Zak Starkey won’t get fooled again.
The famed drummer for The Who (for thirty years) is hitting the road to tell stories and pound some skins this winter.
Zak, son of Ringo Starr, is actually 60 years old. How is this possible? He’ll explain on February 20th at the Gramercy Theater on West 23rd St. The evening is called “Zak Starkey…Who?: An Evening of Drums and Conversation,” a very special one-man show set plus Q&A.
Starkey left The Who after being fired, then quitting, and whatever this past year. I can’t wait to hear him tell stories about Harry Nilsson, Marc Bolan, Jeff Beck, Debbie Harry, and Joe Walsh to Mick Jones, Primal Scream, Johnny Marr, The Sex Pistols, The Damned, Richard Ashcroft, Oasis, and of course Ringo Starr’s All Starr Band.
He’ll being playing live, too. Starkey will step behind the kit for performances of songs by Toots and the Maytals, his new supergroup Mantra of the Cosmos, Johnny Marr, and the Who, the latter featuring original backing tracks contributed by Pete Townshend himself. More surprises will be announced soon.
You can buy tickets here. I want to find out if Ringo sang “Good Night” to his kids when he was home!
Prepare for a long night. When Zak was 12, Keith Moon named his new band The Next. Other local bands followed, getting Zak onto the London and UK club and college circuit. During this time, Kenney Jones and Andy Newmark were occasional drum tutors for Zak, and while visiting his father in Los Angeles, he would regularly jam with Stephen Stills, Dr. John, Rick Danko, Billy Preston, and Garth Hudson.
The stories will go on for hours. It’s time for Zak to write a book!
