Zak Starkey

Zak Richard Starkey (born 13 September 1965) is an English rock drummer. He is the son of The Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, and has performed and recorded with English rock band The Who since 1996. He is also the third drummer to have appeared with English rock band Oasis.

Zak Starkey
Starkey performing live with The Who, in 2008
Background information
Birth nameZak Richard Starkey
Born (1965-09-13) 13 September 1965
Hammersmith, London, England
OriginChipping Barnet, London, England
Genres
Occupation(s)Musician
Instruments
  • Drums
  • percussion
Years active1979–present
Labels
Associated acts

Other musicians and bands he has worked with include Johnny Marr, Paul Weller, The Icicle Works, The Waterboys, ASAP, The Lightning Seeds, and John Entwistle.

Early life

Zak Richard Starkey was born on 13 September 1965, at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in Hammersmith, London, the son of The Beatles' drummer Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey) and Maureen Starkey, Starr's first wife.[1] He grew up at Sunny Heights at St George's Hill in Surrey and Tittenhurst Park at Sunninghill, Berkshire and attended Highgate School in London until 1981.

At the age of eight he became interested in music, when The Who's drummer, Keith Moon, gave him a drum kit. Moon (known to young Zak as "Uncle Keith") was one of his father's closest friends and Starkey's godfather. Although they never sat together at a drum kit, Moon discussed drumming with him as a boy. The drum kit was later sold at Sotheby's for £12,000.[2]

At the age of ten, Starkey began teaching himself to play the drums. His father gave him only one lesson, but discouraged his growing interest because of the desire not to see him in the same business.[3] Although Starr has praised his son's abilities, he had always regarded him as a future lawyer or doctor. By the age of twelve, Starkey was performing in pubs as a member of the garage band The Next.[3]

Career
Starkey on stage with Oasis in 2005.

1980s

In the early 1980s, Starkey appeared with a re-formed Spencer Davis Group.[3]

On 22 January 1985, he married Sarah Menikides. Their daughter Tatia was born on 6 September 1985.[3] Shortly after his marriage, Starkey recorded a musical version of Wind in the Willows with Eddie Hardin.[4] In the same year, he joined his father on Sun City by Artists United Against Apartheid and played on John Entwistle's solo album The Rock (released in 1996). He replaced Chris Sharrock as the drummer in the Icicle Works[3] in 1989, leaving the band the next year without appearing on any recordings with them. A B-side later issued by founder member Ian McNabb, featured him on drums and is presumed to date from his tenure with the group. Starkey also played on the 1989 album Silver and Gold, a solo work released by Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith.[4]

1990s

In 1992 and 1995, Starkey toured with Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band, having previously guested on the band's 1989 tour. He briefly joined The Semantics, replacing founding drummer Jody Spence, during the recording process for their album Powerbill, which ended up being unreleased except in Japan. He joined the band when they moved from Nashville to Los Angeles, and played in some shows and some recording sessions, but the band broke up less than a year after he joined.

In 1994, he joined John Entwistle and Roger Daltrey of The Who on a tour entitled "Daltrey Sings Townshend", which had developed from a two-night performance at Carnegie Hall to celebrate Daltrey's fiftieth birthday. In 1996, Starkey left his band Face, to work with The Who[3] on their Quadrophenia tour. He received good reviews in this role and was praised by the music press for his strong drumming presence, without trying to emulate the band's previous drummer Keith Moon. Both Townshend and Daltrey stated that Starkey was the best match for the band since the death of Keith Moon.

Starkey with Roger Daltrey of The Who in concert

2000s

In 2000, Starkey was a founding member of Johnny Marr & The Healers, although their first album Boomslang,[3] would not be released for another three years. On 14 April 2001, he featured in both of the backing bands for the "Steve Marriott Tribute Concert", which also featured Humble Pie, Rick Wills, Rabbit Bundrick, Bobby Tench, Noel Gallagher and Paul Weller.[5]

On 20 October 2001, he performed with The Who at the Concert for New York City at Madison Square Garden. This was heralded as The Who's "comeback" performance and they stole the show. Rolling Stone called their performance "one of the 50 moments that changed rock and roll". It was also one of John Entwistle's final appearances with the band.

Oasis: 2004–2008

During 2004, Starkey joined the Britpop band Oasis and was also featured on two tracks included on The Who's biographic album, The Who: Then and Now.[4] In May 2005, Noel Gallagher revealed to the BBC that Starkey had participated in the recording sessions for Don't Believe the Truth. Starkey had recorded all but one track of these sessions which were originally called "Mucky Fingers" and were also for an official promotional video for the album. After the completion of these sessions Starkey stated: "It was amazing. They're all singers, they're all guitar players, they're all songwriters, they're all producers and they're all drummers."

He travelled as a sideman on the year-long Oasis tour that followed and appeared in promotional videos for the associated singles. Despite this, he was not an official member of the band and rarely appeared with them in promotions. In April 2005, Noel Gallagher confirmed that he had been invited to be their official drummer and added that this could not materialise before his current working engagements with The Who were completed in mid-2007.

