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Ringo Starr’s son, Zak Starkey, spent decades performing with The Who as their drummer. It came as a surprise, then, when the band fired Starkey this year. A disappointed Starkey turned to his father for support after he lost his place in the band. Starr said it didn’t surprise him that Roger Daltrey would fire someone. 

The Who fired Ringo Starr’s son, Zak Starkey

During The Who’s show at Royal Albert Hall, they played their song “The Song Is Over” for the first time ever. After just one verse, singer Roger Daltrey stopped the song.

“To sing that song, I do need to hear the key, and I can’t,” he said. “All I’ve got is drums going boom, boom, boom. I can’t sing to that. I’m sorry, guys.”

Not long after, Starkey confirmed in a statement that the band had fired him. He’d been playing with them since 1996.

“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?” he said in a statement to Rolling Stone. “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.”

According to Starkey, Daltrey was the one at fault. In a separate interview, he told Rolling Stone that Daltrey came in four bars early. Not long after, the band told Starkey they would rehire him. This only lasted ten days, though.

“[Ten] days later, I got a call saying ‘It’s never going to work. We want you to put out a statement saying you’re moving on to do your own thing,’” he said. “And I said, ‘But I’m f***in’ not.’ So I just left it and didn’t do it. It would be a lie. I’d never leave the Who. I love the Who.”

Ringo Starr tried to make his son feel better about losing his job in The Who

Starkey implied that his biggest problem was with Daltrey, though he said he didn’t hold a grudge against anyone in the band.

“I don’t blame anyone. I don’t hold any grudges,” he said. “It’s the Who. Weirder s*** than this has gone down. I’ve heard them say weirder s*** than this. It’s the Who — the maddest band there’s ever been.”

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Still, he said he was “very proud” of his father for standing up for him in the situation. According to Starkey, Starr said he’d never been a fan of Daltrey’s management style.

“He said, ‘I’ve never liked the way that little man runs that band.’”

For reference, Daltrey is 5’6″. Starr is 5’8″.

Zak Starkey didn’t pursue drumming to be like his father

Though Starkey is a professional drummer just like his father, he didn’t want to follow in his footsteps. Instead, he wanted to be like Keith Moon. They had a close relationship.

“Keith was like an uncle, really,” he told Modern Drummer. “He was one of my dad’s best friends. When my brother, sister, and I used to stay with my dad there, we would occasionally spend a few days at Keith’s house. Keith was the babysitter. We would just hang out and talk about anything, really — girls, surfing, bands, drums. He was a really fantastic guy to hang out with.”

Moon was The Who’s drummer until his death in 1978.

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