← Takin' A Walk - Music History with Buzz Knight
Takin' A Walk - Music History with Buzz Knight
Exploring Music History : Buzz Knight Interviews Zak Starkey on Drumming, Legacy and Iconic Performances
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- [00:01]
Buzz Knight
Taking a Walk welcome to the Taking a Walk podcast. I'm Buzz Knight and today we have a truly special guest whose musical lineage is matched only by his own incredible drumming legacy. Zack Starkey needs no introduction to rock fans. As the son of Beatles legend Ringo Starr, Zach grew up surrounded by music royalty, but he's carved out his own remarkable path behind the kit. Mentored by the who's Keith Moon as Godfather, Zach has become one of rock's most sought after drummers, playing with Oasis during their peak years, touring extensively with the who for over two decades and collaborating with everyone from Johnny Marr to Paul Weller. But Zach's story goes far beyond famous names. He's a drummer's drummer who's earned every every gig through pure talent and dedication. From his early days learning Moon's explosive style to holding down the beat for one of rock's most legendary bands, Zach has proven himself time and time again on the world's biggest stages. We're so excited to have him here as he prepares for his upcoming New York appearance at the gramercy theater on February 20th. So grab your headphones, settle in, and let's take a walk down memory lane with the one and only Zack Starkey, next on Taking A Walk. This is an iHeart podcast.
- [01:32]
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- [03:06]
Zack Starkey
At.
- [03:06]
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- [03:33]
Zack Starkey
In Kennewick.
- [03:35]
Buzz Knight
Hey, this is U.S. olympic gold medalist Tara Davis Woodhull.
- [03:38]
Sponsor/Announcer
And I'm U.S. paralympic gold medalist Hunter Woodhull.
- [03:41]
Buzz Knight
As athletes, our lives are about having.
- [03:43]
Sponsor/Announcer
A clear path and a team that.
- [03:45]
Zack Starkey
You can absolutely trust.
- [03:46]
Buzz Knight
So when it came to getting the.
- [03:47]
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Best mortgage, we chose PennyMac.
- [03:49]
Zack Starkey
PennyMac is proud to be the official.
- [03:51]
Buzz Knight
Mortgage provider of Team USA and you.
- [03:54]
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- [04:07]
Buzz Knight
Taking a Walk Zack Starkey, welcome to the Taking a Walk podcast. It's an honor having you on.
- [04:13]
Zack Starkey
Thanks Buzz. Good to be here.
- [04:16]
Buzz Knight
So I heard the great Peter Asher made a comment I wanted to get your reflection on. He said that a good drumming sound is halfway to a good record. Give me your reflections on that. As an iconic drummer yourself, wow.
- [04:34]
Zack Starkey
Okay. I never thought about it like that, but I guess it can catch your ear. A great drum sound. You know, I was attracted to the who by the drum sound immediately. Well, and the guitar sound, it was so aggressive. But yeah, I would agree with that. Yeah. John Bonham, like, you know, you're drawn into his drumming.
- [04:54]
Buzz Knight
That's right.
- [04:56]
Zack Starkey
Whether you like that band or not, you can't really fault the grooves and the sound. The sound of it is flawless.
- [05:05]
Buzz Knight
But you started first with guitar, is that correct?
- [05:09]
Zack Starkey
Correct. Yeah. When I was about seven, I started because I saw Mark Bolan, T Rex or Mark Bowen with T. Rex play live at it used to be called Wembley Pool. It's called Wembley arena now. I was about six Years old, I think. And I immediately wanted to be Mark and I wanted a guitar. Think I asked my dad for a guitar and we, we already had some in the studio upstairs, you know, house, you know.
- [05:36]
Buzz Knight
So growing up in the Starkey household certainly must have been extraordinary. What was your earliest memory then of being around drums and obviously music and when did you realize that this was going to be your career?
- [05:50]
Zack Starkey
My earliest memory of all of it is like, you know, so early that I'm not sure. It was always like drums and there's always been a studio or something or a guitar around, mainly from like the late 60s. There was definitely studios in, in the houses. And I got really used to being in the studio and I got used to seeing my dad and his friends jamming in the studio. And then I. And then as I progressed as a musician, I was involved in all that, you know.
- [06:17]
Buzz Knight
Your godfather, Keith Moon, became your, your mentor. He taught you to play drums?
- [06:23]
Zack Starkey
No, he didn't teach me to play the drum. My dad taught me to play the drums. My dad gave me one drum lesson and then said, you're on your own now, son. But Keith mentored me and encouraged me and talked to me about other stuff like surfing and the Beach Boys and girls and things.
- [06:42]
Buzz Knight
What was his sense of humor like?
