# Charlie Watts is gone...



## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

Rest in Peace Charlie...

Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts dies at 80


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## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

RIP


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## terminalvertigo (Jun 12, 2010)




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## marcos (Jan 13, 2009)

Jezus !!!!! Part of my youth just died. RIP and thank you


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## SWLABR (Nov 7, 2017)

Wow... 

RIP to one of the most steady drummers in all of Rock!


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

RIP Mr. Watts
Thanks for all the wonderful the music.

*Charlie Watts: Jazz man who became rock superstar*
Published18 minutes ago
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IMAGE SOURCEGETTY IMAGES
*Drummer Charlie Watts, who has died at 80, provided the foundation which underpinned the music of the Rolling Stones.*
The band became a by-word for rock and roll excess but for Watts, playing with the Stones did not become the ego trip that drove Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
A jazz aficionado, Watts vied with Bill Wyman for the title of least charismatic member of the band; he eschewed the limelight and rarely gave interviews
And he famously described life with the Stones as five years of playing, 20 years of hanging around.
Charles Robert Watts was born on 2 June 1941 at the University College Hospital in London and raised in Kingsbury, now part of the London Borough of Brent.
He came from a working-class background. His father was a lorry driver and Watts was brought up in a pre-fabricated house to which the family had moved after German bombs destroyed hundreds of houses in the area.
A childhood friend once described how Watts had an early interest in jazz and recalled listening to 78s in Charlie's bedroom by artists such as Jelly Roll Morton and Charlie Parker.








image captionHe first played with the Jo Jones Seven on the North London pub circuit
At school he developed an interest in and a talent for art and he went on to study at Harrow Art School before finding a job as a graphic designer with a local advertising agency.
But his love of music continued to be the dominating force in his life. His parents bought him a drum kit when he was 13 and he played along to his collection of jazz records.
He began drumming in local clubs and pubs and, in 1961 was heard by Alexis Korner who offered him a job in his band, Blues Incorporated, an outfit that became a vital part of the development of British rock music.
Also playing with Blues Incorporated was a guitarist named Brian Jones who introduced Watts to the fledgling Rolling Stones whose original drummer, Tony Chapman, had quit the band
*Graphic*
The result of that meeting according to Watts was "four decades of seeing Mick's bum running around in front of me."
Watt's skill and experience was invaluable. Together with Bill Wyman he provided a counterpoint to the guitars of Richards and Jones and the preening performance of Mick Jagger.
Early Stone's concerts often descended into mayhem as eager female fans climbed onto the stage to embrace their heroes. Watts often found himself trying to maintain a beat with a couple of girls hanging on to his arms







IMAGE SOURCEGETTY IMAGES
image captionThe Stones deliberately cultivated an air of unkempt detachment
As well as his musical ability, his graphic design experience also proved useful. He came up with the sleeve for the 1967 album, Behind the Buttons, and helped create the stage sets which became an increasingly important feature of the band's tours.
Watts also came up with the idea of promoting their 1975 tour of the US by having the band play Brown Sugar on the back of a lorry as it drove down the street in Manhattan.
He had remembered New Orleans jazz bands using the same technique and it was later copied by other groups including AC/DC and U2.
His lifestyle while on the road was in direct contrast to that of other band members. He famously rejected the charms of the hordes of groupies that dogged the band on all their tours, remaining faithful to his wife Shirley, who he had married in 1964.
*All-time low*
However in the mid-1980s, during what he put down to a mid-life crisis, Watts went off the rails with drink and drugs, leading to heroin addiction.
"It got so bad," he later quipped, " that even Keith Richards, bless him, told me to get it together."
At the same time his wife was battling her own alcoholism. and his daughter, Seraphina, had became something of a "wild child" and was expelled from the prestigious Millfield public school for smoking cannabis.







