Charles Robert "Charlie" Watts (born 2 June, 1941) is an English drummer best known as a member (from January 1963 through the present) of
The Rolling StonesThe Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in 1962 in London when multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones and pianist Ian Stewart were joined by vocalist Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards. Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early lineup...
. He is a
jazzJazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
bandleader, record producer, commercial artist and horse breeder.
Mick JaggerSir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is a Golden Globe and Grammy Award winning English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, occasional film producer and actor, best known for his work as lead vocalist and frontman of The Rolling Stones.The Rolling Stones started in the early 1960s as a...
sometimes refers to Watts as "The
WembleyWembley is an area of north-west London, UK, and part of the London Borough of Brent.-Location:Wembley is bounded on the south and east by the River Brent and the A406 North Circular Road, separating it from Neasden, Willesden and Park Royal. To its west and northwest are Sudbury and Harrow...
Whammer" when introducing him during concerts.
Early life
Charlie Watts was born to a lorry driver for a precursor of
British RailBritish Railways , which later traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the British railway system from the nationalisation of the 'Big Four' British railway companies in 1948 until privatisation in stages from 1994 to 1997...
and his wife at
University College HospitalUniversity College Hospital is a teaching hospital in London, England, part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and associated with University College London...
, London, and raised (along with his sister Linda) in
IslingtonIslington is the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is an inner-city district in London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
and then
WembleyWembley is an area of north-west London, UK, and part of the London Borough of Brent.-Location:Wembley is bounded on the south and east by the River Brent and the A406 North Circular Road, separating it from Neasden, Willesden and Park Royal. To its west and northwest are Sudbury and Harrow...
. He attended Tylers Croft
Secondary Modern SchoolA secondary modern school is a type of secondary school that existed in most of the United Kingdom from 1944 until the early 1970s under the Tripartite System, and was designed for the majority of pupils - those who do not achieve scores in the top 25% of the eleven plus examination...
from 1952 to 1956; as a schoolboy, he displayed a talent for art, cricket and football.
Watts's 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, 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 KornerAlexis Korner , born Alexis Andrew Nicholas Koerner, was a pioneering blues musician and broadcaster who has sometimes been referred to as "the Founding Father of British Blues"...
, who invited him to join his band,
Blues IncorporatedBlues Incorporated were a British R&B band in the early 1960s, led by Alexis Korner, featuring at various times such musicians as Jack Bruce, Charlie Watts, Terry Cox, Ginger Baker, Long John Baldry, Danny Thompson, Graham Bond, Cyril Davies, Malcolm Cecil and Dick Heckstall-Smith...
. 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 JonesLewis Brian Hopkin Jones was an English musician and one of the founding members of the rock group The Rolling Stones. Jones was known for his use of multiple instruments, his flamboyant attire and his recreational drug excesses.- Early life :Jones was born in the Park Nursing Home in Cheltenham,...
,
Ian "Stu" StewartIan Andrew Robert Stewart was a Scottish keyboardist and cofounder of The Rolling Stones. He was dismissed from the line-up in May 1963 but he remained as road manager and piano player.- Role in the Rolling Stones :...
,
Mick JaggerSir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is a Golden Globe and Grammy Award winning English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, occasional film producer and actor, best known for his work as lead vocalist and frontman of The Rolling Stones.The Rolling Stones started in the early 1960s as a...
and
Keith RichardsKeith Richards is an English guitarist, songwriter, singer, record producer and a founding member of The Rolling Stones. As a guitarist, Richards is mostly known for his innovative rhythm playing. In 2003 he was ranked 10th on Rolling Stone magazine's "Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitarists of...
, who also frequented the London
rhythm and bluesRhythm and blues is the name given to a wide-ranging genre of popular music created by African Americans in the late 1940s and early 1950s...
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 ParkerCharles Parker, Jr. was an American jazz saxophonist and composer.Parker, with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, is often considered one of the most influential of jazz musicians...