- [06:44]
Zack Starkey
He was just like a really great guy who's like on our level as kids, you know. I did once see him and my brother in the back of his car and he's did his Hitler impression standing up in the front on the open top car down Sunset Strip, which me and my little brother were thrilled in the back of the car that he was doing it.
- [07:06]
Buzz Knight
What an incredible opportunity to be around. To be around. Greatness for sure. I know, though, there was an important time for you in your life where you got to spend time with the All Star Band on a couple of occasions. Certainly There was the 92 Tour and 95 Tour, but there was also, I think you were around in the 89 tour as well. Can you talk about that experience and what it was like being with your dad?
- [07:34]
Zack Starkey
Yeah, that was great. I mean, thing is, me and my dad would always, any given moment, life, I was playing the drums. He would at home, he would get on the floor, Tom, and join in, you know, so it's always just been a sort of like communal musical family really. You know, my brother was a drummer, my sister played drums in a band now. And like now all my nephews are drummers, you know, and my grandson's a drummer and just everyone's a Drummer, you know, we really need to work on some other. Some other instruments. But yeah, so my dad and me had played together before. We played together on a record called Sun City as well, where we set two kits up next to each other, you know. But, yeah, I flew out to New York with my mum in 89, and I got up and guested on the last couple of songs. Photograph and little help sitting between Jim Kelton and Levon Helm, which is pretty cool.
- [08:30]
Buzz Knight
My God, how did that feel? I mean, you obviously had followed their career as somebody who was watching drummers.
- [08:38]
Zack Starkey
Yeah, I mean. I mean, I've known Jim obviously all my life and leave on pretty much since I was at least 9 or 10. When we started to go to America to stay with my dad, I got to know all the guys in the band, really, apart from Robbie. I mean, Levon and, and Rick and, and. And Garth and Rich would be at my dad's house regularly in Los Angeles.
- [09:01]
Buzz Knight
You know, when we first discovered the band and Levon and company, what we loved about them was you really couldn't put them in a genre, you know, they were a style of music that we really hadn't heard before. Is. Is that how you felt when you first heard the band sound? It really didn't. It defied the genre.
- [09:23]
Zack Starkey
Well, I wasn't thinking in genre. I didn't start thinking of genre until, I mean, quite recently when, you know, music started getting segregated, you know, into charts, you know, where people only listen to one chart. I find that really weird. I don't know. What would you call the bands? Like Americana? I think he has his own genre, probably, or Canadiana. I don't know.
- [09:44]
Buzz Knight
I like that. I like that. I want to talk more about history, obviously, but let's set the scene. What folks are going to be able to experience when they come to see you at the Gramercy Theater on February 20 in New York City. It sounds like it's going to be a fantastic experience for your fans.
- [10:03]
Zack Starkey
Yeah, thanks, Buzz. It's what it is. I made a film that is an overview of everything. Almost everything I've done, I managed to find. So for anyone who doesn't know, they'll get to know what's gone on. It's also got a lot of family stuff in it, and, yeah, just an overview of life, really. And then I'm going to come out and do a little short piece of very recognizable drums, and then I hope to start a Q and A right after that when the film is fresh in everyone's minds, you know, and then explain to the audience what. What else I have is. Because what I'm doing is with AI now, you can take. You can get a film of a performance that say, I've been involved in and you can. You can take the drums out of it. So I'm going to play the drums live with everybody else on the screen from the same performance. Yep.
- [10:54]
Buzz Knight
That's got to be cool. Yeah.
- [10:55]
Zack Starkey
Fix all the bits are fucked up before, hopefully. Right. I hope to. And it'll be like the first time I ever played with the who. I know what's going to happen. Right. He's never knew before, but this time I'm going to know. So I'll be able to like, you know, be the leader for once, which should be fun, you know, and there's other, other, other things that been. I mean, I don't like, blow it all, but, you know, there's toots in the main tail stuff and stuff I do with Slime Robbie. There's stuff I did with Johnny Mar in it and stuff I did with Oasis, you know, and then in the films there's a lot of unseen footage. I. I didn't realize, but for a lot of years on the road I was filming, you know, and I've got. I've got some really. It's nothing like, you know, mind blowing, like, you know, revelatory, but it's more like, you know, there's some stuff where. I've got footage of Pete doing his, like, podcast taking the piss out of me, really. And me and Roger and Rabbit, me having meetings about song structure and things like that, and it's all really light hearted. I've got some footage of Roger's very first orchestra tour that I was on in 94. I don't think anyone's ever seen any of that, you know.
- [12:09]
Buzz Knight
Sounds fantastic.
- [12:10]
Zack Starkey
Wow. Stuff with me and John hanging out because we used to hang out a lot, you know, that no one's ever seen and a lot of stuff. Me and Johnny Moore hanging out and being really stupid and stuff and just not shows how much fun everything has been, really, because it really has, you.
