Zak Starkey, the drummer for the Who, was fired from the band for the second time in as many months, but he was promptly brought back. Pete Townshend, the band’s guitarist, said on Instagram Monday that Starkey was leaving the Beatles, only months before their final North American tour.
“After many years of great work on drums from Zak, the time has come for a change,” Townshend’s post read: “A poignant time. Zak has lots of new projects in hand and I wish him the best.”
Later, Starkey, who has been the drummer for the Who since 1996, stated that the group did not agree on his departure.
“I was fired two weeks after reinstatement and asked to make a statement saying I had quit to follow my other musical endeavours,” Starkey wrote on social media, an hour after Townshend’s statement.
“Not true. I love The Who and would be er gave quit and let down so many amazing people who stood up for me through all this madness.”
“Weeks of mayhem of me going ‘in and out nd in and out’s…like a bleeding squeezebox,” he continued.
A dispute with Starkey’s performance at their Royal Albert Hall show earlier this year led to his dismissal from the brand in April.
According to a review of the band’s March concert at the Metro, Roger Daltrey, the vocalist of the Who, reportedly spoke onstage about Starkey’s performance, stopping during their last song, “The Song Is Over,” to inform 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.”
Starkey called his bandmate “Toger Daltrey” and claimed he was “bringing formal charges of overplaying” against him, which led to an instant rift.
Townshend remarked that “there have been some communication issues, personal and private on all sides, that needed to be dealt with, and these have been aired happily” after Starkey was reinstated three days later. Townshend and Daltrey were later thanked by Starkey.
Josh Freese of the Foo Fighters, who had been playing in place of the late Taylor Hawkins for the past two years, was fired from the band this week, making this the second high-profile drummer firing in as many days.
“I enjoyed the last two years with them, both on and off stage, and I support whatever they feel is best for the band,” Freese wrote. “In my 40 years of drumming professionally, I’ve never been let go from a band, so while I’m not angry — just a bit shocked and disappointed.”