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 "Stu" Stewart in the back-to-the-roots boogie-woogie band
Rocket 88Rocket 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 bandA big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with playing jazz music and which became popular during the Swing Era from the early 1930s until the late 1940s. Big bands evolved with the times and continue to today. A big band typically consists of approximately 12 to 25 musicians and...
that included such names as
Evan ParkerEvan 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 PineCourtney 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 and keyboards....
, and
Jack BruceJohn Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce is a Scottish musician, composer and singer. He is best-known as an electric bass guitarist, harmonica player and pianist, and was most famous as a vocalist and the bass guitarist for the 1960s rock band Cream. He lives in Suffolk...
, who was also a member of Rocket 88. In 1991, he organized 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 FowlerBernard Fowler is an American musician and songwriter, known as powerful vocalist with a wide range, who has provided backing vocals with the Rolling Stones, for over 20 years on recordings and tours, collectively and individually, as well as being a regular featured singer on other musicians'...
. This same group then released
Long Ago And Far Away in 1996. Both records included a collection of
Great American SongbookGreat American Songbook is a term referring to the interrelated music of Broadway theatre, Musical theatre, Hollywood musicals, and so-called Tin Pan Alley, for a period that begins during about the 1920s and ending about 1960 with the emerging dominance of rock and roll...
standards. After a successful collaboration with Jim Keltner on The Rolling Stones'
Bridges to BabylonBridges to Babylon is an album by The Rolling Stones and was released in 1997. It would prove to be their final studio album of the 1990s and their last full-length release of new songs until 2005...
, Charlie and Jim released a techno/instrumental album called simply
Charlie Watts/Jim Keltner Project. Featuring the names of his favourite jazz drummers, Charlie stated that even though the tracks bore such names as the "Elvin Suite" in honor of the late Elvin Jones,
Max RoachMaxwell Lemuel 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 one of the most important drummers in history...
and
Roy HaynesRoy Owen Haynes is an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Haynes is one of the most recorded drummers in jazz and in his over 60-year career 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's latest solo outing has been released in 2004.
Watts At Scott's was recorded with his group, The Charlie Watts Tentet, at the famous jazz club in London, Ronnie Scott's.
With The Rolling Stones
Besides his musical creativity, he contributed graphic art to early records such as the
Between the ButtonsBetween the Buttons is the fifth British and seventh American studio album by The Rolling Stones and was released on 20 January 1967, in the United Kingdom and 11 February 1967, in the United States as the follow-up to the ambitious Aftermath....
record sleeve and was responsible for the famous 1975 tour announcement press conference in New York City. The band surprised the throng of waiting reporters by driving and playing "
Brown SugarBrown Sugar is also a song on ZZ Top's First Album"Brown Sugar" is a song by English rock band The Rolling Stones. It is the opening track and lead single from the band's 1971 album Sticky Fingers...
" on the back of a flatbed truck in the middle of Manhattan traffic; a gimmick
AC/DCAC/DC are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1973 by Scottish-born brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Although the band are commonly classified as hard rock and are considered pioneers of heavy metal, they have always classified their music as "rock and roll".AC/DC underwent several line-up...
copied later the same year,
Status QuoStatus Quo, also known as The Quo or just Quo, are an English rock band whose music is characterized by their distinctive brand of boogie rock....
repeated the trick for the 1984 video to "The Wanderer" and
U2U2 are a rock band that formed in Dublin, Ireland. The band consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr...
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 AmericasThe Rolling Stones' Tour of the Americas '75 was a concert tour, intended for North and South America, that took place during 1975.-History:This was the Stones first tour with new guitarist Ron Wood, after Mick Taylor left the band...
, as well as the 1989–1990
Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle TourThe 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...
.
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 PlayerGuitar Player is a popular magazine for guitarists. 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 1980's under Editor Tom Wheeler the publication was extremely influential in...
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 WymanBill 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; he selected the respected
session musicianSession musicians are instrumental performers or vocalists who are available for hire for live performances or recording sessions, as opposed to musicians who are either permanent members of a musical ensemble or who have acquired fame in their own right as bandleaders...
