May 19, 2025 • 5 mins
“What do you say when Hollywood executives ask how early you can be available… and Tom Cruise might be involved?”In this unpredictable and laugh-packed episode of The Ben and Skin Show, the crew dives headfirst into a whirlwind of celebrity close calls, rock band shakeups, and music industry mayhem. From a mysterious email that might lead to a bromance with Tom Cruise, to not one but two legendary drummers getting fired, this episode is a wild ride from start to finish.Join your friends — Ben Rogers, Jeff “Skin” Wade, Kevin “KT” Turner, and Krystina Ray — as they unpack:
- 🎬 A cryptic Hollywood message that could land Ben face-to-face with Tom Cruise
- 🥁 The Foo Fighters’ shocking decision to part ways with drummer Josh Freese — and the internet’s theory that Taylor Hawkins’ son might be stepping in.
- 🤯 The Who’s drummer drama: Zach Starkey (yes, Ringo Starr’s son!) gets fired, rehired, and fired again — all in the span of a few weeks.
- 🎤 The irony of Roger Daltrey firing a drummer for being “too loud”… in a band once led by Keith Moon.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
There might be a chance for me to become best
friends with Tom Cruise. Yeah, it might happen. Hey, they
reached back out to me.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
They did.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
It was real ominous. They haven't given any details. They
were like, how early could you be available on Thursday?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Dude?
Speaker 1 (00:14):
And I'm like, all right, that's a complicated question because
if it involves my guy TC, I can be anywhere.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Uh huh.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
But does it involve Tom or not? Oh? I thought
you meant TC Fleming. I think that's weird involved. Sure,
that would be weird. Yeah, So I hope you responded
with I'm available twenty four to seven, bitch. Yeah. There
was a bunch of Hollywood executives copied on it. So
I was scared to say anything like that, but I did.
That's how they talked, Ben. I didn't commit, though, I
(00:43):
was like, let me know if Tom's involved. I like that. Okay,
so you're playing hardball with I'll rearrangement. I'll take a
day off if I'm gonna be hanging out with Tom. Yeah.
But anyways, so that's a development to take a day off, dog,
we got you show. Come on, man, that's developing story.
More on that soon, but right now, it's time for this.
(01:13):
We have two music firings. It's very strange, two huge
bands who've ditched their drummer over the weekend.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Very odd. One of them did it twice. More on
that in a second. So the Food Fighters, obviously Taylor
Hawkins had the tragic death, and then they hired Josh Freese,
who played with a bunch of different bands. So he
played with them for about a year, and then they
quit touring when it came out that Dave Grohl had
fathered a kid out of wedlock. And they quit and
they're gonna play a show in October. There's not a
(01:43):
lot of the books. Oh yeah, the f one show
too in Singapore.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Them Hell yeah man.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
So Josh Freese, the drummer of the Fighters, put this
on ig. The Foo Fighters called me Monday night to
let me know they've decided to go in a different
direction with their drummer. No reason was given, brownie face regardless.
I enjoyed the past two years with them, both on
and off the stage, and I support whatever they feel
is best for the band. And my forty years of
drumming professionally, I've never been let go from a band.
(02:10):
So while I'm not angry. I'm just a bit shocked
and disappointed because most of you know I've always worked freelance.
Blah blah blah. Stay tuned for my top ten possible
reasons Josh got booted from the Foo Fighters list.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Wait, we love you, Dave Grohl? Do we have his age?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Fifty two?
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Okay, So he's been drumming professionally since he was twelve.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Four nine inch nails, Devo, Guns n' Roses, sting, He's
played with everyone.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
It was a twelve year old. Is there speculation?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I've not seen it, the only one and this is
not even founded evidence. This is just people talking on
the internet. Is what if Taylor Hawkins's son was ready
to to I know that cool?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah, but why wouldn't they I don't know. Why wouldn't
they just tell him? Maybe they are scared to commit
to his son, like they want to like see how
it goes.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
And maybe it just wasn't working for this guy who's
played with a bunch of different bands, you know who knows. Yeah,
very strange. It's not like they're playing a bunch of
gigs though, yeah right now.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
So also like may not dig the way he plays
Josh is on.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Tour with someone right now too, Like you said, food
fighters aren't on tour, so he went off with someone else.
So maybe that kind of pissed him off. I don't
know that world, but she's kind of always looking for
work though, yeah, never you know. The other one that's
interesting is the Who. Uh they fired their drummer, Zach
Starkey for the second time this month. How get okay? Now,
(03:32):
this is a little bit weird because he's old, Like
he's really old, and like the Who, they're on in
their eighties right at this point. Yeah, so he has
been their drummer since nineteen ninety six, and he says
there's been weeks of mayhem since he was fired, and
then he got reinstated three days later.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
We talked about this, so you remember this, right, No, Yeah,
we talked about this a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
We did.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah, when we were talking about Roger Daltrey. Roger Daltrey
yelled at him on stage because he was that was him, yeah,
and he couldn't hear and he blamed it on the
drummer playing too loud for a rock band, that's right.
And then Pete Townshend said, hey, man, I'm sorry Roger
daltrey' is a dick, We're good, you're in the band.
And then here they are a couple of weeks later
(04:14):
and isn't Zach Starkey Ringo star son? Boy?
