Drummer Zak Starkey says he would return to the Who despite being fired twice

The song is never really over when it comes to Zak Starkey’s relationship with the Who.

Earlier this year, the English rock band announced that Starkey, their longtime drummer, had been fired, only to quickly rehire him days later. The group has since cut ties with Starkey once again — but the musician is far from bitter. While unpacking his tumultuous relationship with the band, Starkey made it clear that he still thinks of his former bandmates as “family.”

“I don’t blame anyone,” Starkey recently told The Telegraph, then added, “I blame the Who because they’re unpredictable, aggressive and f‑‑‑ing insane.”

The musician, and son of Beatles legend Ringo Starr, then offered his version of the conflict between him and the other Who musicians.

The drama dates back to March, when the band played two Teenage Cancer Trust concerts at the Royal Albert Hall. During their performance of 1971 track “The Song Is Over,” a song they don’t often play live, lead singer Roger Daltrey publicly expressed his displeasure with the drummer’s performance.

Pausing the concert, Daltrey reportedly told the crowd, “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.”

Now, Starkey claims that the issue stemmed from a lack of rehearsal and Daltrey shortening the song on the fly.

“What happened was I got it right, and Roger got it wrong,” Starkey said. He explained that, nevertheless, he got a call from the band’s manager a week later. “He says, ‘It’s my unfortunate duty to inform you that you won’t be needed from now on. Roger says you dropped some beats.'”

Starkey added, “Then [guitarist] Pete [Townshend] had to go along with it, because Pete’s had 60 years of arguing with Roger.”

Starkey said that when he returned to the group after the initial sacking, he was first forced to admit that — as Daltrey claimed — he had dropped two beats during the song. Even so, the peace didn’t last very long.

“Two weeks later it was like, ‘Roger says he can’t work with you no more, and we’d like you to issue another statement saying you’re leaving to do your other projects’ and I just didn’t do it, because I wasn’t leaving [of my own volition],” Starkey said. 

Despite the abrupt exit, Starkey teased that the subject of returning has already come up among him and his former bandmates.

“I spoke to Roger last week and he said, ‘Don’t take your drums out of [the Who’s] warehouse yet in case we need you,'” Starkey claimed. “I said, ‘Best let me know.'”

In the wake of Starkey’s first dismissal, however, Townshend denied that the drummed was “asked to step down,” claiming there had been “communication issues, personal and private on all sides.”

But a month later, Townshend told fans that the group was cutting ties with the drummer and “the time has come for a change.”

He claimed, “Zak has lots of new projects in hand and I wish him the best,” and revealed that Scott Devours, who has served as a drummer for band member Roger Daltrey’s solo projects, will take over for the remainder of the Who’s farewell tour.

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But Starkey claimed the split was less amicable than presented. “I was fired two weeks after reinstatement and asked to make a statement saying I had quit the who to pursue my other musical [endeavors] this would be a lie,” he wrote on Instagram. “I love the Who and would never had quit. So I didn’t make the statement.”

Starkey acknowledged that he indeed has other projects going on, but added, “None of this has ever interfered with the Who and was never a problem for them.”

The Who will begin their Song Is Over North American Farewell Tour in August.