It looks like the song is over — again — for Zak Starkey and the Who.
A month after the venerable English rock band dismissed Starkey as drummer and then quickly rehired him, lead guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend announced that the Who were once again cutting ties with Starkey.
“After many years of great work on drums from Zak the time has come for a change,” he wrote in an Instagram post Sunday. “A poignant time. Zak has lots of new projects in hand and I wish him the best.”
Townshend added that Scott Devours, who has served as a drummer for band member Roger Daltrey’s solo project, will step in for Starkey to play the Who’s farewell tour. “Please welcome him,” he wrote to fans.
The Who’s original drummer, Keith Moon, died at 32 in 1978. He was replaced by Kenney Jones before Starkey, the son of Beatles legend Ringo Starr, joined the band’s touring lineup in 1996. Starkey also contributed to the studio albums Endless Wire in 2006 and Who in 2019.
While Townshend’s post suggested an amicable split, Starkey struck a different tone. “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 in his own Instagram post. “I love the who and would never had quit. So I didn’t make the statement.”
He added that quitting the band “would also have let down the countless amazing people who stood up for me (thank you all a million times over and more) thru the weeks of mayhem of me going ‘in an out an in an out an in an out like a bleedin squeezebox.”
While Starkey acknowledged that he has other projects going on, he countered, “None of this has ever interfered with The Who and was never a problem for them. The lie is or would have been that I quit the who- i didn’t. I love the who and everyone in it.”
Starkey was previously let go after the Who played Teenage Cancer Trust charity concerts in March. The news was revealed to fans in April, with a representative for the Who telling Rolling Stone that “the band made a collective decision to part ways with Zak after this round of shows at the Royal Albert Hall.”
Daltrey was publicly displeased with Starkey’s performance at Royal Albert Hall. The U.K. news outlet Metro reported in a review of the show that the 81-year-old rocker paused the concert during their final song of the night, “The Song Is Over,” telling the audience, “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.”
Soon after, Starkey told Entertainment Weekly that he’d experienced a health scare earlier this year. “In January, I suffered a serious medical emergency with blood clots in my right bass drum calf,” he said, noting that he since recovered and thinks his performing abilities remain unaffected. “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?”
In the wake of Sharkey’s first dismissal, however, Townshend announced that the drummer was in fact “not being asked to step down.”
Kevin Mazur/WireImage
Roger Daltrey, Zak Starkey, and Pete Townshend of the Who perform at the Super Bowl in 2010
“There have been some communication issues, personal and private on all sides, that needed to be dealt with, and these have been aired happily,” he wrote in a statement to fans.
Townshend said Starkey had been asked to adjust his playing, writing, “Roger and I would like Zak to tighten up his latest evolved drumming style to accommodate our non-orchestral lineup, and he has readily agreed… Maybe we didn’t put enough time into sound checks, giving us problems on stage. The sound in the center of the stage is always the most difficult to work with. Roger did nothing wrong but fiddle with his in-ear monitors. Zak made a few mistakes and he has apologized. Albeit with a rubber duck drummer.”
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The songwriter also said the band is “a family” and that the Starkey debacle quickly “got too much oxygen” in the press. “It’s over,” he wrote. “We move forward now with optimism and fire in our bellies.”
The Who are currently gearing up for their Song Is Over North American Farewell Tour, which is named after their seldom-played 1971 track. The tour will kick off in Florida in August, make its way across the U.S. and Canada, and finish up in Las Vegas in September.
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