The Drummer of “The Who”: Zak Starkey
Zak Starkey is an English drummer, well-known as the first child of The Beatles drummer Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey) and his first wife Maureen Cox. Starkey is mostly noted for his unofficial membership in The Who since 1994. Starkey is the fourth drummer for the rock band The Who, playing with them live and occasionally in the studio. He is also known as being the third drummer of English rock band Oasis until summer 2008. Starkey has also worked on session and touring basis with artists including: Johnny Marr, Paul Weller, The Icicle Works, the Waterboys, ASAP and the Lightning Seeds.
Although Starkey had previously worked with John Entwistle in Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band tours and on Entwistle's album The Rock, he received his first opportunity to work with The Who in 1994, with Roger Daltrey in his Daltrey Sings Townshend tour. This tour developed from a two night performance at Carnegie Hall to celebrate Daltrey's fiftieth birthday, when he afterward recruited John Entwistle, Simon Townshend and Zak Starkey to complete a US tour. In 1996, Starkey left his band Face, to work with The Who on their Quadrophenia tour. He received very good reviews in this role for being a strong drumming presence but without explicitly imitating original drummer Keith Moon. Starkey was the full-time drummer for The Who beginning with their 1996 Quadrophenia Tour. Both Townshend and Daltrey stated that he is the best drummer The Who had since the death of Moon. He provided drumming for one track on The Who's 2006 album Endless Wire, and for two new tracks released in 2004 on The Who: Then and Now. However, he was unable to provide the drumming for the EP Wire & Glass or the album Endless Wire because he was on tour with Oasis at the time Townshend recorded the songs. Starkey worked with The Who on The Who Tour 2006–2007, which was to finish in Glastonbury in 2007. It finished at Hartwall Areena in Helsinki, Finland on 9 July.
Starkey on stage with The Who in 2008.
According to Pete Townshend's official web site, Starkey was invited to become a full member of The Who, but he declined. Also the tour was supposed to continue until November and December. However, Starkey wanted to continue his work in Oasis, so declined a spot in the band and the touring plans had to be postponed.
"Some of you may have noticed in one of my recent diary postings that I welcomed Zak into the Who as a permanent member. This is something he doesn't feel he needs or wants. Let's just say that the door is always open to this amazing musician, and — whenever we can — we will always try to make it possible for Zak to work with the Who in the future."
On 12 July 2008, Starkey played live with The Who at the 3rd annual VH1 Rock Honors, celebrating the band's long career.
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