Charlie Watts

{{Infobox Drummer File:Example.jpeg.Charlie Watts | name = Charlie Watts | image = | caption = | born = (1941-06-02) June 2, 1941
London, England | died = | aliases = Charles Richard Watts (birth name) | genre = Rock and Roll
Blues rock
Jazz
Roots Rock | affiliation = The Rolling Stones | label = Decca
Rolling Stones | notable drums = | years = 1962 - Present | website = }} Charles Robert "Charlie" Watts (born 2 June 1941) is the drummer of The Rolling Stones. He is also a jazz bandleader and commercial artist. Sometimes referred to as "The Wembley Whammer" when introduced by Mick Jagger during a concert.

Early life

Watts was born to Charles Richard Watts, a driver, and his wife Jessica Mort Watts at University College Hospital, London, England and raised in Islington, a London borough. In his early days, he attended Tylers Croft Secondary Modern School and Harrow Art School. In 1960, he was working with a local band 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 Blues Incorporated, citing its hectic schedule. A trained commercial artist, Watts found work at the advertising firm of Charles Hobson and Grey. However, in late 1962, three ex-members of Blues Incorporated (now calling themselves The Rollin' Stones) persuaded Watts to return. Watts kept his day job until the Stones secured a long-term gig at the Crawdaddy Club near London. In January 1963 he quit his 9 to 5 job to join the group officially and 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 late 70s, he joined fellow-Stone Ian "Stu" Stewart in the back-to-the-roots boogie-woogie fun 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 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 Fowler. This same group then released Long Ago And Far Away in 1996. Both records included a collection of American Song Book standards. After a successful collaboration with Jim Keltner on The Rolling Stones "Bridges to Babylon", Charlie and Jim released a techno/instrumental album called simply Charlie Watts/Jim Keltner Project. Featuring the names of his favorite jazz drummers, Charlie stated that even though the tracks bore such names as the Elvin Suite in honor of the late Elvin Jones and Max Roach, they weren't copying their style of drumming, but rather, capturing a feeling by those artists. Watts' 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 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 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 and 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 that 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 Darryl Jones, who was a sideman to both Miles Davis and Sting. 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 despite his modesty; 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. Also, in the July 2006 issue of Modern Drummer, Charlie Watts was voted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame, along with the likes of Steve Gadd, Keith Moon, Buddy Rich and other greats.

Private life and public image

On October 14 1964, Watts married Shirley Ann Shephard, 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 being awake for several days from too much good cheer, falling into a full spaghetti dinner. He also punched and threatened 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 American 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, that his wife and daughter Seraphina began regularly joining him on Rolling Stones 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 2006 Vanity Fair elected Watts into the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame, joining such alumni as 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 is once again recording and touring with the Stones.

On April 18, 2007, Darby Conley in his comic strip Get Fuzzy coined the term "Charlie Watts" as the unit of measurement of coolness.

Solo records

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

• 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)

External links

• Charlie Watts and the Tentet
• Rolling Stones: Charlie Watts