Charlie Watts

Charles Robert "Charlie" Watts (born 2 June 1941) is the drummer of The Rolling Stones. He is also a jazz bandleader and commercial artist.

Early life

Watts was born to Charles Richard Watts, a lorry driver, and his wife Lillian Charlotte Watts at University College Hospital, London, and raised in Islington, a London borough. In his early days, he attended Tylers Croft Secondary Modern School as well as Harrow Art School. In 1960, he was working with a band called Blues by Five when he met Alexis Korner, who convinced him to join his own band, Blues Incorporated. Later the same year, the band picked up lead singer Mick Jagger, as well as guitarists Brian Jones and Keith Richards.

Shortly afterwards, Watts left the band, citing its hectic schedule. A trained commercial artist, Watts found work at the advertising firm of Charles Hobson and Grey. However, in late 1962, several of the members of Blues Incorporated (now calling themselves The Rolling Stones) persuaded Watts to return. Watts kept his day job until the Stones secured a long term gig at the Crawdaddy Club near London, after which he quit to devote his life to music. Watts remains a member of the Stones to this day.

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 Parker entitled Ode to a High Flying Bird. Although he has made his name in rock, his personal tastes focus on jazz; in the 1980s, he toured worldwide with a big band that included such names as Evan Parker, Courtney Pine, and Jack Bruce. In 1991, he organized a jazz quintet as another tribute to Charlie Parker.

With the Rolling Stones

Although Watts lacks the flash of bandmates Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, his importance in the success of the band is unquestionable. Besides his musical creativity, he contributed graphic art to early records such as the Between the Buttons 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 by playing "Brown Sugar" on the back of a flatbed truck in the middle of Manhattan traffic; a gimmick U2 would later emulate in the 1990s. 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 flower shaped design of the 1975 "Tour of the Americas", as well as the 1989–1990 "Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle" tour. There are many instances where Jagger and Richards have lauded Watts as the key member of the Rolling Stones. Richards went so far 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' importance was demonstrated in 1991 when Bill Wyman left the band after years of deliberation. After auditioning several bassists, Jagger and Richards asked Watts to choose the new bass player; he selected the respected session musician and Miles Davis and Sting sideman Darryl Jones. In business, Watts, along with Richards and Jagger, owns a piece of the Rolling Stones corporate entities, something that does not apply to Mick Taylor, Ron Wood or even Bill Wyman.

During the four decades of performing with the Rolling Stones, Watts has proven to be one of the most influential drummers in popular music; he is a gifted and powerful drummer, often cited by many younger drummers as a seminal influence on their own style. In 1989, The Rolling Stones, including Watts, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Private life and public image

On October 14 1964, Watts married Shirley, whom he had met before the band had its first big hit; they are still together. They had one daughter, Seraphina Watts, born in 1968.

Watts has expressed a love-hate relationship to 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. Although he is often thought to be a reserved and steady influence on the Rolling Stones, he has suffered from a variety of touring life hazards. Published ancedotes from Bill Wyman and Keith Richards have described Watts in the 1970s passing out, after several days awake from too much good cheer, into a full spagetti dinner, as well as Watts punching a drunken Mick Jagger in a hotel for calling him "his drummer" in the mid-1980s.

Ever faithful to his wife Shirley, Watts consistently refused sexual favors from groupies on the road and discussed his regular bouts of insomnia incurred from not sharing his bed with his wife in Robert Greenfield's STP: A Journey Through America With The Rolling Stones, a document of their 1972 tour. When the group held court at the Playboy Mansion during that tour, Watts famously took advantage of Hugh Hefner's renowned game room rather than frolic with the women. It was not until he finally sought treatment for alcoholism and drug addictions in the late 1980s, which included several years of heroin and amphetamine use, did his wife and daughter Seraphina regularly join him on Rolling Stone tours.

Since the 1990s, he has admitted to another addiction; this one less damaging. Shopping in high fashion stores has become common for Watts. His personal wardrobe has attracted so much attention, the British newspaper The Telegraph named him one of the World's Best Dressed.

In June 2004, Watts was diagnosed with throat cancer, and underwent a course of radiotherapy. The cancer has since gone into remission and he is once again recording and touring with the Stones.

Solo records

Watts has released jazz/big-band records, employing a wide variety of vocalists and muscians.

1986: Live at Fulham Town Hall (Charlie Watts Orchestra)
1991: Tribute to Charlie Parker with Strings (Charlie Watts Quintet)
1991: From One Charlie (Charlie Watts Quintet)
'1993: 'Warm & Tender'' (Charlie Watts)
2000: Charlie Watts/Jim Keltner Project (Charlie Watts and Jim Keltner)
2004: Watts at Scott's (Charlie Watts)