Charlie Watts
Encyclopedia
Charles Robert "Charlie" Watts (born 2 June 1941) is an English drummer, best known as a member of The Rolling Stones
. He is also the leader of a jazz band
, a record producer, commercial artist, and horse breeder.
and his wife Lilian (née Eaves) at University College Hospital
, London, and raised (along with his sister Linda) in Islington
and then Kingsbury
. He attended Tylers Croft Secondary Modern School
from 1952 to 1956; as a schoolboy, he displayed a talent for art, cricket and football.
Watts' parents gave him his first drum kit in 1955; he was interested in jazz, and would practice drumming along with jazz records he collected. After completing secondary school, he enrolled at Harrow Art School (now the University of Westminster
), which he attended until 1960. After leaving school, Watts worked as a graphic designer for an advertising company, and also played drums occasionally with local bands in coffee shops and clubs. In 1961 he met Alexis Korner
, who invited him to join his band, Blues Incorporated
. At that time Watts was on his way to a sojourn working as a graphic designer in Denmark, but he accepted Korner's offer when he returned to London in February 1962.
Watts played regularly with Blues Incorporated as well as working at the advertising firm of Charles, Hobson and Grey. It was in mid-1962 that Watts first met Brian Jones
, Ian "Stu" Stewart
, Mick Jagger
, and Keith Richards
, who also frequented the London rhythm and blues
clubs, but it wasn't until January 1963 that Watts finally agreed to join the Rolling Stones.
entitled Ode to a High Flying Bird. Although he has made his name in rock, his personal tastes focus on jazz; in the late 70s, he joined Ian Stewart in the back-to-the-roots boogie-woogie band Rocket 88
, which featured many of the UK's top jazz, rock and R&B musicians. In the 1980s, he toured worldwide with a big band
that included such names as Evan Parker
, Courtney Pine
and Jack Bruce
, who was also a member of Rocket 88. In 1991, he organised a jazz quintet as another tribute to Charlie Parker. 1993 saw the release of Warm And Tender, by the Charlie Watts Quintet, which included vocalist Bernard Fowler
. This same group then released Long Ago And Far Away in 1996. Both records included a collection of Great American Songbook
standards. After a successful collaboration with Jim Keltner on The Rolling Stones' Bridges to Babylon
, Watts and Keltner released a techno/instrumental album simply titled, Charlie Watts/Jim Keltner Project. Featuring the names of his favourite jazz drummers, Watts stated that even though the tracks bore such names as the "Elvin Suite" in honour of the late Elvin Jones, Max Roach
and Roy Haynes
, they were not copying their style of drumming, but rather, capturing a feeling by those artists. Watts At Scott's was recorded with his group, "The Charlie Watts Tentet", at the famous jazz club in London, Ronnie Scott's. In April 2009 he started to perform concerts with the ABC&D of Boogie Woogie together with pianists Axel Zwingenberger
and Ben Waters plus his childhood friend Dave Green on bass.
Besides his musical creativity, Watts contributed graphic art to early records such as the Between the Buttons
record sleeve and was responsible for the 1975 tour announcement press conference in New York City. The band surprised the throng of waiting reporters by driving and playing "Brown Sugar
" on the back of a flatbed truck in the middle of Manhattan traffic; a gimmick AC/DC
copied later the same year, Status Quo repeated the trick for the 1984 video to "The Wanderer" and U2
would later emulate it in the 2004 video for "All Because of You". Watts remembered this was a common way for New Orleans jazz bands to promote upcoming dates. Moreover, with Jagger, he designed the elaborate stages for tours, first contributing to the lotus-shaped design of that 1975 Tour of the Americas
, as well as the 1989–1990 Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour
, the 1997 Bridges to Babylon Tour
, the 2002-2003 Licks Tour
, and the 2005-2007 A Bigger Bang Tour
.
