Charlie Watts
Charlie Watts
Charles Robert "Charlie" Wattsis an English drummer, best known as a member of The Rolling Stones. Originally trained as a graphic artist, he started playing drums in London’s rhythm and blues clubs, where he met Brian Jones, Mick Jagger, and Keith Richards. In 1963, he joined their group, the Rolling Stones, as drummer, while doubling as designer of their record sleeves and tour stages. He has also toured with his own group, the Charlie Watts Quintet, and appeared at London’s...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionDrummer
Date of Birth2 June 1941
CityLondon, England
To be able to play as slow as Al Jackson is almost impossible.
I never weigh myself. But if I put my trousers on and they don't do up, then I don't eat until I can.
I didn't know what the hell Charlie Parker was playing... I just liked the way he played.
I hate leaving home. I love what I do, but I'd love to go home every night.
The world of this is a load of crap. You get all these bloody people, so incredibly sycophantic.
Rock and roll has probably given more than it's taken.
For some reason at 12 or 13, I just heard Gerry Milligan and fell in love with that, whatever it was called.
A lot of our tracks have sounded a lot better than I thought they would because of recording, mixing, and because I probably didn't hear it that way. I'm not a songwriter.
Usually I can hear the pianos, the saxophone, and usually I can hear Ronnie. But I really need to listen to Keith and Mick. The rest of the band is sort of an embellishment to that.
I don't need to hear Bill to go through a song. I need to hear Keith to go through a song. I know Bill will be playing what I'm playing anyway. I need to hear Keith because it's all there: the time, the chord changes, and all the licks you have to follow.
I saw Al Foster with Miles Davis the other week. It was beautiful. But, the whole thing was, Al Foster played as well as everybody else, but all of them were quite brilliant under Miles Davis' direction.
You'd imagine Mick would be the happiest person in the world, and yet a lot of the times he isn't.
I think it's an awful drink, to be honest with you.
People say I play real loud. I don't, actually. I'm recorded loud and a lot of that is because we have good engineers. Mick knows what a good drum sound is as well, so that's part of the illusion really. I can't play loud.