{"id":326469,"date":"2025-12-20T13:00:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T13:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/326469\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T13:00:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T13:00:10","slug":"zak-starkey-reveals-he-doesnt-hold-grudge-over-the-who-firing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/326469\/","title":{"rendered":"Zak Starkey reveals he doesn’t hold grudge over The Who firing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Zac<\/p>\n

Credits: Zac Starkey via Instagram<\/p>\n

Fri 19 December 2025 16:36, UK <\/p>\n

Zak Starkey has lifted the lid on his complicated exit from The Who<\/a>, confirming that he remains friends with Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend.<\/p>\n

The Who wrapped up their live career in October when their lengthy North American farewell tour came to a conclusion. For their final jaunt, Scott Devours was behind the drum kit instead of Starkey, who had served with the legendary group for 29 years.<\/p>\n

Starkey\u2019s complicated exit from the band, who he joined in 1996, is linked to the band\u2019s performance at the Royal Albert Hall earlier this year at a charity show for the Teenage Cancer Trust. The longstanding member was initially fired, before being rehired, and eventually, fired again within a matter of weeks.<\/p>\n

At the time of his dismissal, Starkey said on Instagram, \u201cI was fired two weeks after reinstatement and asked to make a statement saying I had quit The Who to pursue my other musical endevours this would be a lie.\u201d He added in the same post: \u201cI love The Who and would never had quit. So I didn\u2019t make the statement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, he revealed that his father, Ringo Starr, \u201cwasn\u2019t happy\u201d<\/a> with how it was handled and described Daltrey as a \u201clittle man\u201d.<\/p>\n

Daltrey also fired back at Starkey\u2019s comments, stating, \u201cIt was kind of a character assassination<\/a> and it was incredibly upsetting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thankfully, the back-and-forths don\u2019t appear to have damaged their friendship. In a new interview with radio station Q1043 New York, Starkey said, \u201cI\u2019d like to say that we remained friends throughout, I spoke to Roger like two weeks ago. We spoke on the phone, and never became enemies or anything.\u201d <\/p>\n

He added with a chuckle, \u201cI think they just wanted a change, then they didn\u2019t, then they did, then they didn\u2019t, then they did, then they didn\u2019t, then they did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starkey then described that both parties find the ordeal \u201cconfusing\u201d, but doesn\u2019t want that to ruin their friendship. After noting he first played with Daltrey as a 17-year-old, he said, \u201cI was in The Who for 29 years and I wouldn\u2019t bury a friendship over it. It\u2019s just band business.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he did share regret at not being involved in their last shows, conceding, \u201cAs far as I know they\u2019re done, I\u2019d like to have finished it off, but I didn\u2019t, and I don\u2019t hold a grudge, really, because they\u2019re my friends and have been my friends for so long.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n

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Straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credits: Zac Starkey via Instagram Fri 19 December 2025 16:36, UK Zak Starkey has lifted the lid on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,9738,56,54,55,9739],"class_list":{"0":"post-326469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-the-who","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom","14":"tag-zak-starkey"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}