had his back. "I’m very proud of him standing up for me," Starkey told Rolling Stone in a new interview. "He said, 'I've never liked the way that little man runs that band.'"
Starkey furthermore thanked Starr with a sweet post on Instagram today. Starkey has also apparently been keeping tabs on the Stereogum Instagram account, responding to comments about his new music with James McCartney (Paul's son) and Sean Lennon (John's son). Starkey maintains that despite his omission, there's no bad blood with Dhani Harrison (George's son), writing: "I txtd with D yesterday. Beef! He's a strict vegetarian." See that below.
