Legendary Brit rock band fire drummer for second time in a month as he issues savage statement
Starkey, 59 - son of Beatles legend
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English drummer Zak Starkey has been fired from The Who
Credit: AFP
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Pete Townshend confirmed Starkey's axe for the second time in four weeks
Credit: Getty
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Roger Daltrey slammed Starkey on stage at the Royal Albert Hall
Credit: Redferns
His axe was confirmed by
He also revealed Scott Devours, who plays with Roger Daltrey's solo band, will take over behind the kit, adding: 'Please welcome him.'
But Starkey quickly shut down any suggestion he walked away - reposting Townshend's image with his own furious message scrawled across it.
'This would be a lie. I love The Who and would never have quit,' he wrote.
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He thanked fans who backed him through the 'weeks of mayhem' after being previously axed, then briefly reinstated before getting the boot again this week.
'Quitting The Who would let down the countless amazing people who stood up for me (thank you all a million times over and more),' he said.
Hitting out at Townshend's claim he had other things going on, Zak said: "To clarify 'other projects'… yes I do have other projects and always have - Johnny Marr, The Lightning Seeds and more.
'None of this has ever interfered with The Who and was never a problem for them.
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'The lie is or would have been that I quit The Who - I didn't. I love The Who and everyone in it.'
Zak has played with the band since the mid-90s and was widely seen as their unofficial third member.
The Who's Roger Daltrey performs Pinball Wizard during Tommy Live at The Royal Albert Hall
He was fired from The Who in April following a clash over their
The Sun exclusively revealed
He told the crowd: 'To sing that song I do need to hear the key, and I can't. All I've got is drums going boom, boom, boom. I can't sing to that. I'm sorry guys.'
Tensions erupted and Starkey publicly braded Roger "Toger Daktrey" and said the the singer was "bringing formal charges of over playing" against him.
He was fired but three days later reinstated, with Townshend releasing a statement.
He said: 'There have been some communication issues, personal and private on all sides, that needed to be dealt with, and these have been aired happily.'
On Friday, another drummer spoke out about being axed from a world famous band.
Who is Zak Starkey? Five key facts
ZAK Starkey has been unceremoniously sacked as The Who's drummer - yet who is he?
The Who's
Roger Daltrey, 81, and bandmate Zak, 59,
at
London
's Royal Albert Hall.
Zak had been The Who's drummer since their Quadropenia tour in 1996
He is
is
the son of legendary
Beatles
drummer
Aside from his drumming duties for The Who, Zak is also known for playing with
Oasis
He has been tipped to play at the Manchester band's UK reunion tour
In January it was revealed
, hours before taking to the stage with Brit supergroup Mantra Of The Cosmos
Freese said he was devastated to be let go in an emotional statement.
He wrote: 'The
Foo Fighters
called me Monday night to let me know they've decided 'to go in a different direction with their drummer.' No reason was given. :(
'Regardless, I enjoyed the past two years with them, both on and off stage, and I support whatever they feel is best for the band.
'In my 40 years of drumming professionally, I've never been let go from a band, so while I'm not angry - just a bit shocked and disappointed.
'But as most of you know, I've always worked freelance and bounced between bands, so, I'm fine.
'Stay tuned for my 'Top 10 possible reasons Josh got booted from the Foo Fighters' list.'
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Zak, 59, had been The Who's drummer since their Quadropenia tour in 1996 prior to his sacking
Credit: Getty
5
Roger complained abou him on stage
Credit: Getty
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Irish Independent
2 minutes ago
- Irish Independent
Sacking of Who drummer Starkey shines light on session players who sprinkle their magic on recordings
In the entire history of popular music, I am not sure if there has ever been so much public recrimination about who was responsible for dropping a couple of beats from a song. Essentially, after 30 years in the Who's drum seat, Starkey (who is Ringo Starr's son) was fired following a charity concert at the Royal Albert Hall in May. The offending incident was a sloppy intro to 1971 ballad The Song Is Over, during which Daltrey missed a cue, struggled to sing in key and grumbled 'all I've got is drums going boom-boom-boom!' while pointing accusingly at Starkey. Daltrey's latest interview seems to contain a grudging acceptance that it wasn't actually Starkey's mistake. The band use an electronic drum kit, with mixes controlled by a sound engineer and sent to in-ear monitors. 'We had so much sub-bass on the sound of the drums that I couldn't pitch,' explained Daltrey. 'I was pointing to the bass drum and screaming at him because it was like flying a plane without seeing the horizon. 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But Daltrey's crucial and unarguable point was that 'Pete [Townshend] and I retain the right to be the Who. Everyone else is a session player.' When people pay to see the Who, the band's job is to supply what their rock star employers need to deliver their best performances. Starkey lost Daltrey's confidence and lost the gig as a consequence. But I'm not sure anyone really cares who is in the drum seat, as long as they sound as much as possible like the Who's original drummer, the late, great Keith Moon. The Who are currently touring with a new drummer, Scott Devours, their fourth since Moon died in 1978. In the lead up to his live debut last week, Devours (who has played with Don Felder, The Sixties Show and Daltrey's solo band) admitted to 'a strange contradiction of emotions' knowing that 'the greatest moment of my professional career' was 'someone else's loss'. Such is the lot of guns for hire. One player's loss is another player's opportunity. 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Led Zeppelin and Toto were formed by session musicians, with Steve Lukather, the Toto guitarist, credited on more than 1,500 recordings (the American prog rock band are all over Michael Jackson's Thriller album). Some have been so ubiquitous that they achieved a kind of half fame, such as bassist Carol Kaye, who played on more than 10,000 sessions spanning Frank Sinatra to Stevie Wonder, or pianist Nicky Hopkins who featured on more than 250 albums including classics by the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, the Who and the Kinks. British bassist Herbie Flowers is said to have played on 500 hits including Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side, for which he concocted a bassline made up of two separate parts. Flowers once said that 'in those days, the recording rate for a three-hour session was £12 but if you overdubbed another instrument, you got double the money. Not that I did it for that reason'. He was paid £24 for possibly the most famous bassline in pop history. Session musicians don't generally get royalties. They get a flat rate up front and that's that. It might seem unjust when something they create goes on to become an integral part of a classic song, but I suspect most wouldn't have it any other way. 'You've got to remember most recordings don't make any money for anyone,' as a musician friend once put it to me. 'I get paid in full when I walk out the studio door.' I am sure Zak Starkey will be fine The age of the session player is far from over. Even in these days of drum machines and programmed keyboards, producers still call on gifted players to sprinkle magic on recordings, while the proliferation of solo artists means there's plenty of work on the live circuit. How many of the million plus ticket-holders for the Oasis comeback tour know that their latest session drummer, Joey Waronker, has played with REM, Nelly Furtado, Neil Diamond, Norah Jones, Paul McCartney and Roger Waters? All they care about is that he keeps the beat behind the Gallagher brothers, for which he is being handsomely rewarded. And I am sure Zak Starkey will be fine. He's a talented drummer, with impressive names on his CV. Have sticks, will travel.
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