Starkey usually plays a Drum Workshop kit with Remo skins and Zildjian hi-hats and cymbals. Nevertheless, it was the glam scene of the Seventies, with Marc Bolan and David Bowie in the first line, to bring Zak to the choice of becoming a rock musician.
THE WHO DRUMMER PROFESSIONAL
It was also the first professional drumkit Zak has ever owned. It is true, however, that Keith gave him a white and gold Premier kit when he was twelve. “I asked him how he played the ride cymbal part in Glow Girl,” he explains in the interview with Modern Drummer aforementioned, stating that the answer he gave “was the only advice he gave me, and I think he may have lied.” Now, you may think Keith Moon was a sort of drum teacher or at least a mentor for Zak, but you would be wrong. That’s why joining The Who, years and years later, must have felt quite natural.
He actually remembers him as a sort of uncle, being one of his father’s best friends. Zak Starkey indicates Keith Moon as his main influence. When he’s not busy recording with legendary British-pop band Oasis, he keeps refining his style and influences, even after more than twenty years of a brilliant career. When he’s not busy performing with The Who or with his father’s All-Starr Bands project, he writes his own music for his glam band Penguins Rising. Zak Starkey has developed an important tendency to eclectism, probably maturated in such an artistic household and through the relationships with incredible personalities developed throughout his childhood. All the rest is pretty vain and unimportant. Of course, touring with The Who and recording with Oasis can surely make you a rockstar, but, with that sentence, Zak defines what the whole point is about: to be a damn good player. In his own words, as highlighted in this interview with Modern Drummer, “I am not a rock’n’roll star.
THE WHO DRUMMER HOW TO
As a result, Zak had to teach himself how to get his arms around the instrument, inspired by the infinite stack of LPs he would find around his house as a young kid. One band after another, with recording projects sometimes being quitted, and years of trial-and-error processes, Zak reached an incredible success in the Nineties, when he started touring with his childhood heroes (and close friends), The Who members.ĭespite what you may think, Ringo Starr never taught Zak how to play the drums, in the attempt of discouraging him to join the music industry. Starting with pub gigs as part of underground bands as a teenager, he slowly walked up the ladder, collaborating with exceptional musicians along the way (Johnny Marr, John Entwistle, Adrian Smith, and many others). He has performed with the group ever since, alongside other longtime sidemen bassist Pino Palladino, rhythm guitarist Simon Townshend and keyboardist John "Rabbit" Bundrick.Zak Starkey might have had the privilege of finding himself in a golden network of musicians since the day of his birth, but, as for any other artist around, it took more than ten years of hard work with little-known bands for him to finally shine. Starkey was formally asked to play with the Who in 1996, during the band's string of special dates performing their iconic album Quadrophenia. In addition to touring with his dad's All Starr Band, Starkey performed with Daltrey in 1994 on the singer's Daltrey Sings Townshend tour, as well as performing on Entwistle's solo albums. Starkey began performing professional gigs in British pubs at age 12 with his band the Next and hooked up in 1985 with the reunited Spencer Davis Group, lead by Steve Winwood, when he was still a teenager. In fact, Starkey received his first drum kit and lessons as a child from Moon, despite Ringo's desire that his son not follow in his rock-and-roll footsteps. The gig is a fitting one, considering that Moon was Starkey's godfather and one of dad Ringo's best pals before the Who drummer's death in 1978.
The son of Beatles drummer Ringo Starr and his first wife, Maureen Cox, Starkey has been a touring member of the Who since 1996. He's played with Oasis, the Waterboys, the Icicle Works, Paul Weller and former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr. Though at 44 a relative youngster compared to Townshend (64) and Daltrey (65), Starkey is actually a nearly 15-year veteran of the touring version of the Who and a well-regarded rock sideman. One of the sidemen that stood out for many football fans watching the Super Bowl halftime extravaganza on Sunday was splashy drummer Zak Starkey, who kept the beat on a medley of the band's most beloved hits: "Pinball Wizard," "Baba O'Riley," "Who Are You?," "See Me, Feel Me" and "Won't Get Fooled Again."
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