- [12:26]
Buzz Knight
Know, it's an amazing legacy that, that you continue to have, you know, playing with Pete Townsend and Roger Daltrey. That experience certainly shaped you as a musician. Yeah. What do you think that was the most important aspect that you learned to be part of such an iconic band?
- [12:46]
Zack Starkey
I don't fear anything musically now. I'm not afraid of music. I think when I started with them, I really didn't know what music was Really, I knew what rehearsing was and how songs went and how to reproduce that live, but I didn't know how to play music. And so I started working with Pete and Roger because they're playing music and it's not a set structure, it's where it goes. It goes, and that's music.
- [13:13]
Buzz Knight
Well, the who's music, obviously, you know, firsthand. Physically very demanding. And it requires your version of that explosive, you know, Keith Moon influenced style. What was your preparation regimen for getting ready for those marathon tours?
- [13:37]
Zack Starkey
Well, playing. I always used to, if we were going to do Quadrophenia, I would play to Tommy to practice at home. Or if we were going to do Tommy, I'd play to Godrophenia. Because it was. I knew that whatever you learned on the record wouldn't happen when you got there. It would always. Pete would always play it differently, Roger would always phrase it differently, or it would be different. There's no point, you know, learning records by rote, because when you got out, there wasn't going to be like that. It was going to be like those two guys trying not to be bored of the music they've been playing for so long, which mean they'll change it up all the time. So there's. So I would always go, okay with doing Quadrophenia. I'll play to Tommy or I'll play to, like, you know, the who sell out or something like that. Just to get in the mood, really, or to get in the vibe of the who. You know, I never played to Live at Leeds. That. That's a moment that. That album is a moment. You can't. If you follow it, then you're just copying. The thing about playing the who is I learned to play with the who with, like, a boombox behind me. And I can only really hear Pete and Roger, right? And I kind of, like, made up what I thought Keith would be doing because I couldn't really hear it. And I don't. I mean, I've copied certain signature things that he's done, and a few of those turned out that Pete wrote them, drum things. But I don't think anyone can copy Keith Moon. I don't think Keith Moon could copy Keith Moon, really, two times in a row. I. I think you're talking about a personality that's transmitted to the drums so perfectly. I think anyone would be foolish to try to copy Keith Moon. You could try and catch the vibe, which is what I've done. I think that's what I did do.
- [15:21]
Buzz Knight
Can you take us through some of your Mount Rushmore of other drummers that we haven't really talked about, because I'm sure stylistically there's others that you just look at and either, you know, are fond of or learn from. Who are some of those other drummers.
- [15:39]
Zack Starkey
When you're talking about the band? You know, Levon was great, wasn't he? Levon was fantastic drummer. But then when I watched. I watched some documentaries on the band, a lot of the time, Richard would play drums, and the feel on those songs is incredible.
- [15:52]
Buzz Knight
You know, I would say, yeah.
- [15:54]
Zack Starkey
You know, I love that drumming. I love a guy called Jim Gordon who was a session drummer around the same time that Jim Cartner was coming up in the 60s. You know, Jim and the two gyms kind of beat down Halblaine's door and.
- [16:08]
Buzz Knight
Stole it, you know, I'm so glad you mentioned Jim Gordon. What a story that is. What a player he was. But what a absolute tragic ending to a guy's amazing career, really.
- [16:23]
Zack Starkey
But what a funky man. What a funky drummer.
- [16:26]
Buzz Knight
You know, Versatile beyond belief.
- [16:29]
Zack Starkey
Right. I just spunk. He's got a. He's got it. He's got a funk. He's really funky. Looks. Looks like he's done not doing anything right. Damn, Jim Kelder looks like he's doing a slow motion. He's not, you know.
- [16:41]
Buzz Knight
Yeah. Your work with Oasis, how did you end up behind the kit for them? And what was that like, being part of that cultural phenomenon?
- [16:51]
Zack Starkey
They were my favorite group of my generation, and I knew the two brothers a little bit, and they called me up and asked me to play in their band, and I never been so buzzed in my time, I don't think.
- [17:04]
Buzz Knight
And you mentioned earlier your work with Johnny Marr and Paul Weller and so many other British rock legends. What draws you to certain collaborations and how do you approach playing with different artists?
- [17:19]
Zack Starkey
Well, they call me. They call me, really. I mean, me and Johnny met in an elevator in New York in 1996, and we hung out a little bit because obviously we got on really well, you know, as friends. And Johnny said, you know, when you get home, I'll give you a call and let's play, you know? And I didn't think he would, but the day after I got home, he called me. I think two days later, I went and started jamming with Johnny in 96. And we slowly built our record from when we weren't both working with other artists. We'd always be together working on Healers. And then it finally came out and we toured the world in 2003. So by which time we knew each other really well.
