Zak Starkey isn’t the only one who has had enough of The Who. In a new Rolling Stone interview posted on Monday (June 16) the veteran session and touring drummer who was fired, rehired and then fired once more by The Who in a head-spinning span of several weeks earlier this year opened up about his current relationship with the band and how his dad feels about the tabloid tussle.

Asked what his father, former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, thought of the bizarre back-and-forth, Starkey said, “He [Ringo] said, ‘I’ve never liked the way that little man runs that band,’” in seeming reference to The Who singer Roger Daltrey.

After The Who “made a collective decision” to part ways with Starkey in April after his nearly 30 years behind the kit, guitarist/songwriter Pete Townshend relented a few days later and rescinded the firing, saying Starkey was “not being asked” to step down from his position. Then, a month later, Townshend took it all back and said after many years working together “the time has come for a change.” A week later, Starkey claimed that he hadn’t been “fired” from the band, but had “‘retired’ to work [on] my own projects.”

It has all been a bit hard to keep up with, even for Starkey, who revealed to RS that even after all the firings and re-hirings he still has no idea where he stands. “I spoke to Roger last week,” Starkey told the magazine. “He said, ‘Don’t take your drums out of the warehouse, we might be calling you.’ What the f–k? These guys are f–kin’ insane! I’ve been fired more times than [late Who drummer] Keith Moon in ten days.”

It’s all a bit unclear at this point, especially since The Who recently announced that Scott Devours, a veteran of Daltrey’s solo band, will join them on their upcoming farewell tour. In the interview, Starkey once again noted that he had to sit out Oasis‘ eagerly anticipated reunion shows this summer because of his gig in The Who.

“I was in the Who. And last time they asked me, I was in the Who, and it got a bit weird,” he said of whether he’d hoped Oasis’ Liam and Noel Gallagher would invite him back into the fold of the Britpop band he kept time for from 2004-2008. “But this time, I talked to them both. I did tell them both on text, ‘Why the f–k aren’t I in your band, man, helping make it the greatest rock band in the world again?”

Starkey said the Gallagher’s again noted that he couldn’t join their band because of his gig in The Who, plus singer Liam is “happy working with Joey [Waronker],” the session and live veteran drummer who will be behind the kit for the band’s first tour in 16 years.

Frankly, Starkey said being in the Who sometimes kept him off-kilter. As an example, he described the rehearsals for the Royal Albert Hall gigs in March at which Daltrey apparently took issue with his playing, reportedly complaining from the stage that Starkey’s loud drumming was throwing his vocals off.

“There’s nothing normal about them. These are the most crazy… you’ve got an abstract, conceptualist artist who thinks the band is an art installation. And then you’ve got another guy who is a street fighter. It’s all very weird,” he said, respectively, of Townshend and Daltrey. “But if you look at the group ever since they started, it’s the craziest group. And they’ve undertaken the crazy ideas, whether the rest of the guys understood it or not. Pete has taken so much on himself. He’ll lock himself away for two years, come away with Quadrophenia, and go, ‘You guys can just play on top.’ You’re dealing with two very, very different people. And when me and Pete catch fire, probably anyone’s going to get lost. And probably anyone will. But we won’t. When we’re onstage, it’s like we’re f–king. Offstage it can be a little awkward after those 15 minutes. But onstage, It’s like, ‘Cigarette, darling?’”

And, for the record, Starkey claimed that it was Daltrey who came in “four bars early” during the Royal Albert Hall shows, after which the drummer sent the singer an e-mail, writing, “I watched you on TV last night, you were off.”

“It’s 30 years in the group. It’s like a family. But he came in four bars early. And he just asked for the drums to be turned up, and he couldn’t hear the piano,” Starkey said of Daltrey. “But I love Roger. He never misses a note. His voice is still so pure. It’s like a laser beam. He always nails it. They’ve not changed one key since the start of conceptual art as rock & roll. But he just got lost. He blamed it on the drums being too loud, and then it got made into this huge social media thing. And it freaked him out and he’s going around doing solo shows, and saying it’s ‘fake news.’ But it wasn’t me. I was in the car and gone before they finished the last acoustic song. There was no argument in the dressing room.”

Starkey said he was fired two weeks later for dropping “two beats,” though he noted, “I’ve watched that film three times. I’m looking on the floor, and I can’t see it. If I drop two beats, where the f–k are they?” In the end, Starkey said he doesn’t blame Daltrey, or anyone from The Who, for what happened. “I don’t hold any grudges. It’s the Who. Weirder s–t than this has gone down,” he said. “I’ve heard them say weirder s–t than this. It’s the Who — the maddest band there’s ever been.”

But would he come back if they re-re-rehired him?

“Of course I would. I said to Pete, ‘Thirty years. In the 30 years, you put the bar so f–kin’ high. What the f–k do I do now?,’” he said. “The Who, you just don’t know what’s going to happen. If you think something is going to happen, the opposite happens. If you second guess Pete, he will play the opposite. You have to go with whatever you’re doing, and not think.”

Liam Gallagher has criticised the City of Edinburgh Council after Oasis fans were described as “rowdy”, “intoxicated” and “middle-aged men” who “take up more room” in a safety briefing.

The comments were made when a range of senior officials from the council and emergency services met last year to plan for the band’s sold-out reunion shows at Murrayfield Stadium (Aug. 8-9 and 12). The run will mark the first time they will play in the Scottish capital since 2009.

