The Rolling Stones' Charlie Watts dies aged 80

Legendary Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts has sadly died at the age of 80.

The band’s publicist and DJ Bernard Doherty has confirmed the devastating news this afternoon.

The Rolling Stones have shared a statement on their social media. They wrote: “It is with immense sadness that we announce the death of our beloved Charlie Watts. He passed away peacefully in a London hospital earlier today surrounded by his family.

"Charlie was a cherished husband, father and grandfather and also as a member of The Rolling Stones, one of the greatest drummers of his generation.

“We kindly request that the privacy of his family, band members and close friends is respected at this difficult time.”

Earlier this month, it was announced that Charlie Watts was pulling out of The Rolling Stones’ No Filter Tour in North America this autumn due to an unspecified condition.

Charlie said at the time: “For once my timing has been a little off. I am working hard to get fully fit but I have today accepted on the advice of the experts that this will take a while.

“After all the fans’ suffering caused by Covid I really do not want the many RS fans who have been holding tickets for this Tour to be disappointed by another postponement or cancellation. I have therefore asked my great friend Steve Jordan to stand in for me.”

Charlie Watts' early life

Charles Robert Watts, son of a lorry driver and a housewife, was born in Neasden, London, on June 2, 1941. From childhood, he was passionate about music — jazz in particular. He fell in love with the drums after hearing Chico Hamilton and taught himself to play by listening to records by Johnny Dodds, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington and other jazz giants.

He worked for a London advertising firm after he attended Harrow Art College and played drums in his spare time. London was home to a blues and jazz revival in the early 1960s, with Jagger, Richards and Eric Clapton among the future superstars getting their start. Watts’ career took off after he played with Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, for whom Jagger also performed, and was encouraged by Korner to join the Stones.

Watts was the final man to join the Stones; the band had searched for months to find a permanent drummer and feared Watts was too accomplished for them. Richards would recall the band wanting him so badly to join that members cut down on expenses so they could afford to pay Watts a proper salary. Watts said he believed at first the band would be lucky to last a year.

“Every band I’d ever been in had lasted a week,” he said. “I always thought the Stones would last a week, then a fortnight, and then suddenly, it’s 30 years.”

Charlie Watts' career

The quiet, elegantly dressed Watts was often ranked with Keith Moon, Ginger Baker and a handful of others as a premier superstar drummers, respected worldwide for his muscular, swinging style as the band rose from its scruffy beginnings to international superstardom. He joined the Stones early in 1963 and remained in the group over the next 60 years, ranked just behind Mick Jagger and Keith Richards as the group’s longest lasting and most essential member.

Watts stayed on, and largely held himself apart, through the drug abuse, creative clashes and ego wars that helped kill founding member Brian Jones, drove bassist Bill Wyman and Jones’ replacement Mick Taylor to quit and otherwise made being in the Stones the most exhausting of jobs.

A classic Stones song like 'Brown Sugar' and 'Start Me Up' often began with a hard guitar riff from Richards, with Watts following closely behind, and Wyman, as the bassist liked to say, “fattening the sound.” Watts’ speed, power and timekeeping were never better showcased than during the concert documentary, Shine a Light, when director Martin Scorsese filmed 'Jumpin’ Jack Flash' from where he drummed toward the back of the stage.

The Stones began, Watts said, “as white blokes from England playing Black American music” but quickly evolved their own distinctive sound. Watts was a jazz drummer in his early years and never lost his affinity for the music he first loved, heading his own jazz band and taking on numerous other side projects.

Jagger and Richards at times seemed to agree on little else besides their admiration of Watts, both as a man and a musician. Richards called Watts “the key” and often joked that their affinity was so strong that on stage he’d sometimes try to rattle Watts by suddenly changing the beat — only to have Watts change it right back.

Jagger and Richards could only envy his indifference to stardom and relative contentment in his private life, when he was as happy tending to the horses on his estate in rural Devon, England, as he ever was on stage at a sold-out stadium.

Jazz FM Awards

Charlie Watts was awarded The Gold Award at the Jazz FM Awards in 2017. The Gold Award was awarded to Watts in recognition of his lifelong contribution to jazz and blues.

Upon learning about the award, Watts said "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."

Speaking to Nigel Williams at the Jazz FM Awards in 2017 credits jazz as pivotal in picking up the drums; "We learned to play by watching jazz musicians...That's how I learnt to play, dance bands - you'd go and watch the drummer".

In that same year, Watts was awarded the 'Blues Artist of the Year' award with The Rolling Stones and also received the album for Album of the Year by the public for their album Blues & Lonesome, as voted by the public.

Take a look at The Rolling Stones' incredible career:

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