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Apparently the deep and much-talked-about rift between the Who and former (and future?) drummer Zak Starkey was not quite a hell-freezes-over situation after all. Starkey, who was famously revealed to have been unceremoniously
handed his walking orders in April 2025, is now back with Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend … or at least he has rehearsed with them in advance of expected future dates.
Both Daltrey and Starkey have made public statements announcing and confirming the somewhat surprising musical reconciliation. Representatives for both Starkey and the Who confirmed to Variety that the respective statements are accurate.
In a solo gig at the Encore Theater in Las Vegas on Wednesday night, Daltrey informed the audience had recently done a rehearsal with Starkey and “it sounded great,” according to a review of the show the next day in the Las Vegas Journal-Review.
That this was coming direct from Daltrey was especially unexpected, since the singer had been perceived by much of the public as the surviving member who was most aggrieved by Starkey,’s playing or behavior, although Daltrey went on in interviews to suggest that he was being made into a fall guy for a somewhat unpopular decision that was not his alone.
And then, sure enough, Starkey — who had played with the band for 30 years and made it abundantly clear that he would welcome being invited back — confirmed that what Daltrey had said was true.
On social media. Starkey, who is the son of Ringo Starr, posted a screenshot of the relevant paragraph from the Las Vegas newspaper review, and then added his caption: “Nice one Rog x. Lookin forward to tearin it up with The Who again..The rehearsal was great.. I don’t think we’ve ever rehearsed as tough as that .. usually we drink tea and talk about what time we’re going home!”
Then Starkey made a more formal statement, given to Variety, further establishing his zeal for the reunion: “We rehearsed for an afternoon and were absolutely on fire,” the drummer wrote. “I’m so happy to be back playing the music I love with people I love. It’s good to be home.”
If you’re asking yourself “Didn’t the Who do a farewell tour last year?,” the answer is, that was a U.S. farewell tour the band wrapped up last October, with Starkey having gotten the boot before it started. But that didn’t mean the group wasn’t still prepared to make one last swing around other parts of the world, or even to do one-off concerts in the States.
“It’s not over by any means,” Daltrey told the Arizona Republic about the Who, while publicizing his solo tour. “It’s just that was the last tour of America for the Who.” The singer mentioned to that interviewer that the group had recently done a rehearsal to make sure they were properly ready to do a farewell tour in Europe, without mentioning at that time that Starkey had taken part in the rehearsal, if indeed it is just one rehearsal that has taken place so far.
The exact reasons for Starkey’s dismissal have been clouded, with some deciding that it must be due to an on-stage dispute between Daltrey and Starkey over their lack of being in sync during the band’s first-ever performance of “The Song is Over,”, while intimates of the group suggested that the real reasons for a split had to do with other factors. In interview after he was let go, Starkey insisted that he didn’t understand what had happened, even while pointing out that he was still in regular contact with both Daltrey and Townshend.
In July 2025, Starkey did an interview with Variety in which he cheekily declared, “I’m the most famous drummer on welfare.”
He said that when he was sacked, he had been asked to say that it was his decision to quit, which was not acceptable for him. ““I’m not a rock star and they are,, but I’m not gonna let people… make me look fucking bad and them look good because they want me to lie,” he told Variety then. “I wouldn’t do it… and then when they did it, I just threw ‘em under the fucking bus because it was bullshit. And then my dad stepped up for me, and that was the greatest thing in the world.”
He elaborated: “I didn’t really enjoy being treated like that at all, because (Daltrey) is my friend, but he was wrong. And Roger is one of them guys that, once he’s made his mind up, there ain’t going back. And I couldn’t believe the amount of support that happened. And then, how many times do you get fired twice?”
Of reconciliation prospects, Starkey then said, “I feel like anything could happen, but if it doesn’t, I’m cool with it, man. … The weirdest thing was, the day before I got sacked the last time, I’d done an interview with the Sunday Times and I said, “’t’s a vocation, man, being in the Who — it’s not a job. It’s like being a nun, or a nurse.’ And 12 hours later after that, I was fired. It’s so fucked up. But actually, it’s so funny, isn’t it? That’s what’s great about it. It’s funny as well as fucking insane. … If it doesn’t come back together, then it doesn’t come back together. But wow, what a great 29 years, man. I’d like to make it 30. Whatever it is, it would be great, just because them two guys are in it.”
