Pete Townshend had a blunt response to the complicated fallout with The Who's longtime drummer Zak Starkey, calling the situation "a mess."

In a recent i Paper interview, the legendary guitarist reflected on the turbulent events earlier this year that saw Starkey, who had played with The Who for almost 30 years, fired, briefly brought back, and ultimately depart from the band.

"I will miss Zak terribly. But quite what the story is, I don't [expletive] know. I really don't know," Townsend said.

The confusion started in April when Townshend and The Who's frontman Roger Daltrey jointly decided to part ways with Starkey, the son of Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, Billboard reported. Shortly after, Townshend backtracked, clarifying that Starkey was "not being asked" to step down. Yet, just a month later, he changed his stance, saying, "The time has come for a change," signaling the end of their long-standing partnership.

Shortly afterward, Starkey shared his account, saying that he was not "fired" but chose to "retire to work [on] my own projects" prior to The Who's "The Song Is Over" farewell tour.

The fallout seems to have been triggered by a mistake during the band's charity concerts for the Teenage Cancer Trust at London's Royal Albert Hall in March.

Starkey told Rolling Stone that the whole ordeal was blown out of proportion

"[Daltrey] came in four bars early," Starkey told Rolling Stone in June. "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."

The same performance came about during Townshend's interview with i Paper.

"I couldn't see anything wrong. 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," he said.

"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," he continued. "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."

Speaking with Rolling Stone, Starkey said he would return to The Who if asked to.

"Of course I would," he said. "I said to Pete, 'Thirty years. In the 30 years, you put the bar so [expletive] high. What the [expletive] 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."