IMAGE SOURCEGETTY IMAGES
image captionHe maintained his love of jazz with The Charlie Watts Orchestra
Watts's relations with Mick Jagger, too, had reached an all-time low.
On one famous occasion, in an Amsterdam hotel in 1984, a drunken Mick Jagger reportedly woke Watts up by bellowing down the phone "Where's my drummer?"
Watts responded by going round to the singer's room, hitting him with a left hook, saying "Don't ever call me 'your drummer' again, you're my f***ing singer."
The crisis lasted two years and it was Shirley, above all, who helped him get through it.
*High Flying Bird*
Estimated to have been worth £80 million, as a result of the enduring popularity of the Stones, Charlie Watts lived with his wife on a farm in Devon where they bred Arabian horses.
He also became something of an expert on antique silver and collected everything from American Civil War memorabilia to old classic cars. The last was curious since he didn't drive.
Between his regular Stones tours, Charlie Watts indulged his love of jazz. Though he always enjoyed drumming with a rock band and loved his work with the Stones, jazz gave him, as he put it, "more freedom to move around".
Back in art college, he'd completed an illustrated biography of jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker, entitled Ode To A High Flying Bird.
In 1990, he used the book as the basis for a musical tribute to the man they called the Bird on an album by the Charlie Watts Quintet. It featured several of his jazz musician friends, including saxophonist Pete King.
Watts played and recorded with various incarnations of big bands. At one gig, at Ronnie Scott's, he had a 25-piece on stage including three drummers.
Always well turned out - he had featured in several lists of best dressed men - Watts kept his feet firmly on the ground throughout his career with one of the world's most enduring bands.
"It's supposed to be sex and drugs and rock and roll," he once said. "I'm not really like that. I've never really seen the Rolling Stones as anything."


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## KapnKrunch (Jul 13, 2016)

I saw a documentary.

After the show Jagger left in a limo with a sweater draped over his shoulders.

Charlie stayed at the hotel and hung out with the opening act: _Wide Mouth Mason_.


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## Powdered Toast Man (Apr 6, 2006)

KapnKrunch said:


> I saw a documentary.
> 
> After the show Jagger left in a limo with a sweater draped over his shoulders.
> 
> Charlie stayed at the hotel and hung out with the opening act: _Wide Mouth Mason_.


The members of WMM still talk about that.


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## Powdered Toast Man (Apr 6, 2006)

I'm a life long Stones fanatic. Moreso, I'm in a Stones tribute band. And we are playing our first show in front of people in over a year and a half this Saturday. 

This one hits me hard.


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## JBFairthorne (Oct 11, 2014)

Sad.


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

😞


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## HighNoon (Nov 29, 2016)

I guess that would explain the medical complications. Really good groove player and put the roll into the rock.


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## laristotle (Aug 29, 2019)




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## Grainslayer (Sep 26, 2016)

S🙁 many great musicians passing away..Im getting old i guess.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

The greatest hi-hat in music.
They replaced Brian Jones. They replaced Bill Wyman. They won't be able to replace Charlie. Ladies and gents, the Rolling Stones have left the building.
Thanks, Charlie. You can stay on MY cloud any time you want. RIP


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## colchar (May 22, 2010)

Sad. Obviously the health issue that prevented him from touring was more serious than was let on.


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## Powdered Toast Man (Apr 6, 2006)

mhammer said:


> The greatest hi-hat in music.
> They replaced Brian Jones. They replaced Bill Wyman. They won't be able to replace Charlie. Ladies and gents, the Rolling Stones have left the building.
> Thanks, Charlie. You can stay on MY cloud any time you want. RIP


Keith has said many times that the Stones can't be the Stones without Charlie. I guess this is the end of them. I'm curious whether they go ahead with the tour now that he's passed. Steve Jordan standing in was only meant to be a measure because Charlie needed time to recover.


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## Paul Running (Apr 12, 2020)

A sad day. A lot of respect for Charlie, his attitude and loyalty...a class act; those Charlie and Bill interviews my favourites...
One anecdote relates that in the mid-1980s, an intoxicated Jagger phoned Watts's hotel room in the middle of the night, asking, "Where's my drummer?" Watts reportedly got up, shaved, dressed in a suit, put on a tie and freshly shined shoes, descended the stairs, and punched Jagger in the face, saying: "Don't ever call me your drummer again. You're my fucking singer!"


