Charlie Watts was the rock of the Rolling Stones.
The skinsman of The Stones, who died “peacefully” at the age of 80 on Tuesday in a London hospital, was the foundation of the British band that was the basis of rock and roll as we know it today.
“The heartbeat (literally and figuratively) of this band came from Charlie Watts,” Alan Light, co-host of SiriusXM Volume’s “Debatable” program, told The Post.
“And I think you could see when I saw them play live. That was when Keith [Richards, the Stones’ guitarist] he would turn around, sometimes put his foot on the drum, and he and Charlie would shut up. There you could find the groove of this band ”.
That groove was the heart of the Stones from 1963 until Watts’ death. “That’s what allowed Mick to go do everything he was going to do, to become the leader he became,” Light said.
Watts made a joke once associating with Jagger caused “decades of seeing Mick’s tramp running in front of me.”
Watts’ firmness in keeping the Stones in his pocket came from a jazz sensibility that always made the band as swing as rock.
“I have a picture of Charlie with a saxophone around his neck with his orchestra, with his jazz band,” legendary rock photographer Bob Gruen told The Post, who said Watts even played the Blue Note .
“He always perceived himself as a jazz drummer,” Light added. “That was always his:‘ These guys can be a rock and roll band. What I’m doing here is listening to great band records and Duke Ellington records and getting to know the power and nuance of rhythm. ”
It was Watts’ ability to not only sting that made him have the impact he had as a drummer.
“He wasn’t a big, flashy player,” Light said. “It simply came to our notice then [Led Zeppelin’s] John Bonham, he was not the kind of savage anarchy [The Who’s] Keith Moon, but he kept that band’s swing in everything he did. “
Watts ’cheeky, unobtrusive style stretched beyond music in its own way. He reportedly kept more than 200 suits in his London apartment.
“I always thought of Charlie as a very classy guy and the perfect English gentleman,” Gruen said.
Gruen recalls that Watts was the epitome of the class in 1997 when the band was at a Chicago hotel opening a tour.
“The security man came out, and then Mick Jagger came out, and there was another security man behind him. And a few minutes later, when everything was back to normal and there was no commotion, Charlie Watts he walked with his wife, with an absolutely elegant look, and walked around the hotel to go for a walk without hoopla ”, said Gruen.
However, he had a period of life in which he struggled with drinking and drugs, including heroin, which reportedly left the turkey cold after a two-year career in the 1980s. ” It looked so bad, “he joked later,” that even Keith Richards, the Blessed One, told me to put it together. “
And Wagger was famously pushed to his limits by Jagger. In his autobiography “Life,” Richards wrote about an incident in which a drunk Jagger objected to Watts over the phone and said, “Where’s my battery?”
According to the book, Watts, who was in a hotel room right in Jagger’s hallway, proceeded to shave, put on one of his Savile Row suits, and sprayed some cologne before knocking on the door. of his bandmate.
Then Watts passed Richards, grabbed Jagger, gave him a right hook, and said, “Never call me Yours battery again “.
