Charlie Watts Was The Unlikeliest Rolling Stone

As you probably know by now Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts passed away earlier today at the age of 80.

A cause of death was not released but earlier this month the group announced that Watts would not be joining them when they resumed their U.S. tour. Perhaps this was a telltale sign as he not missed a single performance with the group since joining them in January 1963.

Watts was every bit a part of the Rolling Stones as Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. And yet he was the unlikeliest Rolling Stone of all. For a band legendary for its debauchery, Watts was remarkably straight-laced remaining married to the same woman for 57 years. He was not the center of drug busts or caught with Margaret Trudeau. And in the rare instances he was he did so with a touch of class. When Jagger awoke him at an ungodly hour demanding where his drummer was, Watts put on his finest suit, knocked on Jagger's door and knocked him out telling him, "Never call me your drummer again." 

Under any other circumstances, Watts would have been well dressed advertising executive with a flair for design who otherwise lived a quiet life. Indeed, that's what he was doing for a living in between gigs with Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated before joining the Stones. Watts used his designer background in the graphic art of various Rolling Stones albums and creating their tour stages. Yet he was happiest at home.

Although a drummer for one of the world's most famous rock 'n roll bands, jazz was Watts' musical passion and beginning in the 1980's he embarked on several side projects as The Charlie Watts Orchestra, The Charlie Watts Quintet and The Charlie Watts Tentet. Nevertheless, it was in rock 'n roll where he made his mark and kept the beat. R.I.P.