![]() 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. He worked for a London advertising firm after he attended London’s Harrow Art College and played drums in his spare time. 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. From childhood, he was passionate about music - jazz in particular. But he did branch out far beyond “Satisfaction” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” by assembling and performing with jazz bands in the second half of his career.Ĭharles Robert Watts, son of a truck driver and a homemaker, was born in Neasden, London, on June 2, 1941. He said little about playing the same songs for more than 40 years as the Stones recycled their classics. ![]() Jagger and Richards could only envy their bandmate’s indifference to stardom and relative contentment in his private life, which included happily tending horses on a rural estate in Devon, England.Īuthor Philip Norman, who has written extensively about the Rolling Stones, said Watts lived “in constant hope of being allowed to catch the next plane home.” On tour, he made a point of drawing each hotel room he stayed in, a way of marking time until he could return to his family. While other famous rock marriages crumbled, theirs held. Watts found refuge from the rock life, marrying Shirley Ann Shepherd in 1964 and having a daughter, Seraphina, soon after. In another interview, he described the drumming life as a “cross between being an athlete and a total nervous wreck.” “Girls chasing you down the street, screaming … horrible!… I hated it,” he told The Guardian newspaper in an interview. But Watts often said that the actual experience was draining and unpleasant, and even frightening. Watts thought that “Between the Buttons” was the actual name and included it in his artwork. When he asked Stones manager Andrew Oldham what the album would be called, Oldham responded “Between the buttons,” meaning undecided. He also provided illustrations for the back cover of the acclaimed 1967 album “Between the Buttons” and inadvertently gave the record its title. He worked with Jagger on the ever more spectacular stage designs for the group’s tours. He also had an impact on the Rolling Stones that extended beyond drumming. FILE – Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones poses for a portrait on Nov.
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