There are many instances where Jagger and Richards have lauded Watts as the key member of The Rolling Stones. Richards went so far as to say in a 2005 Guitar Player
magazine interview that the Rolling Stones would not be, or could not continue as, the Rolling Stones without Watts. An example of Watts's importance was demonstrated in 1993, after Bill Wyman
had left the band. After auditioning several bassists, Jagger and Richards asked Watts to choose the new bass player. Watts selected the respected session musician
Darryl Jones
, who had previously been a sideman
for both Miles Davis
and Sting.
In 1989, the Rolling Stones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
. In the July 2006 issue of Modern Drummer
, Watts was voted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame along with Ringo Starr
, Keith Moon
, Steve Gadd
, Buddy Rich
, and other highly esteemed drummers.
Watts has expressed a love-hate attitude toward touring. In Canada's Macleans magazine, he told interviewer Brian Johnson that he has had a compulsive habit for decades of actually sketching every new hotel room he occupies – and its furnishings – immediately upon entering it. He stated he keeps every sketch, but still doesn't know why he feels the compulsion to do this.
Watts' personal life has outwardly appeared to be substantially quieter than those of his bandmates and many of his rock and roll colleagues; onstage, he seems to furnish a calm and bemused counterpoint to his flamboyant bandmates. Ever faithful to his wife Shirley, Watts consistently refused sexual favours from groupies on the road; in Robert Greenfield's STP: A Journey through America with The Rolling Stones, a document of the 1972 American Tour
, it is noted that when the group was invited to the Playboy Mansion
during that tour, Watts took advantage of Hugh Hefner
's game room rather than frolic with the women.
Watts has spoken openly about a period in the mid-1980s when his previously-moderate use of alcohol and drugs became problematic: "[My drug and alcohol problems were] my way of dealing with [family problems]... Looking back on it, I think it was a mid-life crisis. All I know is that I became totally another person around 1983 and came out of it about 1986. I nearly lost my wife and everything over my behaviour." A famous anecdote relates that during the mid-1980s, an intoxicated Jagger phoned Watts' 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!"
Watts is noted for his personal wardrobe: the British newspaper The Telegraph
has named him one of the World's Best Dressed Men. In 2006 Vanity Fair
elected Watts into the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame, joining his style icon, Fred Astaire
.
In June 2004, Watts was diagnosed with throat cancer, and underwent a course of radiotherapy. The cancer has since gone into remission and he returned to recording and touring with the Rolling Stones.
Watts now lives in Dolton
, a rural village in Devon, where he and wife Shirley own an Arabian horse stud farm. He also owns a percentage of The Rolling Stones' various corporate entities.
drums and a variety of brands of cymbals, mostly UFIP. His drums include a 1956-7 Gretsch Round Badge, a 22" (56 cm) bass drum, a 16" (41 cm) floor tom, a 12" (30 cm) tom and a 5 by 14 in (12.7 by 35.6 cm) snare drum. Cymbals he is known to use include an 18" UFIP Natural Series Fast China, a UFIP Rough Series China with rivets, a very old UFIP Flat Ride, an Avedis Zildjian Swish, and a very old set of hi-hats, brand unknown.
US #14 [6 wks] (Billboard Top Jazz Albums)
US #19 [10 wks] (Billboard Top Jazz Albums)
US #6 [15 wks] (Billboard Top Jazz Albums)
UK #86 [2 wks]; US #10 [13 wks] (Billboard Top Jazz Albums)
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
. He is also the leader of a jazz band
Jazz band
A jazz band is a musical ensemble that plays jazz music. Jazz bands usually consist of a rhythm section and a horn section, in the early days often trumpet, trombone, and clarinet with rhythm section of piano, banjo, bass or tuba, and drums.-Eras:SwingDuring the swing era in the mid-twentieth...
, a record producer, commercial artist, and horse breeder.
Early life
Charles Robert "Charlie" Watts was born to Charles Watts, a lorry driver for a precursor of British RailBritish Rail
British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
and his wife Lilian (née Eaves) at University College Hospital
University College Hospital
University College Hospital is a teaching hospital located in London, United Kingdom. It is part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and is closely associated with University College London ....
