“I think Roger just got lost. Roger’s finding it difficult. I have to be careful what I say about Roger because he gets angry if I say anything about him at all": Pete Townshend has his say on Zak Starkey’s protracted dismissal from The Who

The Who might be known for their rock operas, Quadophenia and Tommy, but the saga of drummer Zak Starkey’s drawn-out exit from the band over the past couple of months has been worthy of a soap storyline.

Having been in, out, back in and then out again, it seems that Starkey’s exit has finally been confirmed, though in his latest interview, he didn’t altogether rule out making yet another return.

Whether this is the end of the story or not, guitarist Pete Townshend has now had his say on the matter in an interview with The i Paper: “It’s been a mess,” he admits.

Asked about the incident that apparently resulted in Starkey’s initial dismissal from The Who - he says that he was accused by Roger Daltrey of ‘dropping beats’ during a show at the Royal Albert Hall, but continues to insist that it was the frontman who made a mistake rather than him - Townshend suggests that he was oblivious to the drama unfolding around him.

“I couldn’t see anything wrong,” he says. “What you see [in the footage of the gig] is a band who haven’t played together for a long time. But I think it was probably to do with the sound. I’ve lost my sound man as a result.”

That said, Townshend does also seem to imply that he believes that the blame for what happened on stage doesn’t rest with Starkey.

“I think Roger just got lost,” he says. “Roger’s finding it difficult. I have to be careful what I say about Roger because he gets angry if I say anything about him at all. He’ll be sacking me next. But that’s not to say that he sacked Zak. It’s a decision Roger and I tried to make together, but it kind of got out of hand.”

That’s one way of putting it but, in case you were thinking that Starkey was always ‘Townshend’s guy’, he also points out that it was Daltrey rather than him that brought him into The Who in the first place (he’s actually been playing with the band for almost 30 years).

“I didn’t invite him in, right? Roger invited him,” says the guitarist. “And at that time, I don’t know quite why he chose Zak, but Zak is another Keith Moon. He comes with real, real bonuses and real, real difficulties.”

Townshend doesn’t elaborate on what these difficulties were but, even after everything that’s happened, he suggests that losing Starkey comes with its downsides, and that he’s still not entirely sure why he had to leave.

“I will miss Zak terribly,” he says. “But quite what the story is, I don’t fucking know. I really don’t know.”