Drummer Charlie Watts was the steady force that kept the Rolling Stones in time
The veteran drummer, who has died aged 80, leaves behind his wife Shirley.
Often at odds with his flamboyant band, The Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts was the quiet, considered and skilful force that kept his group in time.
The drummer, who has died aged 80, was known for his sophisticated and inventive playing on classic tracks including Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Honky Tonk Women and Brown Sugar.
However, he was also known for his deadpan wit, understated conversational style, love of tailored suits and deep obsession with jazz music.
Charles Robert Watts was born on June 2 1941 and grew up in Wembley, north-west London.
His father, also Charles Watts, was a lorry driver while his mother Lillian was a homemaker and the couple shared two children – Charlie and his sister Linda.
His parents gave him his first drum kit in 1955, allowing him to play along to his favourite jazz records, which included those by Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker.
By the age of 16, he was drumming in jazz groups and a regular on the London club scene, which was then focused on the parallel worlds of jazz and blues rock.
Alexis Korner, sometimes referred to as “the founding father of British blues”, invited Watts to join his band Blues Incorporated, which featured a number of future stars.
It was then that he met Mick Jagger, who would guest as a vocalist occasionally.
Jagger also had his own group with Keith Richards and Brian Jones but lacked a regular drummer.
A six-month campaign eventually convinced him to join and Watts made his first appearance with the Rolling Stones in January 1963 at the Flamingo club in London’s Soho.
However, even then he refused to give up his day job, only doing so once the band had signed to Decca Records.
His time living in the band’s infamously squalid flat in Edith Grove, Chelsea, was short lived.
Once the band had recorded their first chart hits – Come On and I Wanna Be Your Man – he moved into an flat overlooking Regent’s Park.
He married his girlfriend, Shirley Shepherd, a sculpture student at the Royal College of Art who he met before finding fame, in 1964.
Richards once said: “He’s modest and shy and the idea of stardom horrifies him.”
Following number one hits such as It’s All Over Now, Little Red Rooster and The Last Time, he used the proceeds to buy a 16th-century house in Sussex.
Speaking of Watts’ ability behind the drums, Jagger announced “Charlie’s good tonight, isn’t he?” on the classic live album Get Your Ya-Yas Out! in 1969.
Watts’ fashion sense was often at odds with his bandmates, preferring finely-tailored suits over the bohemian chic of Jagger and Richards.
He said once: “To me the 1960s was Miles Davis and three-button suits.”
An enduring passion was cricket, which saw him regularly attend Lord’s Cricket Ground and other matches, sometimes with his bandmates.
In the late 1970s, Watts joined Stones sideman Ian Stewart in the band Rocket 88.
Throughout the 1980s, he toured worldwide with the likes of Evan Parker, Courtney Pine and Jack Bruce, who was also a member of Rocket 88.
The Charlie Watts Quintet released Warm & Tender in 1993, which included vocalist Bernard Fowler – later producing Long Ago & Far Away three years later.
The year 1989 saw him inducted into the Rock on Roll Hall of Fame alongside the rest of the Rolling Stones and in 2006 he was voted in the Modern Drummer Hall, joining a roll call of famous names including Sir Ringo Starr, Keith Moon and Buddy Rich.
In 2016, Watts was ranked 12th in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 greatest drummers of all time.
The Stones would go on to release more albums with Voodoo Lounge (1994), Bridges to Babylon (1997) and A Bigger Bang (2005), as well as embarking on the extensive Zip Code and No Filter tours.
Watts received The Gold Award at the 2017 Jazz FM Awards in recognition of his lifelong dedication to jazz and blues music.
He said of this: “I am very grateful to be honoured by Jazz FM for my contribution to jazz and blues.
“I’ve always loved and been influenced by the music and its players.
“It was one of the reasons I wanted to be a musician myself.
“It’s still important that we continue to support this music to ensure it lives on for the next generations.”
Mike Rivers, who now runs the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond – which gave the Rolling Stones their first residency- said he met Watts at a blue plaque unveiling at the Ealing Club several years ago.
He told the PA news agency: “He was very charming, he was a real gentleman and was quite happy to chat away. He was a lovely man.
“His real love was jazz – he was more of a jazz musician than a rock musician, that was his real love. He was an excellent drummer.”
Richard Williams, former deputy editor of the Melody Maker, said: “For almost 60 years in the middle of the madness of the Rolling Stones’ world, Charlie took care of the beat.
“He found the right groove for every song, from Satisfaction through Jumpin’ Jack Flash and Honky Tonk Women to Start Me Up.
“He was a stylish man in every sense — in his playing, in his dress sense, and in his perfect manners.
“He knew how to cope with the egos of his bandmates, and they knew how much they owed to his immaculate sense of time.”
Watts leaves behind his wife Shirley (nee Shepherd), daughter Seraphina, born in 1968, and granddaughter Charlotte, born in 1996.
