Zak Starkey was just accused of “character assassination” by former pal Roger Daltrey.
The lead vocalist for Who, stated that the whole drama created over the drummer’s recent dismissal was “incredibly upsetting.”
Starkey, who served the rock band for 29 years, from 1996 to 2025, was fired in April, after an onstage incident caused disruption during the band’s performance at the Royal Albert Hall.
Having a conversation with the Times, Daltrey opened up about his perspective of the story and everything that has happened since.
He noted that 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 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 clarified.
Speaking of the fallout that followed, Daltrey further mentioned, “It was kind of a character assassination, and it was incredibly upsetting.”
“Pete (Townshend) and I retain the right to be The Who. Everyone else is a session player,” he concluded.
This comes after Who announced their farewell tour last month in Italy, under the title, The Song is Over, with Scott Devours taking over for Zak Starkey on drums.
“Well, all good things must come to an end,” Townshend said when the tour was announced. “It is a poignant time.”
setTimeout(function(){
var scriptElement=document.createElement(‘script’);
scriptElement.type=”text/javascript”;
scriptElement.setAttribute=”async”;
scriptElement.src=”https://www.geo.tv/assets/front/js/lazysizes.min.js”;
document.body.appendChild(scriptElement);
}, 1000);
//setTimeout(function(){ $(‘.medium-insert-images’).find(‘figure’).show() }, 3000);
var loadDeferredJS = function() {
var lazyloadjs = [‘https://www.geo.tv/assets/front/js/lazysizes.min.js’];
var alljs = [‘https://www.geo.tv/assets/front/js/ui/thirdparty.js?ver=133’];
var jqueryjs = [‘https://www.geo.tv/assets/front/js/ui/jquery.min_new.js?ver=43’];
var bootstrapjs = [‘https://www.geo.tv/assets/front/js/ui/bootstarp.js?ver=55’];
var sliderjs = [‘https://www.geo.tv/assets/front/js/ui/swiper.min.js’];
var firebaseappjs = [‘https://www.gstatic.com/firebasejs/8.10.1/firebase-app.js’];
var firebasejs = [‘https://www.gstatic.com/firebasejs/8.10.1/firebase-analytics.js’,’https://www.gstatic.com/firebasejs/8.10.1/firebase-messaging.js’];
var firebasejs_tokenjs = [‘https://www.geo.tv/assets/front/js/push_notification.js?v=1.511’];
var alljscustom = [‘https://www.geo.tv/assets/front/js/ui/my.js?ver=232366′,’https://www.geo.tv/assets/front/js/mycustom.js?ver=646’];
/*setTimeout(function(){
lazyloadjs.forEach(function (item,index) {
var scriptElement=document.createElement(‘script’);
scriptElement.type=”text/javascript”;
scriptElement.src = item;
document.body.appendChild(scriptElement);
});
}, 500);*/
setTimeout(function(){
jqueryjs.forEach(function (item,index) {
var scriptElement=document.createElement(‘script’);
scriptElement.type=”text/javascript”;
scriptElement.src = item;
document.body.appendChild(scriptElement);
});
}, 1000);
// setTimeout(function(){
// bootstrapjs.forEach(function (item,index) {
// var scriptElement=document.createElement(‘script’);
// scriptElement.type=”text/javascript”;
// scriptElement.src = item;
// document.body.appendChild(scriptElement);
// });
// }, 2000);
const jqueryIntervalcheck = setInterval(function () {
if(typeof jQuery !== “undefined”){
clearInterval(jqueryIntervalcheck);
setTimeout(function(){
sliderjs.forEach(function (item,index) {
if(item == ‘https://www.geo.tv/assets/front/js/ui/swiper.min.js’){
var story_embed_gallery = $(‘.story-area’).find(‘.embedgallery’).length;
//var story_embed_gallery = 0;
if(parseInt(story_embed_gallery) > 0){
var scriptElement=document.createElement(‘script’);
scriptElement.type=”text/javascript”;
scriptElement.src = item;
document.body.appendChild(scriptElement);
}
}
});
}, 100);
setTimeout(function(){
alljscustom.forEach(function (item,index) {
var scriptElement=document.createElement(‘script’);
scriptElement.type=”text/javascript”;
scriptElement.src = item;
document.body.appendChild(scriptElement);
});
}, 1300);
/*const jqueryIntervalcount = setInterval(function () {
if(typeof jQuery !== “undefined”){
clearInterval(jqueryIntervalcount);*/
if($(‘.infogram-embed’).length > 0 || $(’embedinfogram’).length > 0)
{
!function (e, t, n, s) {
var i = “InfogramEmbeds”, o = e.getElementsByTagName(t)[0], d = /^http:/.test(e.location) ? “http:” : “https:”;
if (/^/{2}/.test(s) && (s = d + s), window[i] && window[i].initialized)window[i].process && window[i].process(); else if (!e.getElementById(n)) {
var a = e.createElement(t);
a.async = 1, a.id = n, a.src = s, o.parentNode.insertBefore(a, o)
}
}(document, “script”, “infogram-async”, “https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js”);
}
if($(‘.flourishClass’).length > 0)
{
var scriptElement=document.createElement(‘script’);
scriptElement.type=”text/javascript”;
scriptElement.setAttribute=”async”;
