Doug Sandom, an early member of The Who who preceded Keith Moon as the band’s drummer, has died at the age of 89. In 1962, Sandom was hired by Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, and John Entwistle to play in their band The Detours. Though he was considerably older than the rest of the band’s members, Sandom was a proficient drummer with several years of experience and professional credits to his name. In early 1964, after changing their name to The Who, the band auditioned for Fontana Records. The label’s producer, Chris Parmeinter, recommended that they find a new drummer, which led Townshend to fire Sandom in favor of Moon. Sandom and Townshend did not speak for nearly 20 years, but later reconciled and became close friends. Townshend was the one who announced Sandom’s death on the band’s website accompanied by a heartwarming tribute to the early drummer.

“I wasn’t so ambitious as the rest of them. I’d done it longer than what they had. Of course, I loved it. It was very nice to be part of a band that people followed, it was great,” Sandom later said of his time in The Who. “But I didn’t get on well with Peter Townshend. I was a few years older than he was, and he thought I should pack it in more or less because of that. I thought I was doing all right with the band, we never got slung out of nowhere, we always passed our auditions.”