“Character assassination”: The Who’s Roger Daltrey hits back at ex-drummer Zak Starkey

The Who’s Roger Daltrey has accused former bandmate Zak Starkey of “character assassination” after the drummer was fired twice in less than a month.

In May, the band announced that they had parted ways with Starkey for the second and final time. He’d originally been fired a few weeks earlier following a Who gig at London’s Royal Albert Hall, in which Daltrey complained onstage about the volume of Starkey’s drums during The Song Is Over. Starkey was briefly reinstated, only to be fired again a few days later.

In the wake of his firing, the drummer shot down Who guitarist Pete Townshend’s claim that it had been “a collective decision”, describing the situation as “weeks of madness”.

He also took aim at Daltrey, who he dubbed “Toger Daktrey”, joking that the singer was “bringing formal charges of overplaying” against him. Starkey added that Daltrey had “demanded a public apology.”

Starkey, whose place in The Who was taken by Scott Devours, the drummer in Daltrey’s solo band, told The Telegraph blamed Daltrey for the original mistake. “What happened was I got it right and Roger got it wrong,” he said.

Now Daltrey has hit back at Starkey’s remarks in an interview with The Times.

“It was kind of a character assassination and it was incredibly upsetting,” the singer said.

Daltrey claimed that the initial onstage flashpoint and subsequent exchange of words stemmed from a misunderstanding.

“[The sound] 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,” he said. “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.”

He continued: “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 response] was crippling to me.”

In the same interview, Daltrey confirmed that the band’s current tour will be their last, saying being on the road was “gruelling”. However he didn’t rule out one-off shows in the future.

“As to whether we’ll play [one-off] concerts again, I don’t know,” he said. “The Who to me is very perplexing.”

Daltrey revealed that he was suffering not only from deafness but also a degenerative macular condition that meant he was losing his eyesight. However, he knocked back any suggestion of retirement.

“Never, never retire,” he says. “You’ll be dead in three years. Daytime TV will kill you.”

The Who: The Song Is Over tour 2025

Aug 16: Sunrise Amerant Bank Arena, FL =
Aug 19: Newark Prudential Center, NJ =
Aug 21: Philadelphia Wells Fargo Center, PA ^
Aug 23: Atlantic City Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall, NJ +
Aug 26: Boston Fenway Park, MA ¶
Aug 28: Wantagh Northwell at Jones Beach Theater, NY º
Aug 30: New York Madison Square Garden, NY º
Sep 02: Toronto Budweiser Stage, ON >
Sep 04: Toronto Budweiser Stage, ON >
Sep 07: Chicago United Center, IL <
Sep 09: Chicago United Center, IL <
Sep 17: Los Angeles Hollywood Bowl, CA ¶
Sep 19: Los Angeles Hollywood Bowl, CA ¶
Sep 21: Mountain View Shoreline Amphitheatre, CA ¢
Sep 23: Vancouver Rogers Arena, BC ¢
Sep 25: Seattle Climate Pledge Arena, WA ¢
Sep 28: Las Vegas MGM Grand Garden Arena, NV ø

= with Billy Bob Thornton and The Boxmasters
^ with ZZ Ward
+ with Booker T. Jones
¶ with The Joe Perry Project
º with Feist
> with Tom Cochrane
< with Joe Bonamassa
¢ with Candlebox
ø with Billy Idol