Charlie Watts, one year after his death: because he never wanted to be a star

This Wednesday, August 24th, is one year after the death of Charlie Watts, historical drummer of the Rolling Stones, a musician who was able to win the hearts of the public from a space of artistic quality and genuine modesty, an almost extraordinary appearance in the rock scene and who has maintained for almost 60 years he played in the “best rock and roll bands in the world.

charlie watt he was 80 when he died on Tuesday, August 24, 2021 due to a heart attack days after undergoing heart surgery. On August 5th of that year, the band announced that he would be replaced by Steve Jordan on the ongoing tour, the No Filter Tour. There were contractual issues that suggested not to suspend the tour.

So much loved and respected that the announcement of his death jointly given by his representative Bernard Doherty together with the Rolling Stones it has aroused countless reactions in the world of music.

allergic to fame

“Nobody dances to guitar solos / nobody dances to lyrics.” Mark Edison (Charlie Watts biographer)

Elegant, discreet, cultured and as Mick Jagger called him “allergic” to fame, Watts devoted himself entirely to his instrument and his family life. That allergy to fame and that simplicity that he maintained during his artistic career speak of a particular stability for him.I know a world full of possibilities and temptations like rock.

However, there is one aspect that speaks for itself and it is rare, not in rock but in life itself, and it was keep intact his marriage to Shirley, whom he married in 1964. Charlie was 23 and she was 26; and I had known her from the time she played in Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated in 1963.

its dark time

All that emotional stability, however, faltered when Watts spent his forty years with a worrying episode of heroin and alcohol addiction which, according to him, almost made him lose his marriage.

In fact, between 1983 and 1986 he had serious problems with alcohol and heroin consumption led him to have a relative participation in the recording of the albums undercover (1983) and Dirty work (1986) in which he had to be replaced by Steve Jordan and Anton Fig.

Watts himself revealed in 1994, in the program 60 minutesby Ed Bradley, who had been addicted to alcohol and heroin in the 1980s and for this reason several drummers have replaced him in some songs.

“It was my way of dealing with family problems. I think it was a midlife crisis. All I know is that I became a different person in 1983 and managed to get out of it in 1986. I almost lost my wife, “said the musician.

he kept his personal life aside from the amazing offer of “fun or trouble” that rock has, especially tours. For example, one of the hobbies Stones bassist Bill Wyman had was recording in detail the sexual encounters of his bandmates, especially during the band’s wild first decade.

Also, in Watts’ locker he put “zero encounters”. Another of the Stones who scored low was Keith Richards. Years later, Jagger lets us know during the stabbing shaded, from the album Some Girls (1980) how a star feels in that world of so many sexual offers: “Sex, sex, sex, look at me, I’m frustrated”. Watts apparently predicted it and maintained healthy celibacy.

In the book Traveling with the Rolling Stonesby Robert Greenfield, where he gives a long chronicle of the “dangerous” North American tour from 1972 to today Exile on Main Stpoints out that, in Chicagothe Stones stayed at the Playboy Mansionby Hugh Hefner.

According to the news, women and drugs everywhere. Imagine the atmosphere and Charlie Watts in the game room, with darts, billiards, a drink and maybe even a Seconal pill, apparently a very common drug in the home. He passed that real test of self-control unscathed.

at the service of songs

All these experiences speak of a person who has acted consistently with his way of feeling and has been able to bring that value to music. He was a true drummer of the band who defended the songs from the drums; he put himself at the service of the songs, that was his key.

Far from exhibitionism and without any desire to stand out, he preferred to build that exhilarating atmosphere that the Stones showed from time to time. His style conveys a linear way of thinking, intelligent and above all practical, although not without challenges. He said: “My greatest pleasure in drums is to prove myself.”

He didn’t have a strong blow like that of John Bonham of Led Zeppelinnor a crazy attitude like that of Keith Moon of the Whonor did he seek that complex virtuosity of some symphonic rock drummers. His influences came from great jazz drummers like Max Roach and Art Blakey.

As he claimed in some of his latest interviews “I was happy to have lived on drums”, an instrument he loved and ended up collecting. In some interviews his modesty emerges when she says. “I don’t think I make it particularly difficult, but I find something positive when people look at me and think ‘I could do it too.'”

As a drummer for the Stones, he basically had three role models during the 58 years he was in the band. A Ludwig at the beginning and then – from the end of the 60s, influenced by his other love, jazz and by the drummer Tony Williams -, two Gretsch (drum widely used in jazz for its particular sound), a Black Nitron and then the one that accompanied it all the way, a Grestch kit in maple.

His other passion, jazz

Although the Stones took up much of his time, Charlie Watts’ love of jazz emerged as the years went by and he started his business in the late 1980s. at the helm of a Big Band of 22 musicians with three drummers and soloists such as Evan Parker, Courtney Pine and Jack Bruce.

In 1991 he recorded with his quintet From Uno Charlie, an excellent tribute to Charlie Parker (an account he managed to pay off with Bird’s music) and in 1992, A tribute to Charlie Parker with bows; in 1993, warm and tendera delightful album of ballads featuring classics of the genre, sung by Bernard Fowler, the main backing vocalist of the Stones.

Several works followed, one with his drummer friend Jim Keltner, The Charlie Watts-Jim Keltner Project, in 2000.

As for his attitude as a leader of several jazz combos, far from assuming a more expansive or let’s say pyrotechnic demeanor that delightful background remained both on stage and in the music itself. On this last point he said that he was self-taught and did not read the scores well, he had to memorize the themes and their arrangements.

Already in the 2000s he must have put his low profile aside to give interviews since “Mick is tired of always being the one who talks” and so we got to know other aspects of his life and his passion for drums.

In June 2004, at the age of 63, he was diagnosed with throat cancer which was reversed with radiotherapy treatment. Those were the days of the disco Bigger bang. Some time later he had a serious car accident in Nice, France, which nearly cost him his life. He has since stopped driving.

Since the 1980s, the sound and stage presence of the Stones have changed. C.harlie watts was left to lead the band. His bass drum and that metronomic rhythm of his left hand created enough confidence to allow the group to dive into every song. The groove which he built greatly facilitated the performance of his peers.

“No Charlie, No Stones,” Keith Richards said. Without Charlie, there are no Stones. Time will tell how the story of the world’s greatest rock and roll band continues without the presence of that graceful artist behind the drums.

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