The Who has recently been dominating headlines over what appears to be inner turmoil in the band, which resulted in the departure of drummer Zak Starkey.
Famed as the son of Beatles legend Ringo Starr, Starkey was fired, re-hired and fired again in just a few short months as tensions seemingly rose between the bandmates after a series of arguments.
Starkey later took to social media to confirm that his departure wasn’t his choice, telling his followers: “I 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.”
He added, “I love The Who and would never have quit. So I didn’t make the statement ….quitting The Who would also have let down the countless amazing people who stood up for me (thank you all a million times over and more) thru the weeks of mayhem of me going ‘in an out an in an out an in an out like a bleedin squeezebox.”
Pete Townshend, co-founder and guitarist of The Who, has since come out and said Starkey’s departure was “a mess,” while appearing to defend Starkey’s music.
"It’s been a mess,” he told The i. "I couldn’t see anything wrong. What you see is a band who haven’t played together for a long time. But I think it was probably to do with the sound. I’ve lost my sound man as a result.
“I think Roger just got lost. Roger’s finding it difficult. I have to be careful what I say about Roger because he gets angry if I say anything about him at all. He’ll be sacking me next. But that’s not to say that he sacked Zak. It’s a decision Roger and I tried to make together, but it kind of got out of hand.”
Although The Who are having troubles, it’s not the first time the band members have clashed with each other and other people. Here we take a look at some of their biggest bust-ups.
Roger Daltry clashes with Keith Moon
It turns out the band has a long history of clashing with each other, with one of the most memorable moments being when Roger Daltry lashed out at The Who’s late drummer Keith Moon back in 1965.
Frustrated by Moon’s drug use, Daltry swung for him at a gig in Denmark before flushing his drugs down the toilet.
“It took about five people to hold me off him,” he said in his biography. “It wasn’t just because I hated him, it was just because I loved the band so much and thought it was being destroyed by those pills.”
Daltry was fired from the band for about a week after the incident, before being reinstated.
The Who clashes with Jimi Hendrix
It’s not just in-fighting that The Who are known for; over the years, they’ve taken aim at various other musicians and even criticised their music.
In one such instance, The Who clashed with Jimi Hendrix over who would play first at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. Though not necessarily a bust-up, it remains an iconic moment for the band, who would then dazzle the crowd with the song My Generation.
Rumours claim that both Hendrix and The Who’s guitarist Townshend went behind the scenes to “jam” and hash out who would go on stage first. However, later claims suggest that it was far from what actually happened.
“I’ve heard Roger talk about it as a jam session, but it wasn’t a jam session. It was just Jimi on a chair playing at me. Playing at me like ‘Don’t f—k with me, you little sh-t,’” Townshend later said.
Pete Townshend fights with Roger Daltrey
In an interview with Louder, Townshend explained that while working on the Quadrophenia tour, they also got into a fit fight as tensions rose again. Far Out claims that Townshend initially swung his guitar at Daltrey, but the singer hit back.
In this instance, Townshend was struck so hard he lost his memory - but admitted that the pressure within the band had taken its toll.
“Roger punched me once, and I’m sure I asked for it,” Townshend said. “And he could have killed me, he had a hell of a punch. Luckily I just lost my memory for an hour or two. He was very sweet afterwards. Roger and I have had our spats, but he is a good and loving man. I knew that then, and I’m more aware of it now. But we were both under incredible strain”.
The Who clash with their managers
Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp were the management duo that helped The Who reach global stardom in their early musical careers.
Although largely inexperienced in running a band, they allegedly convinced the group to re-name themselves The Who and helped them carve out their space in rock history.
While the band credits the duo with helping them reach fame, their relationship was fraught with tension. By the mid-1970s, the band had decided to axe the management team over various administrative failures and Stamp’s drug use and replace them with Bill Curbishley.
