https://www.nbcnews.com/n...0-n1277541

Wow, this is sad news. I knew Charlie was not well, but wasn't expecting him to pass so soon. He was an icon in an iconic band who will forever be one of my favourite bands. We've been so fortunate to have decades of amazing music from the Stones. RIP Charlie.

The last I heard he was recovering from surgery. The Rolling Stones aren't immortal after all... Glad I went to see them one last time in 2019. RIP Charlie.

LONDON (AP) — Charlie Watts, the self-effacing and unshakeable Rolling Stones drummer who helped anchor one of rock’s greatest rhythm sections and used his “day job” to support his enduring love of jazz, has died, according to his publicist. He was 80.

Charlie Watts arrives at the Phoenix Concert Theater in Toronto on Aug. 10, 2005. (Aaron Harris/The Canadian Press via AP)

Bernard Doherty said Tuesday that Watts “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,” Doherty said.

Watts had announced he would not to...s in 2021 because of an undefined health issue.

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

https://apnews.com/articl...ec0bb4ef2b

[Edited 8/24/21 12:45pm]

Oh nononono no just fucking no.

End of an era and the beginning of a new one = most legends of the 60's and 70's are going to die in the next 8-12 years.

The last photo of Charlie and his wife

In the mid-1980s, an intoxicated Mick Jagger phoned Charlie Watts's hotel room in the middle of the night, asking, "Where's my drummer?" Watts reportedly got up, shaved, dressed in a suit, put on a tie and freshly shined shoes, descended the stairs, and punched Jagger in the face, saying: "Don't ever call me your drummer again. You're my fucking singer!"

By any standards, Charlie Watts was an unlikely candidate for rock stardom.

He was quiet, drily funny and unfailingly modest, characteristics theoretically better suited to his initial profession as a graphic designer than the scream-rent world of 60s pop. Furthermore, by his own admission, he didn’t particularly care for rock’n’roll (“I didn’t know anything about it … I used to hate Elvis Presley. Miles Davis – that’s what I considered someone,” he told an interviewer in 1993) and had initially had to have the rhythm and blues so beloved of his bandmates explained to him: “I didn’t know what it was. I thought it meant Charlie Parker, played slow”.

.

At first, at least, the other Rolling Stones wondered if Watts was even capable of playing the music they wanted to play, rather than his beloved jazz. “Charlie swings very nicely, but can’t rock,” wrote a frustrated Keith Richards in a 1963 diary entry. “Fabulous guy, though.”

As it turned out, Richards couldn’t have been more wrong. Nothing if not a quick student, Watts not only learned to rock, but came to be hailed as one of the greatest drummers in rock history – sometimes the greatest of all – although he certainly occupied a unique place within that particular pantheon.

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He was not a flamboyant, risk-taking showman in the manner of the Who’s Keith Moon, nor an exponent of pummelling raw power along the lines of Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham, nor an expert in tricky time signatures like Rush’s Neal Peart. He certainly didn’t go in for the kind of elaborate equipment – gongs and double bass drums – that rock drummers frequently use to draw attention to themselves at the rear of the stage, preferring to stick with a 1957 kit that was tiny by modern standards.

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There were moments when Watts’ drumming could be showy – as on his thunderous performance on 1966’s Paint It Black – but usually, Watts majored in less obvious skills: perfect timing, a swing to his playing rooted in the hours he’d spent drumming along to jazz records in his bedroom in the late 50s, a particular brilliance with shuffle patterns, an ability to provide a rock-solid footing regardless of whether they were venturing into psychedelia, disco, reggae or funk.

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Occasionally, his bandmates deemed it necessary to remind the world how great he was. “Charlie’s good tonight, innee?” offered Mick Jagger, after a performance of Chuck Berry’s Little Queenie on the 1970 live album Get Yer Ya-Yas Out!, while both Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood suggested the Rolling Stones simply couldn’t continue without him, a theory that’s presumably now going to be tested: “Charlie’s the engine,” said Wood in 2003. “And we don’t go anywhere without the engine.”

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Read more:

https://www.theguardian.c...oll-storm?CMP=twt_gu&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium#Echobox=1629836262-1

[Edited 8/24/21 15:51pm]

Sticky

RIP

purplethunder3121 said:

The last I heard he was recovering from surgery. The Rolling Stones aren't immortal after all... Glad I went to see them one last time in 2019. RIP Charlie.

Drummer Charlie Watts, Rolling Stones backbone, dies at 80

By JILL LAWLESS and GREGORY KATZ13 minutes ago

1 of 12

FILE - Charlie Watts of t.../AP, File)

LONDON (AP) — Charlie Watts, the self-effacing and unshakeable Rolling Stones drummer who helped anchor one of rock’s greatest rhythm sections and used his “day job” to support his enduring love of jazz, has died, according to his publicist. He was 80.

Charlie Watts arrives at the Phoenix Concert Theater in Toronto on Aug. 10, 2005. (Aaron Harris/The Canadian Press via AP)

Bernard Doherty said Tuesday that Watts “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,” Doherty said.

Watts had announced he would not to...s in 2021 because of an undefined health issue.

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

https://apnews.com/articl...ec0bb4ef2b

[Edited 8/24/21 12:45pm]

Rest well Sir

First of all, Rest In Peace to Charlie Watts.

.

Second of all, stick a fork in them. The Rollings Stones as a band AND a world renowed brand name are well done. There is no way that Mick & Keith can keep it going without looking too much like The Glimmer Twins show.

[Edited 8/27/21 18:17pm]

TonyVanDam said:

First of all, Rest In Peace to Charlie Watts.

.

Second of all, stick a fork in them. The Rollings Stones as a band AND a world renowed brand name are well done. There is no way that Mick & Keith can keep it going without looking too much like The Glimmer Twins show.

[Edited 8/27/21 18:17pm]

New lineup:

Jagger

Richards

Wood

Jones

+Steve Jordan

JoeTyler said:

TonyVanDam said:

First of all, Rest In Peace to Charlie Watts.

.

Second of all, stick a fork in them. The Rollings Stones as a band AND a world renowed brand name are well done. There is no way that Mick & Keith can keep it going without looking too much like The Glimmer Twins show.

[Edited 8/27/21 18:17pm]

New lineup:

Jagger

Richards

Wood

Jones

+Steve Jordan

.

Basically, The Stones will be their own self-contained tribute band, no different than what Queen, Fleetwood Mac, & KISS are right now.

[Edited 8/28/21 5:45am]

TonyVanDam said:

R.I.P Charlie

JoeTyler said:

TonyVanDam said:

.

Basically, The Stones will be their own self-contained tribute band, no different than what Queen, Fleetwood Mac, & KISS are right now.

[Edited 8/28/21 5:45am]

Yeap, it's been like that since the 2003-04 tour, at least. The final version of the Stones will be a mix of that self-contained tribute band you've mentioned plus Richards' solo band. [Edited 8/29/21 4:39am]

Whatever. Mick and Keith are alive. They can do whatever the hell they please with their band. More power to them. It's not for some insignificant people to decide for them what to do.

Ringo Starr