Earlier today, the Who announced that they were parting ways with drummer Zak Starkey after three decades. Rumors swirled that the group were unhappy with his performance last month when they played a pair of Teenage Cancer Trust charity shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall. In his first public statement since the group let him go, Starkey confirms this is indeed the case.
“I’m very proud of my near thirty years with The Who,” Starkey tells Rolling Stone in a written statement. “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.”
He continues: “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.”
Starkey first entered the Who’s orbit in 1994 when he backed Roger Daltrey on an American tour. Two years later, he joined the Who when the surviving members reunited for a tour celebrating their 1973 LP Quadrophenia.
“There were certain things that had to be in there, certain fills that had to be exactly the same because they are so Quadrophenia, if you know what I mean,” Starkey told Modern Drummer in 2006. “They are memorable fills. There aren’t memorable parts, though, because everything Keith played kept changing. If you listen to ‘The Real Me,’ you’re not quite playing the same thing every time, ever. Every bar comes around again, but what he played was never the exact same thing.”
The Who don’t have a tour on the books, but they are playing a pair of shows in Italy in late July. They have yet to announce who will replace Starkey behind the kit at those gigs. One likely candidate is Scott Devours, who has been in Daltrey’s solo band since 2009. He also toured with the Who in 2013 when Starkey was suffering from a tendon problem.
Another possible pick is journeyman drummer Simon Phillips. He was Pete Townshend’s go-to drummer on his Eighties solo albums and live shows, and he played in the Who on their 1989 reunion tour. When Starkey was unable to make a Who gig in 2000 due to his commitments with Johnny Marr and the Healers, Philips returned to the group for a single night. Townshend remains a huge admirer of his work and has recently expressed interest in working with him again.
In a 2024 interview with Mojo, Townshend said that Daltrey was in charge of putting the Who’s backing band together, and that he “wasn’t 100% happy” with his picks. “I’d get Simon Phillips on drums and Pino Palladino on bass, and I’d dig ‘Rabbit’ [keyboardist John Bundrick] out of his bed,” Townshend said. “And I’d get some fabulous shredding guitar player… but the problem is, they’d all be far, far superior musicians to me.”