, London, and raised (along with his sister Linda) in Islington
Islington
Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
and then Kingsbury
Kingsbury
Kingsbury is an area in the London Borough of Brent, northwest London. The name Kingsbury means "The King's Manor".-History:Kingsbury was historically a small parish in the Hundred of Gore and county of Middlesex. Until the nineteenth century it was largely rural with only scattered settlements....
. He attended Tylers Croft Secondary Modern School
Kingsbury High School
Kingsbury High School is a large High School in Kingsbury, London, England notable for a number of reasons including its national reputation for Mathematics, its many eminent alumni and for the fact that the Upper School site at Princes Avenue, NW9 London, is recognisable to many British adults...
from 1952 to 1956; as a schoolboy, he displayed a talent for art, cricket and football.
Watts' parents gave him his first drum kit in 1955; he was interested in jazz, and would practice drumming along with jazz records he collected. After completing secondary school, he enrolled at Harrow Art School (now the University of Westminster
University of Westminster
The University of Westminster is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom. Its origins go back to the foundation of the Royal Polytechnic Institution in 1838, and it was awarded university status in 1992.The university's headquarters and original campus are based on Regent...
), which he attended until 1960. After leaving school, Watts worked as a graphic designer for an advertising company, and also played drums occasionally with local bands in coffee shops and clubs. In 1961 he met Alexis Korner
Alexis Korner
Alexis Korner was a blues musician and radio broadcaster, who has sometimes been referred to as "a Founding Father of British Blues"...
, who invited him to join his band, Blues Incorporated
Blues Incorporated
Blues Incorporated were a British R&B band in the early 1960s, led by Alexis Korner and featuring at various times Jack Bruce, Charlie Watts, Terry Cox, Ginger Baker, Long John Baldry, Ronnie Jones, Danny Thompson, Graham Bond, Cyril Davies, Malcolm Cecil and Dick Heckstall-Smith.-History:Korner ...
. At that time Watts was on his way to a sojourn working as a graphic designer in Denmark, but he accepted Korner's offer when he returned to London in February 1962.
Watts played regularly with Blues Incorporated as well as working at the advertising firm of Charles, Hobson and Grey. It was in mid-1962 that Watts first met Brian Jones
Brian Jones
Lewis Brian Hopkins Jones , known as Brian Jones, was an English musician and a founding member of the Rolling Stones....
, Ian "Stu" Stewart
Ian Stewart (musician)
Ian Andrew Robert Stewart was a Scottish keyboardist, co-founder of The Rolling Stones and inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...
, Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
, and Keith Richards
Keith Richards
Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine said Richards had created "rock's greatest single body of riffs", and placed him as the "10th greatest guitarist of all time." Fourteen songs written by Richards and songwriting...
, who also frequented the London rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
clubs, but it wasn't until January 1963 that Watts finally agreed to join the Rolling Stones.
Musical career
Watts has been involved in many activities outside his high-profile life as a member of the Rolling Stones. In 1964, he published a cartoon tribute to Charlie ParkerCharlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
entitled Ode to a High Flying Bird. Although he has made his name in rock, his personal tastes focus on jazz; in the late 70s, he joined Ian Stewart in the back-to-the-roots boogie-woogie band Rocket 88
Rocket 88 (band)
Rocket 88 is the name of a United Kingdom-based boogie-woogie band formed in the late 1970s by Ian "Stu" Stewart, Charlie Watts, Alexis Korner and Dick Morrissey....
, which featured many of the UK's top jazz, rock and R&B musicians. In the 1980s, he toured worldwide with a big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
that included such names as Evan Parker
Evan Parker
Evan Shaw Parker is a British free-improvising saxophone player from the European free jazz scene.Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free jazz and free improvisation, and has pioneered or substantially expanded...
, Courtney Pine
Courtney Pine
Courtney Pine CBE is an English jazz musician. At school he studied the clarinet, although he is known primarily for his saxophone playing. Pine is a multi-instrumentalist, also playing the flute, clarinet, bass Clarinet and keyboards...
and Jack Bruce
Jack Bruce
John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce is a Scottish musician and songwriter, respected as a founding member of the British psychedelic rock power trio, Cream, for a solo career that spans several decades, and for his participation in several well-known musical ensembles...
