Roger Daltrey performs on stage during ‘Roger Daltrey: A Night Of The Who Classics’ at Hard Rock Live
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Roger Daltrey’s longtime solo band drummer Scott Devours, who was recently promoted to the Who after a fairly bitter and drawn-out split with Zak Starkey, has shared some emotional thoughts about his new position via Instagram.
“Yesterday, with a short, simple Instagram post, Pete and Roger, once again, changed my life forever,” he wrote. “It’s hard to express the tsunami of emotions that I’m processing since that incredible news. The amount of positivity thrown my way has been overwhelming, I truly thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Also, please don’t ask me for tickets, lol.”
He then acknowledged the fact that many longtime fans are “gutted” by the split with Starkey, who logged more years than any other drummer in the group’s long history by a fairly wide margin, and would have a hard time accepting him.
“As a huge fan myself, there is a part of me that’s processing this loss with a heavy heart too,” he wrote. “It really is a strange contradiction of emotions to have the greatest moment of my professional career also be one framed with some sadness and shadowed by someone else’s loss. It’s tough to put into words actually, but I know it’s there and it’s real.”
The Who initially announced Starkey’s departure from the band on April 16, reportedly because they were unhappy with his performance at the Royal Albert Hall the prior month. “After playing those songs with the band for so many decades, I’m surprised and saddened anyone would have an issue with my performance that night,” the drummer said in a public statement. “But what can you do?”
Three days later, he was re-hired. “We are a family, this blew up very quickly and got too much oxygen,” Pete Townshend wrote to fans. “It’s over. We move forward now with optimism and fire in our bellies.”
The renewed fire and optimism lasted until May 18, when they once again fired Starkey. “After many years of great work on drums from Zak the time has come for a change,” Townshend wrote to fans. “A poignant time. Zak has lots of new projects in hand and I wish him the best.”
Starkey didn’t take the news quietly. “I was fired two weeks after reinstatement and asked to make a statement saying I had quit the who to pursue my other musical endevours this would be a lie,” he wrote. “I love the Who and would never had quit. So I didn’t make the statement ….quitting the Who would also have let down the countless amazing people who stood up for me (thank you all a million times over and more) thru the weeks of mayhem of me going ‘in an out an in an out an in an out like a bleedin squeezebox.”
These aren’t ideal circumstances for Devours to take over the chair, and he’s very aware of that. In his letter, he simply asks Who fans to give him a chance. (He briefly played with the Who in 2013 when Starkey was recovering from an injury.)
“In my world, there are no bigger shoes to fill than those behind Pete and Roger,” he wrote. “The weight of this responsibility is enormous and I am feeling every ounce of it. What I want to say to all of the fans is that I will do everything I can to honor the legacy of The Who, Zak, Kenney Jones, Simon Phillips and the memory of the great Keith Moon. For my name to even be mentioned in a sentence like that literally sends shivers down my spine and I know I need to earn this honor. Since this is the last time Pete and Roger will be touring the US, playing the greatest songs ever written, I will be giving them every second of my time, every beat of my heart, and every drop of my sweat and blood. This is my ultimate goal.”
He concludes: “But this tour isn’t about me or anyone other than The Who, which IS Pete and Roger. I will give them everything I have and the rest is soon to be history…Thank you for reading this. Now I’m going to go throw up, lol.”
From Rolling Stone US.