Darryl JonesDarryl Jones , also known as "The Munch", is an American bass guitarist. He is highly regarded for his stylish bass-playing in jazz, blues, and rock music....
, who had previously been a
sidemanA sideman is a professional musician who is hired to perform or record with a group of which he is not a regular member. Sidemen are generally required to be adaptable to many different styles of music, and so able to fit smoothly into the group in which they are currently playing. Many sidemen are...
for both
Miles DavisMiles Davis III was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer.Widely considered one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music including cool jazz, hard bop, free jazz...
and Sting.
In 1989, the Rolling Stones were inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of FameThe Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shores of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, dedicated to recording the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, and other people who have in some major way influenced the music...
. In the July 2006 issue of
Modern DrummerModern Drummer is the oldest magazine devoted to the subject of drumming and percussion, it is published monthly. Published independently by Modern Drummer Publications Inc. the magazine printed its first issue in 1977...
, Watts was voted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame along with
Steve GaddSteve Gadd is an American session and studio drummer, notable for his work with popular musicians from a wide range of genres.-Biography:...
,
Keith MoonKeith John Moon was an English drummer of the rock group The Who. He gained notoriety for exuberant drumming and his destructive lifestyle that earned him the nickname, "Moon the Loon." Moon joined The Who in 1964...
,
Buddy RichBernard "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; they are still together. They have one daughter, Seraphina Watts, born on 18 March 1968. He also has a granddaughter.
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's personal life has outwardly appeared to be substantially quieter than those of his bandmates and many of his rock and roll colleagues. Ever faithful to his wife Shirley, Watts consistently refused sexual favors from groupies on the road; in Robert Greenfield's
STP: A Journey through America with The Rolling Stones, a document of the
1972 American TourThe 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 MansionThe Playboy Mansion , is in the Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles, California and is the home of Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner. The address is 10236 Charing Cross Rd., Los Angeles, CA 90024...
during that tour, Watts took advantage of
Hugh HefnerHugh Marston Hefner , sometimes known simply as Hef, is an American magazine publisher, founder and chief creative officer of Playboy Enterprises...
'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's hotel room in the middle of the night asking where "my drummer" was. 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 tasteful personal wardrobe: the British newspaper
The TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Colonel Arthur B. Sleigh in June 1855 as the Daily Telegraph and Courier...
has named him one of the World's Best Dressed Men. In 2006
Vanity FairVanity Fair is an American Hollywood magazine of pop culture, fashion, and politics published by Condé Nast Publications. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1981 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition...
elected Watts into the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame, joining his style icon,
Fred AstaireFred Astaire , born Frederick Austerlitz, 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...
.
In June 2004, Watts was diagnosed with
throat cancerEsophageal cancer is malignancy of the esophagus. There are various subtypes, primarily squamous cell cancer and adenocarcinoma. Squamous cell cancer arises from the cells that line the upper part of the esophagus. Adenocarcinoma arises from glandular cells that are present at the junction of the...
, and underwent a course of radiotherapy. The cancer has since gone into remission and he is once again recording and touring with the Stones.
He now lives in
DoltonDolton is a small village in North 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.-External links:*...
, a rural village in Devon, and owns an Arabian horse stud farm. He also owns a percentage of The Rolling Stones' various corporate entities.
Equipment
Charlie Watts plays
GretschGretsch is a U.S. musical instrument manufacturer currently being distributed by guitar company Fender and drum craft company Kaman. It is known primarily for drums and electric guitars such as the White Falcon and Duo Jet.-Beginnings:...
drums and a variety of brands of cymbals, mostly UFIP. His drums are 1956-7 Gretsch Round Badge: a 22" (56 cm) bass drum, a 16" (41 cm) floor tom, a 12" (30 cm) tom and a 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 records
Watts has released jazz/big-band records, employing a wide variety of vocalists and musicians.
- 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)
- 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)
1991 : Vol pour Sidney(two tracks) (Charlie Watts with Evan Parker, Lol Coxhill, Brian Lemon, Dave Green)
External links