{"id":753979,"date":"2026-08-29T22:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T22:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/753979\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T22:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T22:42:09","slug":"it-looks-like-the-who-are-re-hiring-zak-starkey-after-acrimonious-split","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/753979\/","title":{"rendered":"It looks like The Who are re-hiring Zak Starkey after acrimonious split"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Who<\/a>\u00a0appear to be bringing Zak Starkey back into the fold, just over a year after their acrimonious split.<\/p>\n

Frontman\u00a0Roger Daltrey<\/a>\u00a0shared\u00a0the news during a solo show at the Encore Theater in Las Vegas on Wednesday (August 26), telling the audience that The Who had recently rehearsed with their former drummer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a rehearsal recently to make sure we can think about doing some shows in Europe,\u201d he said, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/a>. Daltrey added that Starkey had been behind the kit and that \u201cit sounded great\u201d.<\/p>\n

Starkey later shared a screenshot of the report on Instagram. \u201cNice one Rog x,\u201d he wrote. \u201cLookin\u00a0forward to\u00a0tearin\u00a0it up with The Who again\u2026 The rehearsal was great.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019ve ever rehearsed as tough as that\u2026 usually we drink tea and talk about what time we\u2019re going home!\u201d<\/p>\n

In a\u00a0subsequent\u00a0statement to\u00a0Rolling Stone<\/a>, Starkey said that the afternoon rehearsal had left the band \u201cabsolutely on fire\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so happy to be back playing the music I love with people I love,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s good to be home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starkey, the son of\u00a0Ringo Starr<\/a>, began playing with The Who in 1996 and remained their touring drummer for nearly three decades, but his position was suddenly thrown into doubt following the band\u2019s Teenage Cancer Trust shows at London\u2019s Royal Albert Hall in March\u00a0last year.<\/p>\n

During \u2018The Song Is Over\u2019,\u00a0Daltrey stopped the performance and complained that he could not hear the key over the drums, and the\u00a0band were\u00a0subsequently\u00a0reported to have fired Starkey following an \u201cacrimonious\u201d fallout<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Starkey said he was\u00a0\u201csurprised and saddened\u201d by the decision<\/a>,\u00a0maintaining\u00a0that he did not believe there had been a problem with his performance.\u00a0He had also recently recovered from a serious blood clot in his leg<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Just days later,\u00a0Pete Townshend<\/a>\u00a0announced that\u00a0Starkey was still in the band and was \u201cnot being asked to step down\u201d<\/a>.\u00a0However, that\u00a0apparent\u00a0reconciliation did not last\u00a0and in May, shortly after The Who\u00a0announced their \u2018The Song Is Over\u2019 North American farewell tour<\/a>, Townshend\u00a0confirmed that Starkey was leaving the band again<\/a>, declaring that \u201cthe time has come for a change\u201d.<\/p>\n

Starkey\u00a0immediately\u00a0disputed the suggestion that he had chosen to leave,\u00a0claiming that The Who had asked him to \u201clie\u201d and say he had quit to pursue other projects<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love The Who and would never have quit,\u201d he wrote at the time.<\/p>\n

Scott Devours, who had previously played in Daltrey\u2019s solo band, was announced as his replacement<\/a>,\u00a0and the\u00a0situation became\u00a0yet\u00a0more confusing when\u00a0Starkey said Daltrey had informed him that he had been \u201cretired\u201d, rather than fired<\/a>, so that he could focus on his other work with\u00a0Mantra Of The Cosmos<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Around the same time,\u00a0Starkey also\u00a0admitted that he was also\u00a0\u201cgutted\u201d not to have been invited to join the reunited Oasis<\/a>, having previously played with the band between 2004 and 2008.<\/p>\n

The row soon drew in Starkey\u2019s father, with\u00a0Ringo reportedly criticising the \u201clittle man\u201d Daltrey for firing his son<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Townshend later said that he\u00a0\u201ccouldn\u2019t see anything wrong\u201d with the Royal Albert Hall performance<\/a>, suggesting that Daltrey had become lost during the song amid technical problems.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Speaking to\u00a0NME\u00a0in June 2025,\u00a0Starkey laid out the bewildering sequence of events<\/a>: \u201cI don\u2019t know \u2013 I\u2019ve not been sacked before! Then I was back in again four days later. Nearly two weeks after that, I was sacked again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the fallout, Starkey said he remained in regular contact with both surviving members of The Who. \u201cI still talk to Roger every week on the phone. I still text with Pete all the time,\u201d he told NME. \u201cRoger said,\u00a0\u2018Don\u2019t\u00a0take your drums out of the warehouse just yet in case we need you\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether he would feel uncomfortable returning, Starkey replied: \u201cNo. I just think, \u2018It\u2019s\u00a0The Who\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dispute nevertheless continued into August, when\u00a0Daltrey accused Starkey of \u201ccharacter assassination\u201d<\/a>. The\u00a0frontman\u00a0said his comments at the Royal Albert Hall had been directed at a sound engineer, rather than being an attack on Starkey\u2019s playing.<\/p>\n

The Who went on to\u00a0begin their farewell run with Devours behind the kit<\/a>, eventually playing the final North American show in California in October<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Those shows\u00a0were labelled at the time as their last ever<\/a>, although\u00a0Townshend seemed to hint at further activity earlier this summer<\/a>, who said they were \u201calways trying to come up with SOMETHING special\u201d, and Daltrey revealing details of the rehearsals only seems to further confirm that speculation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Who\u00a0appear to be bringing Zak Starkey back into the fold, just over a year after their acrimonious…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,3584,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-753979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-rock","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753979","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=753979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}