scriptElement.src=”https://public.flourish.studio/resources/embed.js”;
document.body.appendChild(scriptElement);
}
if($(‘.apester-media’).length > 0)
{
var scriptElement=document.createElement(‘script’);
scriptElement.type=”text/javascript”;
scriptElement.setAttribute=”async”;
scriptElement.src=”https://static.apester.com/js/sdk/latest/apester-sdk.js”;
document.body.appendChild(scriptElement);
}
if($(‘.twitter-tweet’).length > 0)
{
var tweetObj = document.getElementsByClassName(‘tweetPost’);
var counter_tweet = 0;
if (tweetObj.length == 0) {
tweetObj = document.getElementsByClassName(‘twitter-tweet’);
$.each(tweetObj, function (i, v) {
$(this).attr(‘id’, ‘twitter-post-widget-‘ + i);
});
} else {
$.each(tweetObj, function (i, v) {
if($(this).find(‘.twitter-tweet’).length > 0){
$(this).find(‘.twitter-tweet’).attr(‘id’, ‘twitter-post-widget-‘ + counter_tweet);
counter_tweet++;
}
});
}
$.getScript(‘https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js’, function () {
var k = 0;
var tweet = document.getElementById(‘twitter-post-widget-‘ + k);
var tweetParent, tweetID;
while (tweet) {
tweetParent = tweet.parentNode;
//tweetID = tweet.dataset.tweetId;
tweetID = tweetParent.getAttribute(“id”);
if(tweetID === null){
tweetID = tweet.dataset.tweetId;
}
//var tweetVideoClass = tweet.getAttribute(‘class’).split(‘ ‘)[0];
$(tweet).remove();
twttr.widgets.createTweet(
tweetID,
tweetParent
);
k++;
tweet = document.getElementById(‘twitter-post-widget-‘ + k);
}
});
/*==============*/
var tweetObjVid = document.getElementsByClassName(‘tweetVideo’);
var counter_tweet = 0;
if (tweetObjVid.length == 0) {
tweetObjVid = document.getElementsByClassName(‘twitter-video’);
$.each(tweetObjVid, function (i, v) {
$(this).attr(‘id’, ‘twitter-vid-widget-‘ + i);
});
} else {
$.each(tweetObjVid, function (i, v) {
if($(this).find(‘.twitter-video’).length > 0){
$(this).find(‘.twitter-tweet’).attr(‘id’, ‘twitter-vid-widget-‘ + counter_tweet);
counter_tweet++;
}
});
}
$.getScript(‘//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js’, function () {
var v = 0;
var tweetVid = document.getElementById(‘twitter-vid-widget-‘ + v);
var tweetParentVid, tweetIDVid;
while (tweetVid) {
tweetParentVid = tweetVid.parentNode;
//tweetIDVid = tweetVid.dataset.tweetId;
tweetIDVid = tweetParentVid.getAttribute(“id”);
if(tweetIDVid === null){
tweetIDVid = tweet.dataset.tweetId;
}
$(tweetVid).remove();
twttr.widgets.createVideo(
tweetIDVid,
tweetParentVid
);
v++;
tweetVid = document.getElementById(‘twitter-vid-widget-‘ + v);
}
});
}
if($(‘.instagram-media’).length > 0){
var scriptElement=document.createElement(‘script’);
scriptElement.type=”text/javascript”;
scriptElement.setAttribute=”async”;
scriptElement.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”;
document.body.appendChild(scriptElement);
}
if($(‘.tiktok-embed’).length > 0){
var scriptElement=document.createElement(‘script’);
scriptElement.type=”text/javascript”;
scriptElement.setAttribute=”async”;
scriptElement.src=”https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js”;
document.body.appendChild(scriptElement);
}
if($(‘.threadsPost’).length > 0){
var scriptElement=document.createElement(‘script’);
scriptElement.type=”text/javascript”;
scriptElement.setAttribute=”async”;
scriptElement.src=”https://www.threads.net/embed.js”;
document.body.appendChild(scriptElement);
}
if($(‘.fb-video’).length > 0 || $(‘.fb-post’).length > 0){
var container_width = $(window).width();
if(container_width 0){
let embed_url = $(‘.fb-video’).attr(‘data-href’);
let htmla=”
‘;
$(‘.fb-video’).parent(‘.embed_external_url’).html(htmla);
}
else{
let embed_url = $(‘.fb-post’).attr(‘data-href’);
let htmla=”
‘;
}
}
$(‘body’).prepend(‘
‘);
var scriptElement=document.createElement(‘script’);
scriptElement.type=”text/javascript”;
scriptElement.setAttribute=”async”;
scriptElement.src=”https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.11&appId=580305968816694″;
document.body.appendChild(scriptElement);
}
var scriptElement=document.createElement(‘script’);
scriptElement.type=”text/javascript”;
scriptElement.setAttribute=”async”;
scriptElement.src=”https://dcc4iyjchzom0.cloudfront.net/widget/loader.js”;
document.body.appendChild(scriptElement);
/*}
},100);*/ }
},100);
};
var raf = window.requestAnimationFrame || window.mozRequestAnimationFrame ||
window.webkitRequestAnimationFrame || window.msRequestAnimationFrame;
var loadDeferredJSCaptcha = function() {
var addJSNode = document.getElementById(“captchejs”);
var replacement = document.createElement(“div”);
replacement.innerHTML = addJSNode.textContent;
document.body.appendChild(replacement);
addJSNode.parentElement.removeChild(addJSNode);
};
window.addEventListener(‘load’, loadDeferredJS);
//window.addEventListener(‘load’, loadDeferredJSCaptcha);
#Zak #Starkey #accused #character #assassination