Starkey on stage with The Who in 2008

Starkey was not available to record The Who's 2006 album Endless Wire,[4] as he had been on the road with Oasis. However, he did join The Who for The Who Tour 2006-2007 in support of the album, during which they headlined at Glastonbury Festival in 2007. The tour finished at the Hartwall Areena in Helsinki, Finland on 9 July 2007. Pete Townshend's official website stated that Starkey was afterwards invited to become a full member of The Who, stating: "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."[6]

On 14 February 2007, Starkey appeared with Oasis when they received the BRIT Award for outstanding contribution to music. Later in 2007, he featured on Paul Weller's single "This Old Town" along with Blur guitarist Graham Coxon and bass guitarist Gary Mounfield, also known as "Mani".[4] On 12 July 2008, Starkey played drums for the Who at the 3rd annual VH1 Rock Honors, which celebrated the band's long career.

His participation in the making of the Oasis album, Dig Out Your Soul, was confirmed on 11 December 2007,[4] when the official Oasis website published a picture of him with the other band members.[7] However, it was announced that he would not perform on the Dig Out Your Soul Tour. Instead, he played drums for The Who during their tour of Australia and New Zealand in 2008. A year later he recalled that playing with them was "massive" and called the band "some of the smartest musicians I've ever met".[8]

In 2008, Starkey formed the band Penguins Rising which had previously been called Penguin, along with his partner Sharna Liguz. The band's original line up also included his daughter Tatia.[9] Penguins rising went on to support Kasabian and Beady Eye on their respective tours. Starkey left Oasis in May 2008, after the recording of Dig Out Your Soul and was replaced by Chris Sharrock.

2010s

On 7 February 2010, Starkey appeared with The Who during the half-time show of Super Bowl XLIV at the Sun Life Stadium, Miami, Florida.[10]. On 30 March 2010, he played with the band during their performance of Quadrophenia at the Royal Albert Hall in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Starkey performed at Ringo Starr's 70th birthday party on 7 July 2010 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. He joined his father and guest stars Yoko Ono, Nils Lofgren, Steven Van Zandt and Jeff Lynne for "With a Little Help from My Friends" and "Give Peace a Chance".

On 12 August 2012, he played with The Who at the finale of the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony and on 12 December 2012, he joined them at 12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy Relief. Starkey also joined The Who on their 2012–13 Quadrophenia and More tour, but he had to back out on 5 February 2013 when he contracted tendonitis. Scott Devours the drummer on Roger Daltrey's Use It or Lose It tour was called in to take over on drums for the remainder of the tour and therefore appeared on the Quadrophenia Live in London album, instead of Starkey.

He toured with The Who during their tour of North America On 28 June 2015, Starkey once again joined The Who as they performed as the headline act at the world-famous Glastonbury Festival and other shows in 2016 as part of The Who Hits 50! tour which had started in 2014.

In September 2016, Starkey was interviewed by Rolling Stone about the new covers album he was working on with Sharna Liguz, compiled with songs which had influenced them. They recorded these with the original members from each of the relevant bands. Funding for album's ten tracks was raised by a Crowdfunding campaign through the Pledgemusic site. Under the name SSHH, Starkey and Liguz also recorded other tracks.[11] In October 2016 Starkey performed with The Who at Desert Trip on the grounds of the Indio Polo Club site that hosts the annual Coachella festival in California. On 23 September 2017, Starkey once again joined The Who on stage as they performed as a headline act at the Rock in Rio festival. He joined The Who for the 2019 Moving On Tour.

Equipment
  • Drum Workshop drums with Remo skins
  • Clear Powerstrokes bass drums only
  • Coated Controlled sound toms
  • Emperor Snare
  • 2 22"x16 Bassdrums
  • 1 12"x8 Tom
  • 1 13"x8 Tom
  • 1 14"x8 Tom
  • 1 16"x16 Floortom
  • 1 18"x16 Floortom
  • 1 14"x6 Edge Snare
  • 14" Zildjian A Mastersound Hi-Hats
  • 21" Zildjian K Crash Ride (x2)
  • 22" Zildjian K Ride
  • Zildjian Zak Starkey Artist Series drumsticks, coloured with The Who's red, white and blue colours as seen on their live performance at the Super Bowl XLIV show.

Associated acts

Discography
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References
  1. "News in Brief – A baby named Zak". The Times (56427). 15 September 1965. p. 7.
  2. Micallef, Ken. "The Who's Zak Starkey: Channeling Keith—And More". moderndrummer.com. Retrieved 2 November 2010.
  3. Sutton, Michael. "Zak Starkey, AMG biography". AllMusic. Retrieved 2 November 2010.
  4. "Zak Starkey credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 2 November 2010.
  5. "Steve marriott Memorial Concert 2001". humble-pie.net. 24 April 2001. Archived from the original on 22 January 2009. Retrieved 14 February 2009.
  6. "Zak Starkey, invitation to join The Who". petetownshend.co.uk. Retrieved 2 November 2010.
  7. "Zak Starkey with Oasis 2007". oasisinet.com. Archived from the original on 7 December 2010. Retrieved 2 November 2010.
  8. Tom Porter (19 May 2009). "Zak Starkey on Oasis: "the smartest musicians I've ever met" | Guitar News". MusicRadar. Retrieved 11 August 2014.
  9. "NME News Ex-Oasis man launches new band". NME. 8 August 2008. Retrieved 11 August 2014.
  10. Gomez Gina (2 August 2010). "Drummer Zak Starkey Of 'The Who' Was Amazing in Super Bowl Halftime Show". thaindian.com. Retrieved 2 November 2010.
  11. Jon Blistein (9 September 2016). "Zak Starkey Enlists Original Sex Pistols for Fierce 'Problems' Cover". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
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