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Zak Starkey’s departure from The Who in May 2025 followed a public reversal: after an April dispute over his drumming, guitarist Pete Townshend said Starkey would stay, but the band later announced a change and named Scott Devours as his replacement. Starkey said he had been fired, not that he had quit. The public statements do not establish the private reason for the final decision.
What did Zak Starkey say about leaving The Who?
In a written statement to Rolling Stone on April 17, 2025, Starkey said he was proud of his “near thirty years with The Who” and described the band as family. He also said he was surprised and saddened that anyone objected to his performance at the Royal Albert Hall.
Starkey added that he had recovered from a serious blood-clot emergency in his right calf and said it had not affected his drumming or running. That was his account of his health, not an independently verified medical assessment.
Why did Zak Starkey leave The Who?
The public timeline does not give one confirmed explanation for the final split. The dispute began after The Who’s March 2025 Teenage Cancer Trust performances at London’s Royal Albert Hall, but the band’s April and May statements framed what happened differently.
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The April performance dispute
After the Royal Albert Hall shows, press reports described criticism of Starkey’s performance. On April 19, Townshend said in a post that Starkey was not being asked to step down and had agreed to tighten his evolved drumming style. Townshend cited limited sound-check time, difficult stage sound and his own recovery from knee replacement. He said Daltrey had adjusted his in-ear monitors, while Starkey had made mistakes and apologized. “Maybe we didn’t put enough time into sound checks, giving us problems on stage,” Townshend wrote.
Townshend characterized the episode as a misunderstanding that had escalated quickly, saying: “We are a family, this blew up very quickly and got too much oxygen. It’s over. We move forward now with optimism and fire in our bellies.”
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The May departure announcement
On May 18, The Who announced a change and named Scott Devours as Starkey’s replacement. The statement from Townshend and Roger Daltrey referred to the band’s plans to retire and Starkey’s other work: “The Who are heading for retirement, whereas Zak is 20 years younger and has a great future with his new band and other exciting projects.”
Starkey challenged the way the change was presented. He said he had been asked to announce that he had quit and that doing so would be a lie; he said he had been fired and would not have quit. The Los Angeles Times’ May 19 account also noted Townshend’s intervening April statement that Starkey was not being asked to leave.
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Those accounts establish a disagreement over the departure’s framing, but they do not prove the private decision process or show that one specific performance was the definitive cause.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Was Zak Starkey fired from The Who?
Starkey said he was fired and denied that he had quit. The band described the May announcement as a change, wished him well with his new band and other projects, and named a successor. Neither side’s public wording settles every detail of how the decision was reached.
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How long did Zak Starkey play with The Who?
Starkey called his tenure 29 years. Rolling Stone reported that he joined The Who in 1996, after first entering the band’s orbit in 1994 by backing Roger Daltrey on an American tour. Starkey joined The Who for a tour celebrating the band’s 1973 album Quadrophenia. His departure announcement came in May 2025.
Starkey is the son of Ringo Starr, but the Who story rests on his own decades of work with the band: he joined for the Quadrophenia tour and became a long-standing drummer in its live lineup.
Who replaced Zak Starkey?
The Who named Scott Devours as Starkey’s replacement in its May 2025 announcement. The band’s statement presented the change alongside its retirement plans and Starkey’s other projects; it did not provide a definitive private explanation for the split.
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