Details of the safety advisory group meeting from October 2024 were made available via a freedom of information request, and were published in The Scottish Sun earlier this week. The briefing involved the council, promoters DF Concerts, security firm G4S, Police Scotland, the Scottish Ambulance Service and local transport providers including Lothian Buses, Edinburgh Trams, and ScotRail.

A number of concerns were raised by officials, including about fans of Oasis “on weekends as they are already rowdy”, as well as “the tone of the band.” The paper also said that the council, meanwhile, suggested that the 210,000 gig-goers posed a risk to the Edinburgh Fringe and its performers, which is expected to attract more than three million visitors between Aug. 1-25.

It also noted that the crowd at Murrayfield Stadium, which can hold 70,000 fans a night, may feature a number of “middle-aged men,” stating they “take up more room” and that promoters should “consider” these factors when “working out occupancy.” DF Concerts added that the audience would be “energetic and high-spirited” with a “medium to high intoxication.”

Gallagher has responded to these statements on social media, posting on X: “To the Edinburgh council I’ve heard what you said about OASIS fans and quite frankly your attitude f–-king stinks. I’d leave town that day if I was any of you lot.”

He added: “I’d love to see a picture of all the people on the Edinburgh council bet there’s some real STUNING [sic] individuals.”

Margaret Graham, Edinburgh Council’s culture and communities convener, told The Scottish Sun: “We’re very proud to host the biggest and best events in Edinburgh throughout the year, which bring in hundreds of millions of pounds to the local economy and provide unparalleled entertainment for our residents and visitors.

“As with any major event which takes place in the city, we prepare extensively alongside our partners to ensure the safety and best possible experience of everyone involved – and Oasis are no different.”

She added: “We’re all looking forward to seeing Oasis take to the stage this August and I’m sure that they’ll ‘live forever’ as some of the most memorable concerts ever performed at Murrayfield.”

The Oasis reunion tour kicks off in the U.K. at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, on July 4. The run of dates will continue through Manchester, London, Edinburgh and Dublin before hitting North America, Latin America, Asia and Australia across 41 planned shows.

Good Charlotte are officially back. The pop-punk icons announced Monday (June 16) that their eighth studio album, Motel Du Cap, is due out Aug. 8, marking their first full-length release in seven years.

The band teased the comeback in classic GC fashion: with a cryptic billboard on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles featuring a photo of the band, the album title, and the release date, as per Rolling Stone. While no additional details were included, it was enough to spark buzz across social media.

Alongside the billboard, Good Charlotte also shared a teaser video on Instagram featuring the mysterious ‘Motel Du Cap’, alongside the caption, “Waldorf’s best kept historical landmark since 1996. Come stay with us and bask in the beautiful Maryland sunshine! Book your reservation at goodcharlotte.com.” The hometown reference nods to their roots in Waldorf, Maryland, where the band originally formed.

Motel Du Cap is set to follow 2018’s Generation Rx, the band’s seventh studio album, which arrived two years after their 2016 comeback record Youth Authority. That project debuted and peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard 200, marking the group’s highest charting effort since 2004’s The Chronicles of Life and Death, which reached No. 3 on the chart.

Hints of a new era began to emerge earlier this year when Good Charlotte posted a nostalgic teaser video featuring archival footage of the band and the caption “GC 2025.” Since then, they’ve announced several major festival appearances — including Ocean’s Calling and Aftershock — and last month played Welcome to Rockville, marking their first live performance since 2023.

In the years since Generation Rx, the band have released only one standalone single — 2020’s “Last December” — while brothers Joel and Benji Madden have shifted their focus to business ventures including the artist management and development company MDDN, the livestreaming platform Veeps, and Joel’s Artist Friendly podcast.

The Maryland-bred band first broke through in the early 2000s with albums like The Young and the Hopeless, which peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 and spawned pop-punk anthems including “Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous” and “The Anthem.”

Motel Du Cap is set to arrive Aug. 8.

The collective hopes of fans longing for a collaboration between Nick Cave and Morrissey have been dashed, with the former revealing he turned down the opportunity to do so last year.

Cave’s revelation arrived by way of his Red Hand Files website, where he responded to a fan asking if he had ever met the former vocalist of The Smiths.

Labelling Morrissey a “complex and divisive figure, someone who takes more than a little pleasure in p–sing people off” and “probably the best lyricist of his generation,” Cave admitted that he had not had the chance to cross paths with the singer, adding that may be why he remains a fan.

However, Cave also added that Morrissey had approached him via email in 2024 to perform on a new song that he had written. “I would have been happy to do so, however, while the song he sent was quite lovely, it began with a lengthy and entirely irrelevant Greek bouzouki intro,” Cave explained. 

“It also seemed that he didn’t want me to actually sing on the song, but deliver, over the top of the bouzouki, an unnecessarily provocative and slightly silly anti-woke screed he had written.”

While Cave did not share any specific details in regard to the lyrical content of Morrissey’s track, he explained that it was enough for him to “politely decline” the offer.

“Although I suppose I agreed with the sentiment on some level, it just wasn’t my thing,” Cave explained “I try to keep politics, cultural or otherwise, out of the music I am involved with. I find that it has a diminishing effect and is antithetical to whatever it is I am trying to achieve.”

Morrissey’s most recent solo album, I Am Not a Dog on a Chain, arrived back in 2020. In November, the singer claimed that his as-yet-unreleased album, Bonfire of Teenagers, has been shelved so far because of his various controversial statements. 

“As you know, nobody will release my music anymore,” Morrissey told a crowd in New Jersey. “As you know because I’m a chief exponent of free speech. In England at least, it’s now criminalized.”