Speaker 2 (04:19):
I did not know that.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
I could be wrong on that. I thought he was
Ringo star Son, but I could be wrong.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Well, he's saying like they asked him to make a statement,
saying he's quit, and he's like, I would never quit
The Who. Yeah, I've never do that. To my fans,
it was there was just a smart panther play right there.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
There is an amazing irony to his dad's were Bringo
star Yeah? Wow, there's an amazing irony to Roger Daltrey
firing a drummer for playing too loud when Keith Moon
was a drummer and the Who Who just beat the
crap out of his drums. This is basically an old
guy with a giant ego is looking for someone to
blame for his hearing problem.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Josh and Zach, you can drum for me anytime.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
I like that, all right, good punctuator there, Kat
There might be a chance for me to become best
friends with Tom Cruise. Yeah, it might happen. Hey, they
reached back out to me.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
They did.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
It was real ominous. They haven't given any details. They
were like, how early could you be available on Thursday?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Dude?
Speaker 1 (00:14):
And I'm like, all right, that's a complicated question because
if it involves my guy TC, I can be anywhere.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Uh huh.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
But does it involve Tom or not? Oh? I thought
you meant TC Fleming. I think that's weird involved. Sure,
that would be weird. Yeah, So I hope you responded
with I'm available twenty four to seven, bitch. Yeah. There
was a bunch of Hollywood executives copied on it. So
I was scared to say anything like that, but I did.
That's how they talked, Ben. I didn't commit, though, I
(00:43):
was like, let me know if Tom's involved. I like that. Okay,
so you're playing hardball with I'll rearrangement. I'll take a
day off if I'm gonna be hanging out with Tom. Yeah.
But anyways, so that's a development to take a day off, dog,
we got you show. Come on, man, that's developing story.
More on that soon, but right now, it's time for this.
(01:13):
We have two music firings. It's very strange, two huge
bands who've ditched their drummer over the weekend.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Very odd. One of them did it twice. More on
that in a second. So the Food Fighters, obviously Taylor
Hawkins had the tragic death, and then they hired Josh Freese,
who played with a bunch of different bands. So he
played with them for about a year, and then they
quit touring when it came out that Dave Grohl had
fathered a kid out of wedlock. And they quit and
they're gonna play a show in October. There's not a
(01:43):
lot of the books. Oh yeah, the f one show
too in Singapore.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Them Hell yeah man.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
So Josh Freese, the drummer of the Fighters, put this
on ig. The Foo Fighters called me Monday night to
let me know they've decided to go in a different
direction with their drummer. No reason was given, brownie face regardless.
I enjoyed the past two years with them, both on
and off the stage, and I support whatever they feel
is best for the band. And my forty years of
drumming professionally, I've never been let go from a band.
(02:10):
So while I'm not angry. I'm just a bit shocked
and disappointed because most of you know I've always worked freelance.
Blah blah blah. Stay tuned for my top ten possible
reasons Josh got booted from the Foo Fighters list.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Wait, we love you, Dave Grohl? Do we have his age?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Fifty two?
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Okay, So he's been drumming professionally since he was twelve.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Four nine inch nails, Devo, Guns n' Roses, sting, He's
played with everyone.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
It was a twelve year old. Is there speculation?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I've not seen it, the only one and this is
not even founded evidence. This is just people talking on
the internet. Is what if Taylor Hawkins's son was ready
to to I know that cool?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah, but why wouldn't they I don't know. Why wouldn't
they just tell him? Maybe they are scared to commit
to his son, like they want to like see how
it goes.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
And maybe it just wasn't working for this guy who's
played with a bunch of different bands, you know who knows. Yeah,
very strange. It's not like they're playing a bunch of
gigs though, yeah right now.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
So also like may not dig the way he plays
Josh is on.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Tour with someone right now too, Like you said, food
fighters aren't on tour, so he went off with someone else.
So maybe that kind of pissed him off. I don't
know that world, but she's kind of always looking for
work though, yeah, never you know. The other one that's
interesting is the Who. Uh they fired their drummer, Zach
Starkey for the second time this month. How get okay? Now,
(03:32):
this is a little bit weird because he's old, Like
he's really old, and like the Who, they're on in
their eighties right at this point. Yeah, so he has
been their drummer since nineteen ninety six, and he says
there's been weeks of mayhem since he was fired, and
then he got reinstated three days later.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
We talked about this, so you remember this, right, No, Yeah,
we talked about this a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
We did.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah, when we were talking about Roger Daltrey. Roger Daltrey
yelled at him on stage because he was that was him, yeah,
and he couldn't hear and he blamed it on the
drummer playing too loud for a rock band, that's right.
And then Pete Townshend said, hey, man, I'm sorry Roger
daltrey' is a dick, We're good, you're in the band.
And then here they are a couple of weeks later
(04:14):
and isn't Zach Starkey Ringo star son? Boy?
Speaker 2 (04:19):
I did not know that.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
I could be wrong on that. I thought he was
Ringo star Son, but I could be wrong.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Well, he's saying like they asked him to make a statement,
saying he's quit, and he's like, I would never quit
The Who. Yeah, I've never do that. To my fans,
it was there was just a smart panther play right there.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
There is an amazing irony to his dad's were Bringo
star Yeah? Wow, there's an amazing irony to Roger Daltrey
firing a drummer for playing too loud when Keith Moon
was a drummer and the Who Who just beat the
crap out of his drums. This is basically an old
guy with a giant ego is looking for someone to
blame for his hearing problem.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Josh and Zach, you can drum for me anytime.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
I like that, all right, good punctuator there, Kat
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