Zak Starkey

Zak Richard Starkey (born 13 September 1965) is an English rock drummer who toured and recorded with the Who from 1996 to 2025. Other musicians and bands he has worked with include Oasis, Johnny Marr, the Icicle Works, the Lightning Seeds, and the Semantics. He is the son of the Beatles' drummer Ringo Starr and Maureen Starkey.

Early life

Zak Richard Starkey was born on 13 September 1965, at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in Hammersmith, London, to the Beatles' drummer Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey) and Maureen Starkey, Starr's first wife. He grew up at Sunny Heights at St George's Hill in Surrey and Tittenhurst Park at Sunninghill, Berkshire, and attended Highgate School in London until 1981.

At the age of eight, Starkey was given a drum kit by the Who's drummer, Keith Moon. Moon (known to young Zak as "Uncle Keith") was one of his father's closest friends and Starkey's godfather. Although they never sat together at a drum kit, Moon discussed drumming with him as a boy. The drum kit was later sold at Sotheby's for £12,000.

Starkey subsequently began teaching himself to play the drums. His father gave him only one lesson, but he discouraged his growing interest because of the desire not to see him in the same business. Although Starr has praised his son's abilities, he had always regarded him as a future lawyer or doctor. Starr's close friend, Kenney Jones, drummer for Faces and Moon's replacement in the Who, stated that he "virtually taught" the young Starkey to play the drums. By the age of twelve, Starkey was performing in pubs as a member of the garage band the Next. After Moon's death, Jones gifted the teenage Starkey a white drum kit formerly owned by Moon, which had been kept in storage by the Who.