Sir Roger Daltrey says The Who have “never been the same” since Keith Moon died.
The late drummer tragically died in September 1978, aged 32, from an accidental overdose, and while band frontman Roger believes stickman Zak Starkey “comes very close” to being a like-for-like replacement for the musician in the group, he insisted: “He’s not Keith Moon”.
Speaking on Life Minute TV, he said: “It’s never been the same since Keith died.
“I can’t pretend it has. We were firing on all cylinders. We could throw anything out there and make something of it. That kind of disappeared when Keith died.
“But we found Zak Starkey.
“We tried Kenny Jones, who is a great drummer, but a straight drummer just does not work with The Who. It just does not work.
“But Zak Starkey, he’s not Keith Moon, but he comes very close.”
Zak has had an on-off relationship with the group.
He re-joined The Who earlier this year after he was let go by the band last year, before being welcomed back and then dismissed once again.
But now, Roger has told how The Who recently rehearsed with Zak as the drummer to see if they could potentially hit the road again.
However, the 82-year-old singer insisted touring doesn’t always agree with Zak.
Asked if there will be a The Who reunion with Zak, Roger said: “I don’t know. We did a rehearsal recently, and Zak was the drummer.
“We love Zak, but sometimes the road doesn’t like Zak.
“Sometimes it gets on top of him, and it becomes difficult. But we love him.
“He was drumming at the rehearsal, and we did the rehearsal to see if we can possibly do shows next year.
“Still hit the notes, still get the drive.
“Who music demands an incredible amount of drive, and without that, it would be Herman’s Hermits without the Herman.”
Last month, Roger revealed The Who – who also feature guitarist Pete Townshend – and Zak had been rehearsing together again.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Roger told the audience at his solo show at Las Vegas’ Encore Theater on August 26th: “We had a rehearsal recently to make sure we can think about doing some shows in Europe.”
He noted Zak had been on the drums and added: “It sounded great.”
Zak later shared a screenshot from the news report on Instagram and wrote: “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! Fantastic vocal from Roger here on his song ‘Certified Rose.’ (sic)”
