Charlie Watts Born June 2, 1941

Biography

In addition to a decent day job as a graphic artist in an advertising agency, Charlie Watts was already drumming in a budding London band, Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, when the nascent Rolling Stones asked him to join them. They’d admired his jazz-honed skills on the skins for a while, but weren’t able to afford him until then.

Charlie's jazz influence proved vital as the fusion of slide-based Blues and American Rock ‘n’ Roll underwent a major metamorphosis in the cultural cauldron on 1960s London. Some bands took the voice-harmony pop line that proved so successful for The Beatles, but The Stones stuck to their roots, even as they took new influences on board; and none more so than the versatile but fundamentally swinging Mr Watts.

After the mid-decade adventures into the fashionable world of pop-psychedelia proved barren for The Rolling Stones, the roaring return to rock and roll form that is Beggars Banquet demonstrated the real value of the drummer who knew the roots of the music, and not just the latest and lowest-hanging fruit on the R 'n' B branch.

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have both gone out of their way to praise the man who sits behind them, declaring repeatedly that The Rolling Stones could not have achieved what they have done without a world-class drummer.

In particular, it is Charlie Watts' flexibility and collaborative playing – the mark of a genuine jazzman – that makes the difference. Uniquely, he claims to follow Keith on guitar, rather than to lead or drive the beat himself. His ability to play 'maybe 1/100 of a second behind' the guitarist, illustrating remarkable anticipation and understanding, is an astonishing tribute not only to Charlie's close knowledge of how Keith Richards plays; but also of his own musicality.

Charlie Watts has been a less flamboyant member of the band than the singer or any of the guitarists. He's kept a lower profile than the rest of the band, but his presence has been constant. Charlie Watts has been married to the same woman for 45 years, lives in the English countryside, breeds horses, and continues to record and tour outside of The Rolling Stones with various, largely jazz-oriented, collaborations and combos that he puts together as and when he feels the urge.