An ongoing back-and-forth between Zak Starkey and The Who frontman Roger Daltrey has seemingly been put to bed.
Starkey, who has been a member of The Who, as well as Oasis, confirmed he and the My Generation hitmaker “go back too long for grudges” in a statement made on Instagram. The drummer cleared the air on what happened backstage at a Teenage Cancer Trust performance, and believed his firing, rehiring, and second firing from The Who had “blown over.” But an interview with Roger Daltrey in The Times reignited rumours of dissatisfaction between Starkey and Daltrey after their London show. The Who’s frontman, who has performed a series of solo shows ahead of a farewell tour with Pete Townshend and new Who drummer, Scott Devours, said comments made by Starkey were “incredibly upsetting”.
Daltrey told The Times: “An audience can see what’s happening on stage and have a complete misunderstanding of what’s actually going on. It was kind of a character assassination, and it was incredibly upsetting.” The Times then quoted Starkey’s previous statement, where he wrote: “What happened was I got it right and Roger got it wrong.”
The back-and-forth stems from The Who’s performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London, where a performance of The Song Is Over was cut short, seemingly because of a mixing issue in Daltrey’s earpiece.
He paused the song and said: “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 was sacked by the band a few weeks later, but claimed Daltrey told him not to take his drums out of storage just yet, in case he was called upon.
It’s a confusing period in The Who’s history, but following Daltrey’s interview with The Times, Starkey has again tried to clear things up. In a post to Instagram, he wrote: “This is bloody everywhere and I didn’t make any nasty comments about Roger when I got fired. I think it’s about the public comments about Roger on my Instagram, which I have taken down.
“And I didn’t think Roger was having a go at me on stage because he was shouting into a special microphone that he only uses to communicate with the sound guy. There was no conflict and no argument before the show or after, as I was in my car on my way home before Pete and Roger had finished the last song Tea and Theatre, which is an acoustic duet and doesn’t feature any of the band.
“I thought the gig was OK. I had no idea about getting fired or any problems at all until a week after the show. So either The Times misunderstood or… confusion reigns O’er me and everyone else! I thought this had blown over.
“The Who has a new drummer, they’ve played some shows, they’re about to do their farewell tour so this is old news and it’s completely wrong. When I first saw it, I was gonna leave it, but now it’s been picked up by every outlet in the cosmos, it’s a bit annoying cos it’s bollox. I love Roger and he’s a fucking amazing singer – we go back too long for grudges.”
It seems fellow bandmember Townshend is just as confused as Starkey, with an interview given by the veteran performer noting he has no idea what’s going on. He told the i Paper: “I will miss Zak terribly. But quite what the story is, I don’t fucking know. I really don’t know.”
Starkey’s departure was discussed by Daltrey further in The Times interview, where he added: “Pete and I retain the right to be The Who. Everyone else is a session player. You can’t replace Keith Moon. We wanted to branch out, and that’s all I want to say about it. But [Starkey’s reaction] was crippling to me.”
