Zak Starkey tells Joey Waronker it is more than just gigs and he will be ‘protecting music’
Ringo Starr’s son Zak Starkey warned the drummer chosen over him to play on Oasis’s comeback tour ‘don’t f*** it up’ because ‘them boys know – they’re smart’.
He said Noel and Liam Gallagher are ‘some of the smartest musicians I’ve ever met’, ‘bang on it’ and will know instantly if drummer Joey Waronker does not get his ‘tempos right’. Asked if he had any advice for American Joey, 56, who played on Liam’s last album, Zak told NME: “Don’t f*** it up.
“Make sure you get your tempos right, them boys know. “They’re smart. They’re some of the smartest musicians I’ve ever met. Whether it’s fast, it’s slow, they’re bang on it.”
Zak, 59, who was recently axed by The Who after 29 years with the band, admitted he was gutted he will not be reuniting with Oasis for the sellout tour which starts next week.
He was Oasis’s drummer for four years from 2004 – touring with them and performing on albums Don’t Believe the Truth and Dig Out Your Soul.
Zak, who learned to play aged eight after being given a kit by The Who’s legendary drummer Keith Moon, said he discovered the snub on his birthday.
“Noel called me on my birthday to tell me I wasn’t in,” he said. “He didn’t know it was my birthday though. I would like to be in it because they’re my favourite group of my generation.
“The thing about groups that you love – like The Who or Oasis – is that it’s not a job. It’s about protecting music so that no-one does it wrong because for so many people it’s a job and they don’t really care.
“When it’s your favourite band you pick up the phone and you’re like, ‘F****** hell!’ It’s completely different to everything else. I f****** love Oasis. I always did. I always had this thing with Liam for years from the mid-90s where I’d go, ‘Alright Daffers? Still the greatest rock’n’roll singer in the world?’
“And he’d go, ‘Alright Zakky Wakky, still the greatest rock’n’roll drummer in the world?’ This went on for years until I was in. I couldn’t believe it.”
Zak, whose 84-year-old dad was The Beatles’ drummer for 12 years until their 1974 split, is a member of supergroup Mantra Of The Cosmos with Happy Mondays’ Shaun Ryder and Bez and Oasis bassist Andy Bell.
Joey has played with R.E.M, Beck, Roger Waters and on last year’s album Liam Gallagher John Squire which the Oasis frontman recorded with the Stone Roses’s guitarist.
Waronker is set to perform all 33 gigs of the Oasis Live ‘25 tour – the first time they will have played together since 2009.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
