The Beatles legend Ringo Starr has defended his son Zak Starkey after he was unceremoniously sacked from The Who for a second time.
Starkey, 59, joined the rock group full-time in 1996, and was first fired from the band in April over a dispute concerning his performance at the Royal Albert Hall the previous month. Only two weeks after he was reinstated ahead of the band’s farewell tour announcement, however, he was fired again.
The drummer told fans that he had been asked by his bandmates to claim that this time, he was quitting of his own accord.
Starkey is the child of Starr, 84, who was left unimpressed by the ordeal, according to his son. Starkey quoted his dad as saying: “I’ve never liked the way that little man [Daltrey] runs that band.”
He told Rolling Stone that he was “very proud” of his father for “standing up for me”.
The musician has since been replaced by Scott Devours, who drums in Daltrey’s solo band. On Instagram last month, Starkey attempted to clear up the confusion surrounding his departure from the veteran rock band.
“NOISE and CONFUSION!!!!” he wrote. “I had a great phone chat with Roger at the end of last week which truly confused both of us!!!
“Rog said I hadn’t been ‘fired’… I had been ‘retired’ to work on my own projects. I explained to Rog that I have just spent nearly eight weeks at my studio in Jamaica completing these projects, that my group Mantra Of The Cosmos was releasing one single at the beginning of June and after that had run its course (usually five or six weeks) I was completely available for the foreseeable future…. Rog said ‘Oh!’ and we kind of left it there.”
Starkey concluded the post: “On good terms and great friends as we have always been. Gotta love these guys. As my mum used to say, ‘The mind boggles!!!’”
He was first fired in March after an apparent row over his performance at the rock band’s Royal Albert Hall concert. He was then reinstated shortly after he made his firing public. The band put the dispute down to “communication issues”. Starkey, however, later said he could not see the mistake he had made despite having previously apologised.
