‘I don't know what the f**k is happening': Zak Starkey on whether he's really been sacked by The Who

Irish Independent

01-07-2025

He used to 'f**king hate' and 'totally reject' the idea of the band. Instead, he knuckled down to forge a drumming career of his own, encouraged by 'uncle' Keith Moon (who bought Starkey his first drum kit when he was eight) and tutored by the Faces' Kenney Jones.
It was 10 more years before he finally returned to his father's rhythmic oeuvre. 'When I was 25, I listened to The Beatles and went, 'F**king hell, these guys were amazing. I should have been listening to this years ago.' And then I got over it.'
Now 59, Starkey settles into the quietest corner of a Soho bar – 'This ear isn't very good,' he says, jabbing the left – as an alumnus of Johnny Marr & The Healers, Oasis and – until his very recent, very public departure – The Who.
He's also the fulcrum of his own all-star band, Mantra of the Cosmos, featuring main players Shaun Ryder, Bez (both Happy Mondays mainstays), and Andy Bell of Ride. 'To me, he was a great drummer and that was it,' Ryder says of Starkey over the phone.
'I didn't know he was a f**king amazing producer. Then when I got in the studio and he stuck a load of beats and tunes on, I f**king loved it. It's different from the Mondays, it's different from what I do in Black Grape, it's a f**king buzz.'
Mantra of the Cosmos also feature plentiful high-profile guests. Recent single Domino Bones (Gets Dangerous) was crafted from a recording given to Ryder and Starkey by Noel Gallagher – 'He sent me this song saying, 'It's probably better for your band than mine',' Starkey recalls – then reworked into a tropical rap-punk rampage until only a fraction of Gallagher's high-flying melody remained.
'I kept half a chorus of Noel,' Starkey says, smirking. 'He thought it was great. Better than his one.'
They're all like, 'It could be as big as The Beatles
Meanwhile, Starkey has also previewed a snippet of another track, Rip Off, to much media frothing. It's a concoction several decades in the making: a song by The Beatles' children.
The prospect of Starkey and fellow offspring Sean Lennon and James McCartney collaborating on a track has been hinted at for almost 20 years, he says, but Starkey would always reject the idea for fear of being judged on it for the rest of his life. '
They're all like, 'It could be as big as The Beatles,'' he says.
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'I said, 'Do you want to be as big as The Beatles? Don't you want to go to Waitrose? My dad can't go to f**king Waitrose, he can't go and buy a paper or whatever. Do you actually want that?
"You wan to be as good as The Beatles, but do you want that mania and people bringing babies for you to touch and cure them of cancer and shit?'.'
Possibly not. Over time, though, Starkey grew close with his fellow Beatle babies. When the right Mantra of the Cosmos song came up, he sent it to Lennon, who added 'an amazing John Carpenter sort of synth and one line, which is really psychedelic and amazing', and invited McCartney to the studio to provide vocals and guitar on the heady, psych-folk track.
Only Starkey could have orchestrated such a historic coming together with any real integrity. Having played with some of the world's biggest bands and formed supergroups with musicians from an array of legendary acts – the Sex Pistols, Primal Scream, Oasis, Blur, The Stone Roses, Paul Weller and more – he has become something of a backbeat hub for the rock'n'roll world, the connective tissue between scenes and eras and a respected musician in his own right.
Just tell your dad to f**k off, see you later. That's what I did
'Pete [Townshend] has got a theory on that,' Starkey says. 'Obviously, Sean's dad got killed. [Pete] goes, 'Your dad was around, so you could tell him to f**k off.' That's right... If your dad doesn't die, you don't put him on a pedestal, like Jason Bonham, or Sean, Julian [Lennon]; their [dads are] on a pedestal, aren't they? You don't get any space to be yourself. Just tell your dad to f**k off, see you later. That's what I did.'
Starkey has many fond memories of childhood behind The Beatles' curtain. 'Music was everywhere in our house. Jukeboxes in every room. Fantastic music on.'
Marc Bolan used to babysit. 'We'd play Scalextric. He goes 'Your dad's got a studio, right?' I'd say, 'Yeah, but I'm not really allowed in.' He goes, 'Come on, let's go up there,' and he'd show me a few guitar things. He was great.'
Did he learn any life lessons from his godfather, Keith Moon? 'Yeah, become an alcoholic! He never taught me how to play the drums, but he taught me how to drink and he taught me about girls and he taught me about surfing.
"We never went surfing, but we talked about it and listened to The Beach Boys a lot. He'd sometimes take me to nightclubs when I was 11 or 12; he treated me like an adult.'
Yet the environment was also one of a kind of secretive normality. 'We were taught to shut up, not to tell anyone anything,' Starkey says. 'My dad, to me, is this: my dad is chasing me down the garden, going, 'If I get my hands on you, I'll bloody kill you.'
'That's my dad. My dad. He changed the world, he was in The Beatles. See him on TV, get a bit misty at that. But he's my dad and that's how I remember those years. Like everyone's dad, he's a dad.'
He's dismissive of the supposed advantages of nepo-babyism. 'It doesn't necessarily mean you're not any good, [and] it don't open doors. It might get you in a f**king nightclub, [although] I've never done that in my life, 'Oh, I'm Ringo's kid, let me in.' Nowadays, they'd go 'Who the f**k's Ringo?''
The average club doorman of 2025 might be more impressed, perhaps, that Starkey was in Oasis from 2004 to 2008. 'It was just f**king great fun and fantastic rock'n'roll, start to finish ... We were the greatest live band in the world, I think, at that time. It was like a f**king comet coming at you", he says.
Starkey hadn't expected the Oasis reunion call-up, though. 'It was discussed with Noel, but I was in The Who.' But not for long.
Having played with the band since 1996, and shortly before their final farewell US tour, Starkey was fired in April after a disagreement over his Royal Albert Hall performance, reinstated two weeks later, and then fired again.
'I don't know what the f*** is happening,' he says. 'This is The Who, man. The most unpredictable, aggressive, arrogant people, lovely people who are my family, but you never know what's going to happen, and that's why it's The Who.'