- [18:06]
Buzz Knight
So let's talk about drum sounds, which is so key, obviously. Can you maybe take us a little bit inside about your setup and how you get that Zack Starkey particular tone? What's your philosophy on drum tuning?
- [18:22]
Zack Starkey
Well, honestly, I don't think I have one. I think you, like, when you go into a studio, it's really what. What, what. What the song is and what. What the. The artist is. And, you know, some people are really specific about what they're after. Oasis in particular, really specific about how the drum should sound on each song. Right to the point where one song we end up using, you know, we. I played it on a box of wetos with wooden spoons, right. And that sounded like Buddy Ollie is great. I mean, it really worked, you know. But they're very, very specific about everything. So we'd have three, two or three drum kits set up at all, all times, so you can move quickly between them. If one of them didn't sound right, one would be a bit liver or it'd be a bit deader, you know. Very specific. Those guys with Johnny's record, that's kind of my sound, really. That, which were just the drums I had at the time, just tune them. Tune them into the room and then tune and then adjust them a little bit for each song, you know, recorded. With the who, it would depend. Sometimes I was tuning the drums, other times they'd bring a drum doctor, which is really great, actually, because you can go and, like, hang out with the band and you don't have to trim them yourselves. While everyone's staying for a window, you're, like, going, what? Come on. You know?
- [19:40]
Buzz Knight
Yep.
- [19:41]
Zack Starkey
More pressure doing that. And there is getting the bloody take a lot of the time, you know.
- [19:45]
Buzz Knight
Yeah. Zach, you've witnessed the music industry from multiple angles as. As Ringo's son, as a session musician, as a touring member of major bands. How do you think the industry has changed from your perspective?
- [20:01]
Zack Starkey
There aren't as many places to play now. It's a lot harder for bands to get out and play, I think, you know, and that's how it's changed. And obviously streaming's changed. The only way for bands to make money is like, merchandise and merchant touring or physical, like vinyl, you know. You know, here, single, it's not going to pay for anything.
- [20:23]
Buzz Knight
What's your take on the current state of rock music?
- [20:27]
Zack Starkey
It doesn't concern me. Make a lot of music and make music for myself, really. And sometimes other People like it, but, you know, eventually it'll come around. Something will happen that's great. You know, the moment, it's gone. I don't know, seems a bit miserable or miserableist.
- [20:45]
Buzz Knight
When you look back at your career from those, the early lessons to stadium tours, are there certain moments and events that stand out to you as really, really, you know, just these pinnacle moments for a great career.
- [21:01]
Zack Starkey
Greatest moment is the concert for New York with the WHO in 2001. Because it, it was an emotional thing as well as a musical thing, you know, and we slammed it. The audience, the front rows were, were the, were the, were the people that, that, that were trying to save their lives. The twin towers, you know, it was really an emotional. I think we kicked the shit out of all the other band on that bill. Really. We really picked it up. We kicked it up. And as I say, John Entwistle's performance was particularly amazing. And the whole event is. I'll never forget that.
- [21:37]
Buzz Knight
And when you think about that event, you think about what community means and how music and community draws us together. As someone who experienced that firsthand, how special is it for community to come together around music at a pivotal time in our life?
- [21:57]
Zack Starkey
Music's always been about that, hasn't it? Community bringing people together, whether it's different sort of areas of youth culture or Woodstock or whatever. You know, I think it's. I think it's very important. I think it's very important to start groups, you know, not live in a world where it's how I sing. A. Songwriters are great and everything, aren't they? But garage bands are fucking amazing. Loud guitars, you know, kids that can't wait to get a guitar and can't wait to get on stage, can't wait to get their band out there and make people listen to it. You know, I think that's great. That and I hope it's still out there.
- [22:35]
Buzz Knight
Zach, we do call this podcast Taking a Walk. And I do have to ask you, is there somebody you could take a walk with, living or dead? Who would you take a walk with?
- [22:46]
Zack Starkey
My mom.
- [22:48]
Buzz Knight
Oh, yeah. Thank you so much for sharing that. I really appreciate it. So everybody who's listening, head to the Gramercy Theater on February 20th at 7pm New York City. It's going to be an amazing experience. I know you're excited about it, your fans are excited about, about it, and I'm so grateful that you took the time to come on. Taking a Walk. Zack Starkey, thank you so much.
- [23:13]
Zack Starkey
Thanks, Buzz.
- [23:14]
Sponsor/Announcer
It's been a pleasure thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcast.
- [23:32]
Zack Starkey
Podcasts.
- [23:35]
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- [25:33]
Buzz Knight
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.