The Who appear to be bringing Zak Starkey back into the fold, just over a year after their acrimonious split.
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Frontman Roger Daltrey shared the news during a solo show at the Encore Theater in Las Vegas on Wednesday (August 26), telling the audience that The Who had recently rehearsed with their former drummer.
In a subsequent statement to Rolling Stone, Starkey said that the afternoon rehearsal had left the band “absolutely on fire”.
Starkey, the son of Ringo Starr, began playing with The Who in 1996 and remained their touring drummer for nearly three decades, but his position was suddenly thrown into doubt following the band’s Teenage Cancer Trust shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall in March last year.
During ‘The Song Is Over’, Daltrey stopped the performance and complained that he could not hear the key over the drums, and the band were subsequently reported to have fired Starkey following an “acrimonious” fallout.
Starkey said he was “surprised and saddened” by the decision, maintaining that he did not believe there had been a problem with his performance. He had also recently recovered from a serious blood clot in his leg.
Just days later, Pete Townshend announced that Starkey was still in the band and was “not being asked to step down”. However, that apparent reconciliation did not last and in May, shortly after The Who announced their ‘The Song Is Over’ North American farewell tour, Townshend confirmed that Starkey was leaving the band again, declaring that “the time has come for a change”.
Starkey immediately disputed the suggestion that he had chosen to leave, claiming that The Who had asked him to “lie” and say he had quit to pursue other projects.
Scott Devours, who had previously played in Daltrey’s solo band, was announced as his replacement, and the situation became yet more confusing when Starkey said Daltrey had informed him that he had been “retired”, rather than fired, so that he could focus on his other work with Mantra Of The Cosmos.
Around the same time, Starkey also admitted that he was also “gutted” not to have been invited to join the reunited Oasis, having previously played with the band between 2004 and 2008.
The row soon drew in Starkey’s father, with Ringo reportedly criticising the “little man” Daltrey for firing his son.
Townshend later said that he “couldn’t see anything wrong” with the Royal Albert Hall performance, suggesting that Daltrey had become lost during the song amid technical problems.
Speaking to NME in June 2025, Starkey laid out the bewildering sequence of events: “I don’t know – I’ve not been sacked before! Then I was back in again four days later.
Nearly two weeks after that, I was sacked again.”.
Despite the fallout, Starkey said he remained in regular contact with both surviving members of The Who. “I still talk to Roger every week on the phone. I still text with Pete all the time,” he told NME.
Asked whether he would feel uncomfortable returning, Starkey replied: “No. I just think, ‘It’s The Who’.”.
The dispute nevertheless continued into August, when Daltrey accused Starkey of “character assassination”. The frontman said his comments at the Royal Albert Hall had been directed at a sound engineer, rather than being an attack on Starkey’s playing.
The Who went on to begin their farewell run with Devours behind the kit, eventually playing the final North American show in California in October.
Those shows were labelled at the time as their last ever, although Townshend seemed to hint at further activity earlier this summer, who said they were “always trying to come up with SOMETHING special”, and Daltrey revealing details of the rehearsals only seems to further confirm that speculation.
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