[1] He grew up at Sunny Heights at St George's Hill in Surrey and Tittenhurst Park at Sunninghill, Berkshire, and attended Highgate School in London until 1981.

Starr's close friend, Kenney Jones, drummer for Faces and Moon's replacement in the Who, stated that he "virtually taught" the young Starkey to play the drums.

[4] He briefly joined the Semantics, replacing founding drummer Jody Spence, during the recording process for their album Powerbill, which ended up being released only in Japan in 1996 (after the group had disbanded).

Starkey replaced Chris Sharrock as the drummer in the Icicle Works[4] in 1988, leaving the band after a brief tenure and appearing on only one recording.

Starkey also plays on the 1989 album Silver and Gold, a solo work released by Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith.

He joined his father and guest stars Yoko Ono, Nils Lofgren, Steven Van Zandt and Jeff Lynne for "With a Little Help from My Friends" and "Give Peace a Chance".

He received good reviews in this role and was praised by the music press for his strong drumming presence,[7] without trying to emulate the band's original drummer Keith Moon.

On 7 February 2010, Starkey appeared with the Who during the half-time show of Super Bowl XLIV at the Sun Life Stadium, Miami, Florida.

On 12 August 2012, he played with the Who at the finale of the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony and later that year, on 12 December, he joined them at 12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy Relief.

During this time, Starkey also played shows with Mick Jones of the Clash and formed the Silver Machine with Bobby Gillespie, Andrew Innes, Glen Matlock and Little Barrie.

In September 2016, Starkey was interviewed by Rolling Stone about the new covers album he was working on with Sharna Liguz, compiled with songs that had influenced them.

[11] In 2000, Starkey was a founding member of Johnny Marr & the Healers, although their first album, Boomslang,[4] would not be released for another three years after which the band did a world tour in 2003.

On 14 April 2001, he featured in both of the backing bands for the "Steve Marriott Tribute Concert", in which he appeared along with Rick Wills, Rabbit Bundrick, Bobby Tench, Noel Gallagher and Paul Weller.

Starkey had recorded all but one track of these sessions which were originally called "Mucky Fingers" and were also for an official promotional video for the album.

In April 2005, Noel Gallagher confirmed that he had been invited to be their official drummer and added that this could not materialize before his current working engagements with the Who were completed in mid-2007.

[13] However, it was announced that he would not perform on the Dig Out Your Soul Tour after falling out with Noel Gallagher subsequently departing in 2008 and was replaced by Chris Sharrock.

At this time, Starkey and his partner's band Sshh appeared at the invitation of the Peter Tosh Museum in Kingston, Jamaica, performing their version of "Get Up, Stand Up" (featuring Soul Syndicate and Eddie Vedder).

Eddie Vedder and Johnny Marr served as Starkey's best men, while reggae musician Pato Banton officiated the ceremony.