Roger Daltrey Accuses Zak Starkey of ‘Character Assassination’

Roger Daltrey has accused Zak Starkey of character assassination, declaring that the fuss over the Who drummer’s recent dismissal was “incredibly upsetting.”

Starkey served in the band for 29 years before he was fired in April after an onstage incident during the band’s performance at Royal Albert Hall.

Daltrey is said to have complained about Starkey overplaying during the show, telling 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.”

Less than a week later, the group rehired Starkey. “He’s not being asked to step down from the Who,” guitarist Pete Townshend explained. “There have been some communication issues, personal and private on all sides, that needed to be dealt with, and these have been aired happily.”

A month later, Starkey was out again, this time insisting that he had been asked to lie about his dismissal. “I was fired two weeks after reinstatement and asked to make a statement saying I had quit the Who to pursue my other musical endeavors,” he wrote. “This would be a lie. I love the Who and would never had [sic] quit.”

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In a new interview with the Times, Daltrey gave his side of the Royal Albert Hall story and everything that has happened since. “[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. I was pointing to the bass drum and screaming at [Starkey] 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.”

“It was kind of a character assassination and it was incredibly upsetting,” he added of the ensuing fallout. “Pete and I retain the right to be The Who. Everyone else is a session player.”

The Who launched their The Song is Over farewell tour last month in Italy, with Scott Devours taking over for Starkey on drums. The tour hits the United States on Aug. 16 in Sunrise, Florida and is currently scheduled to conclude on Sept. 28 in Las Vegas.