(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still / Patrick Gunning)
Sat 25 April 2026 13:16, UK
Ringo Starr has admitted to believing that Roger Daltrey was “crazy” for letting go of Starr’s son and long-term The Who drummer, Zak Starkey, last year.
Last June, The Who hit the headlines after Daltrey and Pete Townshend decided to let go of Starkey. They then denied firing the musician, claiming instead that he had been “retired” so he could work on other projects. Starkey deemed this “total bollocks”.
In an interview with USA Today, Starr was asked about his perspective on the chaotic career re-shuffle for his son.
“I did talk to him quite a bit through that,” the Beatle shared. “He was just having one of those moments we all have. You’ve done something that wasn’t really a cool thing to do, and now I know that.”
He added, rather mysteriously, “I didn’t know that then; I just thought Roger (Daltrey) was being crazy.”
The drummer added, “Zak was not in a good space, but he’s in a much better space now, and I’d like to tell you and everyone else he’s back to being himself.”
Starkey’s exit from the band seemed to arise out of a The Who performance at London’s Royal Albert Hall, when they played ‘The Song is Over,’ and Starkey came in with the percussion section “a bar early”.
Eventually, Starkey admitted that he doesn’t hold Daltrey or Townshend personally accountable for his removal: “I blame The Who because they’re unpredictable, aggressive and fucking insane,” he shared at the time. “And that’s why I love them.”
Starr’s new interview was in support of his latest album, Long Long Road, which received a happy three-and-a-half-star review from Far Out: “Contrary to popular belief, Ringo isn’t exclusively a human peace-sign meme at this stage of his life. It has indeed been a “long, long road,” and the thing worth celebrating is that an 85-year-old man with all the money in the world still enjoys that old-timey Americana music enough to make more of it.”
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