, who was also a member of Rocket 88. In 1991, he organised a jazz quintet as another tribute to Charlie Parker. 1993 saw the release of Warm And Tender, by the Charlie Watts Quintet, which included vocalist Bernard Fowler
Bernard Fowler
Bernard Fowler is an American musician, songwriter, producer, and actor. He has provided backing vocals with The Rolling Stones for over 20 years on recordings and tours, and has been a featured guest vocalist on the majority of solo albums released by the members of that band. He has also been a...
. This same group then released Long Ago And Far Away in 1996. Both records included a collection of Great American Songbook
Great American Songbook
The Great American Songbook is a hypothetical construct that seeks to represent the best American songs of the 20th century principally from Broadway theatre, musical theatre, and Hollywood musicals, from the 1920s to 1960, including dozens of songs of enduring popularity...
standards. After a successful collaboration with Jim Keltner on The Rolling Stones' Bridges to Babylon
Bridges to Babylon
Bridges to Babylon is a studio album by British rock band The Rolling Stones, released by Virgin Records on 29 September 1997. It would prove to be the band's final studio album of the 1990s and their last full-length release of new songs until 2005's A Bigger Bang...
, Watts and Keltner released a techno/instrumental album simply titled, Charlie Watts/Jim Keltner Project. Featuring the names of his favourite jazz drummers, Watts stated that even though the tracks bore such names as the "Elvin Suite" in honour of the late Elvin Jones, Max Roach
Max Roach
Maxwell Lemuel "Max" Roach was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered alongside the most important drummers in history...
and Roy Haynes
Roy Haynes
Roy Owen Haynes is an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Haynes is among the most recorded drummers in jazz, and in a career lasting more than 60 years has played in a wide range of styles ranging from swing and bebop to jazz fusion and avant-garde jazz...
, they were not copying their style of drumming, but rather, capturing a feeling by those artists. Watts At Scott's was recorded with his group, "The Charlie Watts Tentet", at the famous jazz club in London, Ronnie Scott's. In April 2009 he started to perform concerts with the ABC&D of Boogie Woogie together with pianists Axel Zwingenberger
Axel Zwingenberger
Axel Zwingenberger is a blues and boogie-woogie pianist, and songwriter. He is considered one of the finest boogie-woogie music masters in the world.-Biography:...
and Ben Waters plus his childhood friend Dave Green on bass.
With the Rolling Stones
Between the Buttons
- American release:In the US, the album was released by London Records on February 11, 1967 . "Let's Spend the Night Together" and "Ruby Tuesday" were slotted onto the album while "Back Street Girl" and "Please Go Home" were removed ...
record sleeve and was responsible for the 1975 tour announcement press conference in New York City. The band surprised the throng of waiting reporters by driving and playing "Brown Sugar
Brown Sugar (song)
"Brown Sugar" is a song by The Rolling Stones. It is the opening track and lead single from the English rock band's 1971 album Sticky Fingers...
" on the back of a flatbed truck in the middle of Manhattan traffic; a gimmick AC/DC
AC/DC
AC/DC are an Australian rock band, formed in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Commonly classified as hard rock, they are considered pioneers of heavy metal, though they themselves have always classified their music as simply "rock and roll"...
copied later the same year, Status Quo repeated the trick for the 1984 video to "The Wanderer" and U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
would later emulate it in the 2004 video for "All Because of You". Watts remembered this was a common way for New Orleans jazz bands to promote upcoming dates. Moreover, with Jagger, he designed the elaborate stages for tours, first contributing to the lotus-shaped design of that 1975 Tour of the Americas
Rolling Stones Tour of the Americas '75
The Rolling Stones' Tour of the Americas '75 was a 1975 concert tour originally intended to reach both North and South America. The plans for concerts in Central and South American never solidifed, however, and the tour covered only the United States and Canada.-History:This was the Stones first...
, as well as the 1989–1990 Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour
Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour
The Rolling Stones' Steel Wheels Tour was a concert tour which was launched in North America in August 1989 to promote the band's album Steel Wheels; it continued to Japan in February 1990, with ten shows at the Tokyo Dome. The European leg of the tour, which featured a different stage and logo,...
