Not Agreeing To Be Called Retired From The Who, Zak Starkey: I Was Fired

Former drummer for The Who, Zak Starkey (left) with Pete Townshend. (Photo: Instagram @therealzakstarkey)

JAKARTA - The complicated relationship between Zak Starkey, his former band, The Who, continues.

Through a statement on his Instagram account, the drummer tried to explain several things he considered wrong.

As is known, Starkey has been a drummer for Who since 1996. However, after a performance at Albert Hall in mid-April, Pete Townshend (guitar) declared the drummer out of the band.

Not long after, Who announced Starkey was back in the band. But not even a month later, Townshend again declared Ringo Starr's son out of the band.

On the other hand, Roger Daltrey (vocals) stated that Starkey was not fired from Who, but retired, because he wanted to focus on his work with the Mantra Of The Cosmos supergroup, which will soon release a new song written by Noel Gallagher.

At Daltrey's statement, Starkey called it nonsense. He reiterated to his fans that there was no schedule conflict between The Who and Mantra Of The Cosmos.

"This is absolutely nonsense. I was fired," Starkey wrote, citing the caption for the post, Friday, May 30.

Roger's new word for it is 'retired' to complete another of my musical projects, "he added.

The 59-year-old drummer explained that he had communicated by telephone with the vocalist after being declared out of Who for the second time.

"I called Roger last week and told him directly that I had spent almost two months in my studio in Jamaica to complete my studio project," he said.

"That I will release the Mantra Of The Cosmos single next week and then I am really ready for the future (The Who) ... he was a little surprised but understood," added the drummer.

He also ensured that there were no problems related to the split schedule or focus. Furthermore, Starkey also called the term retirement' used by Daltrey unreasonable.

"That's true I don't have any plans for the fall because I think I'm going on tour with The Who and my Mantra bandmates so busy at Oasis and Happy Mondays until the new year. So this is just nonsense," Starkey said.

"Did I be fired, retired, which obviously (I) am not tired because I am 20 years younger than these people, as they say," he said.