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Oh, my heart!

I owe Charlie every backbeat I ever hit, every heavy swing. I didn't know rhythm until I discovered The Stones.

Been listening to Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out since the news broke.

Go with the angels, Charlie.


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## Pierrafeux (Jul 12, 2012)

😇😢😇


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## DavidP (Mar 7, 2006)

Damn...


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## Paul M (Mar 27, 2015)

I think I feel like @Milkman did when Neil Peart died.

Quantitatively I know The Beatles are far more influential. Compared to The Who from '69 to '79 I know The Who are simply the better band, but in my gut I'm a Stones fan first. At 15 years old I left the country without telling my parents to see them. (Rich Stadium, 1981).

That's the beauty of recorded music..... we'll always have something to enjoy. Unfortunately I'm currently in a radio free campground, but I'll be spinning some vinyl this coming weekend.


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## Jim DaddyO (Mar 20, 2009)

Dang! So long Charlie and thanks.


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## SmoggyTwinkles (May 31, 2021)

This is one of those really really big ones (celebrity death) sorry to be saying this, 

But as a mere mortal ( i know we all are) 

This is one of those losses I don't even know how to process it, and so I don't really process it, but I know how massively legendary this dude is and always will be. 

You know this man must be loved by so many, RIP. 

You also gotta think he lived an amazingly awesome life, and so he will RIP.


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## zdogma (Mar 21, 2006)

Goddamn it. I loved his playing, minimalist and cool, one of the best.


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## isoneedacoffee (Oct 31, 2014)

Very sad. On a forum that spends an inordinate amount of time debating SS vs tube watts, it’s nice to see how Charlie Watts is king for the day.


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## John123 (Jul 22, 2020)

Just stunned!!


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## polyslax (May 15, 2020)

I really got to know Charlie in the back of my sister's boyfriend's Mustang in the early 70s. They drove me all over the place, and there was only one thing I wanted to hear on that 8 track player: Hot Rocks 64-71. Thanks for everything Charlie!

I often think of all the rock royalty who have entered their twilight years... the next decade will see a lot of my musical heroes moving on.


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## Kenmac (Jan 24, 2007)

I was shocked when I saw the news earlier today. The thing about Charlie is he wasn't a flashy or bombastic drummer, he was more the type that played for the song. Very, if I may use the term, "Workman-like" and dependable. I've heard for many years that he wasn't really a fan of rock and roll and preferred jazz but he really was the backbone of the Rolling Stones. R.I.P. Mr. Watts.


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## Sneaky (Feb 14, 2006)

_Now I'm in my car 
I got the radio on 
I'm yellin' at the kids in the back seat 
'Cause they're bangin' like Charlie Watts 
_
- John Hiatt, "Slow Turning"


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## DrumBob (Aug 17, 2014)

I'm bereaved right now. Stunned and saddened. Charlie was one of my drumming heroes and I was lucky to have met him in 1990. He was very nice to me that night in NYC. I have a photo of the two of us together.


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

Condolences to his family & friends.
He leaves a big hole for sure.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

DrumBob said:


> I'm bereaved right now. Stunned and saddened. Charlie was one of my drumming heroes and I was lucky to have met him in 1990. He was very nice to me that night in NYC. I have a photo of the two of us together.


They say you shouldn't meet your heroes. But every now and then they turn out to be even nicer than you imagined.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

A simply lovely article about Charlie Watts.in the NYT: When Charlie Watts Finally Made It to New York City

You have to love the last line of the piece: _“Charlie Watts playing the drums,” his biographer wrote, “is the sound of happiness, the aural equivalent of Snoopy doing his dance of joy._”


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## SWLABR (Nov 7, 2017)

A great drummer in his own right, Stewart Copeland describes the magic of Charlie. (under 5min)


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