Roger Daltrey speaks for the first time about Zak Starkey’s firing

The Who vocalist and co-founder Roger Daltrey spoke for the first time about the firing of their longtime drummer Zak Starkey. In an interview with The Times, the musician was blunt, stating that the rights to The Who’s name belong to him and Pete Townshend, and adding that everyone else in the band are session players.

Roger Daltrey speaks for the first time about Zak Starkey being fired

“An audience can see what’s happening on stage and have a complete misunderstanding of what’s actually going on. It was kind of a character assassination and it was incredibly upsetting. It is controlled by a guy on the side, and we had so much sub-bass on the sound of the drums that I couldn’t pitch. I was pointing to the bass drum and screaming at him because it was like flying a plane without seeing the horizon. So when Zak thought I was having a go at him, I wasn’t. That’s all that happened.”

“Pete and I retain the right to be the Who. Everyone else is a session player. You can’t replace Keith Moon. We wanted to branch out and that’s all I want to say about it. But (Starkey’s reaction) was crippling to me,” Roger Daltrey said.

What Zak Starkey had previously said about being fired

The Ringo Starr son, Zak Starkey, was The Who‘s drummer for 29 years, was fired twice by the band recently. One week after the first time he was fired the band announced he was back but one week later fired him again.  Everything started during a show where Roger Daltrey felt he was playing some wrong parts. In an interview with Rolling Stone, the musician revealed that his father told him: “I’ve never liked the way that little man (Daltrey) runs that band.’”

Starkey also noted that he was playing it right and it was Roger who got the song wrong, probably because he couldn’t hear most of the instruments. In an interview with Ipaper, the band’s guitarist and main songwriter talked about the case.