At the age of 14 or 15, Zak Starkey disowned The Beatles. “It’s like a wall,” he says in a very mod-like mutter that would have no one guessing he was the son of Ringo Starr. “Can’t get over it. Can’t get through it, can’t get under it.” He used to “f***ing hate” and “totally reject” the idea of the band. Instead, he knuckled down to forge a drumming career of his own, encouraged by “uncle” Keith Moon (who bought Starkey his first drum kit when the boy was eight) and tutored by the Faces’ Kenney Jones. It was 10 more years before he finally returned to his father’s rhythmic oeuvre. “When I was 25, I listened to The Beatles and went, ‘F***ing hell, these guys were amazing. I should have been listening to this years ago.’ And then I got over it.”
Now 59, Starkey settles into the quietest corner of a Soho bar (“This ear isn’t very good,” he says, jabbing the left) as an alumnus of Johnny Marr & The Healers, Oasis and – until his very recent, very public departure – The Who. He’s also the fulcrum of his own all-star band, Mantra of the Cosmos, featuring main players Shaun Ryder, Bez (both Happy Mondays mainstays), and Andy Bell of Ride. “To me, he was a great drummer and that was it,” Ryder says of Starkey over the phone. “I didn’t know he was a f***ing amazing producer. Then when I got in the studio and he stuck a load of beats and tunes on, I f***ing loved it. It’s different from the Mondays, it’s different from what I do in Black Grape, it’s a f***ing buzz.”
