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Zak Starkey hasn't shied away from how he felt when The Who fired him, re-hired him, then "retired" him. In a new interview with Rolling Stone, the drummer revealed how his dad Ringo Starr supported him during the tumultuous time.
"I’m very proud of him standing up for me,” Starkey said.
When asked what his father thought of the ordeal, Starkey didn't sugarcoat things. “He said, ‘I’ve never liked the way that little man runs that band,’” referring to frontman Roger Daltrey.
Starkey also insisted that he's not holding a grudge against Daltrey and guitarist Pete Townsend, despite calling them “f**king insane” and claiming they “have an addiction to friction.” “I don’t blame anyone,” he said. “I don’t hold any grudges. It’s The Who. Weirder s**t than this has gone down. I’ve heard them say weirder s**t than this. It’s The Who — the maddest band there’s ever been.”
Unfortunately, the incident also made him miss out on the big Oasis reunion tour. “I did tell them both on text, ‘Why the f**k aren’t I in your band, man, helping make it the greatest rock band in the world again?,'” Starkey said. “They said, ‘You’re in The Who.’ And Liam [Gallagher] is happy working with Joey [Waronker] since they’ve been working with him for a while now.”
Thankfully, Starkey still has his supergroup Mantra of the Cosmos with Oasis bassist Andy Bell, and Happy Mondays members Shaun Ryder and Mark “Bez” Berry. The band just released a new song called "Rip Off" that features John Lennon's son Sean Ono Lennon and Paul McCartney's son James McCartney.