, the 1997 Bridges to Babylon Tour
Bridges to Babylon Tour
The Bridges to Babylon Tour was a worldwide concert tour by The Rolling Stones in support of their then-latest album Bridges to Babylon, followed by 1999's No Security Tour.-History:...
, the 2002-2003 Licks Tour
Licks Tour
The Licks Tour was a lengthy, worldwide concert tour held during 2002 and 2003 by The Rolling Stones. Its start was somewhat concurrent with the compilation album Forty Licks, which was released on October 1, 2002....
, and the 2005-2007 A Bigger Bang Tour
A Bigger Bang Tour
A Bigger Bang Tour was a worldwide concert tour by The Rolling Stones which took place between August 2005 and August 2007, in support of their album A Bigger Bang...
.
There are many instances where Jagger and Richards have lauded Watts as the key member of The Rolling Stones. Richards went so far as to say in a 2005 Guitar Player
Guitar Player
Guitar Player is a popular magazine for guitarists founded in 1967. It contains articles, interviews, reviews and lessons of an eclectic collection of artists, genres and products. It has been in print since the late 1960s and during the 1980s, under editor Tom Wheeler, the publication was...
magazine interview that the Rolling Stones would not be, or could not continue as, the Rolling Stones without Watts. An example of Watts's importance was demonstrated in 1993, after Bill Wyman
Bill Wyman
Bill Wyman is an English musician best known as the bass guitarist for the English rock and roll band the Rolling Stones from 1962 until 1992. Since 1997, he has recorded and toured with his own band, Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings...
had left the band. After auditioning several bassists, Jagger and Richards asked Watts to choose the new bass player. Watts selected the respected session musician
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
Darryl Jones
Darryl Jones
Darryl Jones , also known as "The Munch", is an American bass guitarist. Jones began his notable career as a session musician, where he gained the experience and confidence to play with some of the most highly regarded recording artists, in jazz, blues, and rock music...
, who had previously been a sideman
Sideman
A sideman is a professional musician who is hired to perform or record with a group of which he or she is not a regular member. They often tour with solo acts as well as bands and jazz ensembles. Sidemen are generally required to be adaptable to many different styles of music, and so able to fit...
for both Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
and Sting.
In 1989, the Rolling Stones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
. In the July 2006 issue of Modern Drummer
Modern Drummer
Modern Drummer is a monthly publication targeting the interests of on drummers and percussionists. The magazine features interviews, equipment reviews, and columns offering advice on technique, as well as information for the general public...
, Watts was voted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame along with Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
, Keith Moon
Keith Moon
Keith John Moon was an English musician, best known for being the drummer of the English rock group The Who. He gained acclaim for his exuberant and innovative drumming style, and notoriety for his eccentric and often self-destructive behaviour, earning him the nickname "Moon the Loon". Moon...
, Steve Gadd
Steve Gadd
Steve Gadd is an American session and studio drummer, notable for his work with popular musicians from a wide range of genres.-Biography:...
, Buddy Rich
Buddy Rich
Bernard "Buddy" Rich was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Rich was billed as "the world's greatest drummer" and was known for his virtuosic technique, power, groove, and speed.-Early life:...
, and other highly esteemed drummers.
Private life and public image
On 14 October 1964, Watts married Shirley Ann Shepherd, whom he had met before the band became successful. Still married after 46 years, they share one daughter, Seraphina Watts, born on 18 March 1968. Watts also has a granddaughter, Charlotte.Watts has expressed a love-hate attitude toward touring. In Canada's Macleans magazine, he told interviewer Brian Johnson that he has had a compulsive habit for decades of actually sketching every new hotel room he occupies – and its furnishings – immediately upon entering it. He stated he keeps every sketch, but still doesn't know why he feels the compulsion to do this.
