Zak Starkey might well be the most well-connected man in rock’n’roll. The son of Beatles legend Ringo, he’s also clocked up lengthy stints drumming with two more of the UK’s biggest ever bands: joining Oasis from 2004 to 2009, and playing with The Who for the best part of 30 years, until a recent well-publicised firing.
The latest addition to his hefty CV has been Starkey’s current band Mantra of the Cosmos: a wild, acid rock joyride co-passengered by Shaun Ryder and Bez of the Happy Mondays, plus his former Oasis bandmate and Ride frontman Andy Bell. Starkey, a disarmingly honest and ego-less conversationalist with absolutely zero filter, is loath to call them a supergroup. “It’s a fantastic group. I try not to use ‘supergroup’ but now I’ve realised I’m not gonna sell many records unless I say it…” he shrugs.
Either way, the band’s just-released new single Domino Bones (Gets Dangerous) is a brilliantly bonkers listen that has, he tells us, been dubbed “too violent” for radio; its Ryder-fronted blitzkrieg only tempered by a melodic turn in the chorus by another high profile mate, Noel Gallagher. Starkey doctored the track from an original idea Gallagher sent him that, he chuckles, “was a bit yacht rock”. “The High Sailing Birds…” he nods, with a glint in his eye. Starkey chopped it up, sped up some bits and out came Domino Bones as an almost remixed version, with no ‘80s pastel to be seen.
Mantra of the Cosmos, he says, have already got 14 songs ready to go. “Bez said, ‘These are weirder than the shit you send me at six in the morning’,” Starkey informs us of the material. “It’s darker, pulsating, political. One song, I had to edit out 100 Putins.” Their next single, meanwhile, will see three-quarters of a once-fabled next-gen Beatles band come to pass. Joining Starkey and his Mantra colleagues for it are Sean Lennon and James McCartney, the sons of John and Paul, who previously released their own joint single Primrose Hill together back in April of last year. Though Starkey had previously been against the idea (“I always refused because do you wanna get judged on that for the rest of your life?”), in the past five years he and Lennon have grown close.
“James has been a mate for a long time, so I got him over. Then, over the last five years, I’ve got to know Sean and he’s a great musician; so enthusiastic. Dhani [Harrison, only child of George] isn’t on it because I don’t know him very well and I don’t know his music, but these guys I do and we’re friends so they seemed like the right people to do it,” Starkey explains. “James’ singing was so powerful it nearly blew me off the couch - you imagine that’s what his dad was like. Then Shaun Ryder arrives, and now we’ve got a political pop record.”
Starkey hasn’t given much thought to the upcoming quartet of Beatles biopics. Barry Keoghan has been cast in the role of Ringo but Starkey hasn’t seen any of his films. “I don’t really watch telly,” he says. “I’ve not watched Get Back ‘cos it’s six hours long. When I’ve got six hours free, I'll go to bed and have a fucking sleep.”
Recently, however, he’s found himself with more free time than he had previously banked on. Having been dismissed from his role in The Who back in April following the band’s grievances over a supposed mistake at their Royal Albert Hall show, Starkey was subsequently let back in the group and then, a month later, fired again. A few weeks on, the drummer is still not sure where he stands. “The last conversation I had with Roger [Daltrey], he said, ‘Don’t take your drums out the warehouse in case we need you’, so I don’t know what’s going on,” he says. “I talk to him every week; I text Pete [Townshend] all the time. There’s no bad blood but they’re the maddest band ever. It’s The Who - I should be used to it by now.”
“I’d love to be back in it,” he continues. “I’ve done it for 30 fucking years and they’ve only got 17 gigs [left on this tour]. They’d have to rehearse so much; maybe that’s what they’ve realised - ‘Oh no, we’re gonna have to rehearse with a new drummer!’ When you rehearse with The Who, I just watch them find excuses [not to do it]. ‘Oh, the kettle’s broken…’”
His assumed commitments with The Who were also, Starkey says, the reason why there were no conversations regarding him rejoining Oasis for their massive reunion shows this summer. He is, however, confident that the gigs will unfold without any issues between the famously warring Gallagher siblings. “I’m sure it’ll be great. They’re the greatest band I’ve ever been in. There was never any friction [on tour] - when you’re the greatest live band in the world, no one wants to fuck it up,” he nods. “When I played with them it was everyone in one dressing room, it won’t be like that now. They’re not gonna go back in the same room like they’re 11 and sharing bunk beds. Noel asked me once, ‘What’s The Who’s bus like?’ I said, ‘It’s got wings - you ought to get one mate, it’s amazing’.”
There might still be a question mark hanging over the future of his time with Daltrey and co, but Starkey still has plenty on his plate with Mantra of the Cosmos’ future releases. He’s also, he tells us, written 50,000 words of an autobiography: a “coffee table book, with 1,000 or so photos that no-one’s ever seen”. With a personal phone book that reads like a comprehensive list of British rock’n’roll greats, you imagine he won’t be stuck for material.
