“It went four bars wrong… the next thing I know I’m getting the sack”: Zak Starkey claims he was sacked from The Who after a deep cut song he suggested playing live ended in disaster
Between getting fired from The Who, then apparently rehired, and then quietly sacked again, Zak Starkey might just be having the worst month of his rock and roll career.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, the longtime Who drummer opens up about the confusion surrounding his status with the prog-rock band and how a single deep cut may have set off the whole mess.
READ MORE: “With a short, simple Instagram post, Pete and Roger, once again, changed my life forever”: Newly appointed Who drummer Scott Devours describes “tsunami of emotions” in light of Zak Starkey’s firing
“I didn’t leave, I never left,” Starkey begins. “We did a gig and there’s a song that’s called The Song is Over that they’ve never played live. It’s on Who’s Next, which is their biggest record, and I suggested it.”
The band agreed to give it a shot, but things soon fell apart when they hit the stage.
“We played it at the gig and it went wrong,” says the drummer. “I’m not going to name names, but it went wrong. It went four bars wrong.”
“We stopped it again and it was all about the drums being too loud, but my drums are electric – if you stand in front of them, you can’t hear them, they’re just in my ears. The next thing I know I’m getting the sack.”
Starkey continues: “Sack the drummer, everybody’s called me. I posted something about it, and three days later I got my job back. Then two days later, I secretly didn’t get my job back and it’s all gone haywire since then.”
The musician also insists that contrary to claims by Pete Townshend and co, he has not been busy with his “other projects”.
“I found out the other day I wasn’t fired, I was retired because I was too busy but I’ve actually got nothing on besides this single [Mantra of the Cosmos’ Domino Bones] – and half the band are in Oasis, half the band are in Happy Mondays so they can’t work, I’m totally free.”
Speaking of Oasis, Starkey also shares that he won’t be involved in the Gallagher brothers’ upcoming reunion shows – something he says has left him “gutted”.
“I texted them and said ‘why am I not in it?’” He recalls. “You know, if you get a new drummer, you get comfortable, don’t you? You get comfortable with new musicians and I think that’s what’s happened and I’m alright with that.”
Still, the drummer admits he wouldn’t have hesitated if asked to come aboard: “God, yeah,” he says. “Greatest rock and roll band of my generation. Greatest rock and roll singer of my generation.”
Listen to Mantra of the Cosmos’ latest single Domino Bones below.
The post “It went four bars wrong… the next thing I know I’m getting the sack”: Zak Starkey claims he was sacked from The Who after a deep cut song he suggested playing live ended in disaster appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
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