Watts' personal life has outwardly appeared to be substantially quieter than those of his bandmates and many of his rock and roll colleagues; onstage, he seems to furnish a calm and bemused counterpoint to his flamboyant bandmates. Ever faithful to his wife Shirley, Watts consistently refused sexual favours from groupies on the road; in Robert Greenfield's STP: A Journey through America with The Rolling Stones, a document of the 1972 American Tour
The Rolling Stones American Tour 1972
The Rolling Stones American Tour 1972, often referred to as the S.T.P. Tour , was a much-publicized and much-written-about concert tour of The United States and Canada in June and July 1972 by The Rolling Stones...
, it is noted that when the group was invited to the Playboy Mansion
Playboy Mansion
The Playboy Mansion is the home of Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner. Located in the Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles, California, the mansion became famous during the 1970s through media reports of Hefner's lavish parties.-History:The house is described as being in the "Gothic-Tudor" style...
during that tour, Watts took advantage of Hugh Hefner
Hugh Hefner
Hugh Marston "Hef" Hefner is an American magazine publisher, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises.-Early life:...
's game room rather than frolic with the women.
Watts has spoken openly about a period in the mid-1980s when his previously-moderate use of alcohol and drugs became problematic: "[My drug and alcohol problems were] my way of dealing with [family problems]... Looking back on it, I think it was a mid-life crisis. All I know is that I became totally another person around 1983 and came out of it about 1986. I nearly lost my wife and everything over my behaviour." A famous anecdote relates that during the mid-1980s, an intoxicated Jagger phoned Watts' 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!"
Watts is noted for his personal wardrobe: the British newspaper The Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
has named him one of the World's Best Dressed Men. In 2006 Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
elected Watts into the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame, joining his style icon, Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
.
In June 2004, Watts was diagnosed with throat cancer, and underwent a course of radiotherapy. The cancer has since gone into remission and he returned to recording and touring with the Rolling Stones.
Watts now lives in Dolton
Dolton, Devon
Dolton is a small village in the Torridge District of Devon, in the South West of England. It has a population of around 900 inhabitants, including the Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts.Dolton is twinned with Amfreville in France and Hillerse in Germany....
, a rural village in Devon, where he and wife Shirley own an Arabian horse stud farm. He also owns a percentage of The Rolling Stones' various corporate entities.
Equipment
Watts plays GretschGretsch
The Gretsch Company was founded in 1883 by Friedrich Gretsch, a twenty-seven year old German immigrant recently arrived in the US. Friedrich Gretsch manufactured banjos, tambourines, and drums, until his death in 1895. His son, Fred, moved operations to Brooklyn, New York in 1916...
drums and a variety of brands of cymbals, mostly UFIP. His drums include a 1956-7 Gretsch Round Badge, a 22" (56 cm) bass drum, a 16" (41 cm) floor tom, a 12" (30 cm) tom and a 5 by 14 in (12.7 by 35.6 cm) snare drum. Cymbals he is known to use include an 18" UFIP Natural Series Fast China, a UFIP Rough Series China with rivets, a very old UFIP Flat Ride, an Avedis Zildjian Swish, and a very old set of hi-hats, brand unknown.
Solo recordings
- February 1987: Live at Fulham Town Hall (Charlie Watts Orchestra)
US #14 [6 wks] (Billboard Top Jazz Albums)
- February 1991: From One Charlie (Charlie Watts Quintet)
- 1991: Vol pour Sidney(two tracks) (Charlie Watts with Evan Parker, Lol Coxhill, Brian Lemon, Dave Green)
- August 1992: Tribute to Charlie Parker with Strings (Charlie Watts Quintet)
US #19 [10 wks] (Billboard Top Jazz Albums)
- December 1993: Warm & Tender (Charlie Watts)
US #6 [15 wks] (Billboard Top Jazz Albums)
- June 1996: Long Ago & Far Away (Charlie Watts)
UK #86 [2 wks]; US #10 [13 wks] (Billboard Top Jazz Albums)
- May 2000: Charlie Watts/Jim Keltner Project (Charlie Watts and Jim Keltner)
- August 2004: Watts at Scott's (Charlie Watts)
- 2010: The Magic of Boogie Woogie (Charlie Watts, Axel Zwingenberger, Dave Green)