Charlie Watts Rolling Stone: The Power Behind The Music

Charlie Watts June 2, 1941- August 24, 2021A TRIBUTE FROM THE AUTHOR OF 'PAINT IT BLACK THE MURDER OF BRIAN JONES'AND 'THE ROLLING STONES ALBUM', SQUID GAME STAR GEOFFREY GIULIANO"I wanted to play drums because I fell in love with the glitter and the lights, but it wasn't about adulation. It was being up there playing.""I hate leaving home. I love what I do, but I'd love to go home every night.""It's been years and years and years I've been playing the drums, and they're still a challenge.""I never had lessons. Used to try to play to records, which I hated doing. Still can't play to them."Charlie WattsCharlie Watts provided the foundation that underpinned the music of the Rolling Stones. The band became a by-word for rock 'n' roll excess but for Watts, playing with the Stones did not become the ego trip that drove Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. A jazz aficionado, Watts vied with Bill Wyman for the title of least charismatic member of the band; he eschewed the limelight and rarely gave interviews. And he famously described life with the Stones as five years of playing, 20 years of hanging around.Charles Robert Watts was born on 2 June 1941 at the University College Hospital in London and was raised in Kingsbury, now part of the London Borough of Brent. His father was a lorry driver and Watts was brought up in a prefabricated house to which the family had moved after German bombs destroyed hundreds of houses in the area. A childhood friend once described how Watts had an early interest in jazz and recalled listening to 78s in Charlie's bedroom by artists such as Jelly Roll Morton and Charlie Parker.