Won\u2019t get fooled again.<\/p>\n
Drummer Zak Starkey revealed where he stands with The Who after singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist Pete Townshend fired him from the group<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re still friends. We still talk all the time,\u201d Starkey, 60, exclusively told The Post while promoting his upcoming one-man show<\/a> at the Gramercy Theatre in New York City on Feb. 20.<\/p>\n Zak Starkey opened up about his relationship with The Who. New York Post<\/p>\n Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend booted Starkey from The Who twice last year. Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cBut The Who has an addiction to friction, and tempers flare,\u201d he continued. \u201cI\u2019m not the guy with a temper, really. I\u2019m just a guy who won\u2019t be walked all over, and I don\u2019t think that I should be treated unfairly and not be able to speak up.\u201d<\/p>\n Starkey, who is the son of Beatles\u00a0drummer\u00a0Ringo Starr,<\/a> was abruptly sacked by the \u201cBaba O\u2019Riley\u201d rockers<\/a> last April before being reinstated a few days later.<\/p>\n The following month, however, he was booted again<\/a> \u2014 this time just weeks after Daltrey, 81, and Townshend, 80, announced their 18-date \u201cThe Song Is Over\u201d farewell tour<\/a> across the US and Canada. That tour concluded in October.<\/p>\n Starkey playing drums during a Who concert at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in 2017. Getty Images<\/p>\n Daltrey, Townshend and Starkey during Desert Trip at the Empire Polo Field in California in 2016. Getty Images<\/p>\n Starkey claimed his initial departure was connected to an altercation between him and Daltrey<\/a> during a performance of the band\u2019s 1971 hit \u201cThe Song Is Over\u201d at London\u2019s Royal Albert Hall in March.<\/p>\n \u201cI got fired,\u201d he explained to The Post. \u201cI was asked to make a public statement apologizing for dropping beats, which I did, and I was rehired.\u201d<\/p>\n The famous drummer went on to claim that Daltrey and Townshend wanted him to release a statement saying he was leaving the group voluntarily after he was fired for the second time.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I said nothing. Then they made a statement saying I\u2019d moved on, inferring I\u2019d quit,\u201d Starkey continued. \u201cSo I went back and said, \u2018Look, I didn\u2019t f\u2013king quit, you fired me. That\u2019s a lie, and I\u2019m not going to f\u2013king lie.’\u201d<\/p>\n Starkey was initially fired from The Who in April following an alleged altercation with Daltrey a month earlier. New York Post<\/p>\n Although Starkey returned to The Who, he was fired a second time in May. New York Post<\/p>\n Starkey suggested that he rejoined The Who a third time, and was fired a third time, shortly after an interview he did with the Telegraph<\/a> was published in June.<\/p>\n \u201cA little bit more time went by, and I spoke to Roger a few times, and then he basically said don\u2019t take your drums from our storage facility because we probably want you back,\u201d Starkey recalled.<\/p>\n \u201cThen a couple of days later, an article came out in the Telegraph,<\/a> which I had done a few weeks before, and I got fired, again, the next day,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Starkey first joined The Who as a touring drummer in 1996. His godfather, Keith Moon, was the band\u2019s original drummer since 1964 until his tragic death from an accidental overdose at 32 in 1978.<\/p>\n Starkey and his dad, Ringo Starr, in London in 2016. David M. Benett<\/p>\n Townshend, John Entwistle, Keith Moon and Daltrey in 1969. Getty Images<\/p>\n The band\u2019s original bassist, John Entwistle, died from a heart attack in 2002. He was 57.<\/p>\n During his nearly 30 years with the \u201cPinball Wizard\u201d rockers, Starkey performed with Daltrey and Townshend for countless tours and concerts, including for the band\u2019s Super Bowl halftime show performance in 2010<\/a> and the closing ceremony of the Summer Olympics in London in 2012.<\/a><\/p>\n Starkey said he remembers The Who\u2019s Super Bowl halftime show in particular because the stage collapsed and his drum kit dropped 20 feet onto the ground below.<\/p>\n Starkey and The Who performing during the Melbourne Grand Prix in 2009. Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t sitting on it. I was approaching it, and the stage collapsed,\u201d he told The Post. \u201cBecause they have to make that stage in 12 minutes and get it down in 12 minutes. It\u2019s incredible. They have to practice it every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut the middle of it, the section that I was sitting on, collapsed,\u201d he continued. \u201cI wasn\u2019t there, but my drum kit was f\u2013ked up, man. It was cracked.\u201d<\/p>\n Although Starkey\u2019s drums were left \u201cbadly damaged,\u201d the band had a spare set. \u201cWe just put the cracked ones in the back so you couldn\u2019t see them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Starkey during a Who concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 2007. Getty Images<\/p>\n Besides drumming for The Who, Starkey has played for Oasis alongside Noel, 58, and Liam Gallagher, 53.<\/p>\n He joined the \u201cWonderwall\u201d group in 2004 and stayed on until the band\u2019s infamous split<\/a> following a backstage fight between the brothers at the Rock en Seine festival in Paris in August 2009.<\/p>\n Starkey praised Oasis and looked back at his half-decade with the \u201cChampagne Supernova\u201d rockers fondly.<\/p>\n Paul Arthurs, Liam Gallagher, Noel Gallagher, Tony McCarroll and Paul McGuigan of Oasis in 1993. Getty Images<\/p>\n Oasis in 1993. Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cI played with them for five years, and all we did was laugh. They never even argued once. Not one time,\u201d he told The Post. \u201cWe toured for 140 shows. We made two great records. We rehearsed. We hung out all the time. Never one. Never one cross word in five years.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOasis never complained about anything, ever. I mean, ever,\u201d Starkey, who played on the band\u2019s 2005 album \u201cDon\u2019t Believe the Truth\u201d and 2008\u2019s \u201cDig Out Your Soul,\u201d added. \u201cAnd they\u2019re never late. If it says on the sheet 5:30, at 10 [minutes] past 5:00, they\u2019re there.\u201d<\/p>\n