Pete Townshend has admitted Zak Starkey's exit from The Who was "a mess" and the drama "got out of hand".

The drummer was let go by the band earlier this year before being welcomed back and then dismissed once again, and Zak's departure was put down to disagreements over his performance at a gig at the Royal Albert Hall in London in April - and Pete admits a lot of the fuss was caused by his bandmate Roger Daltrey.

He told the i newspaper: "It's been a mess ... I couldn't see anything wrong [with the Royal Albert Hall show]. What you see is a band who haven't played together for a long time. But I think it was probably to do with the sound. I've lost my sound man as a result.

"I think Roger just got lost. Roger's finding it difficult. I have to be careful what I say about Roger because he gets angry if I say anything about him at all.

"He'll be sacking me next. But that's not to say that he sacked Zak. It's a decision Roger and I tried to make together, but it kind of got out of hand."

When asked if it was a difficult decision to remove Zak from the line-up, Pete replied: "Well, I've never been a huge ...

"I didn't invite him [Zak] in, right? Roger invited him. And at that time, I don't know quite why he chose Zak, but Zak is another Keith Moon.

"He comes with real, real bonuses and real, real difficulties."

He added: "I will miss Zak terribly. But quite what the story is, I don't f****** know. I really don't know."

Zak previously claimed Pete went along with the decision to part ways with the drummer for a second because he didn't want to disagree with Roger.

He told the Telegraph newspaper: "What happened was I got it right and Roger [Daltrey] got it wrong ... I watched the show and I can't find any dropped beats. Then Pete had to go along with it because Pete's had 60 years of arguing with Roger ...

"I don't blame anyone. I blame The Who because they're unpredictable, aggressive and f****** insane."

Zak went on to reveal he's written to music legend Bob Dylan to ask if he needs a drummer, but hasn't heard back from him.

However, Zak's drumming days with The Who might not be over for good. He added: "I spoke to Roger last week and he said: 'Don't take your drums out of [The Who's] warehouse yet in case we need you'. I said: 'Best let me know'."