The 24th of August, 2021 was a sad day for millions of people, mostly baby boomers such as myself, because Charlie Watts, the drummer of The Rolling Stones, left this mortal coil on that date. I felt as if I was gut-punched when I read the news. And I shed a few tears too. The backbone and heartbeat of one of my favorite bands, he was in my life for nearly 60 years, though of course I didn’t know him. And now he’s gone.
Charlie Watts lived to the nicely ripe old age of 80. Still, his death came unexpectedly, at least to the public, seeing that he had been gearing up, initially, to join his fellow Stones (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood) on a stadium tour of the States this autumn.
But in early August, about two weeks after the tour was announced, he bowed out due to health issues. With his OK, a temporary replacement drummer was hired. The expectation was for Charlie, after a period of recuperation, to be back on his drum stool next year and beyond, pounding away on the skins and cymbals. And why think otherwise? I mean, the Stones seemed to be eternal, powering down the rock and roll highway since the early 1960s.
Well, the remaining Stones, though shaken to their bones I’m sure, are going ahead with the tour (it begins on September 26). This doesn’t seem right to me. Charlie Watts was a fixture, an icon. Cool, calm and collected, he was as important to the band as Jagger and Richards. Can The Rolling Stones really be The Rolling Stones without Charlie Watts in their future? The answer, I believe, is a profound no.
Charlie’s passing nearly marks the end of an era for me, which is not a happy realization. That’s because he was one of my musical heroes, a direct link to my young and innocent days. Few of my musical heroes remain among us. What’s more, his death stopped me in my tracks, causing me to ponder a subject that I don’t enjoy. Namely, the final curtain. My final curtain, to be precise.
Yeah, we all know that our ends are coming. Their arrival dates are up in the air, sure, but arrive they eventually will. Yet, you know what? As old as I’ve become — I’m well into my 70s — I still find it kind of hard to believe that my days are diminishing, that there are far more grains of sand at the bottom of my hourglass than there are at its top. Shit, I’d like to go on forever. That would be cool, especially if famine, violence, intolerance, etc. weren’t part of the picture. Alas, the game is designed way differently. What a f*cking, f*cking drag.
And we all also know that we should make good use of our time, an irreplaceable commodity. Helping others and being kind, loving and trustworthy are paramount. Obviously. Absolutely. And not far behind, for some of us, is grooving in the arms of music, something that I’ve been doing for a long, long time and have no plans to stop. It’s liberating and mind-expanding, taking me to planes that I don’t otherwise visit. Charlie Watts has aided me in this pursuit over the years.
On that note I’ll leave you with a beautiful song, released in 1974, from The Rolling Stones catalog: Time Waits For No One, a Jagger and Richards composition. Time Waits For No One laments life’s fleetingness, life’s finiteness. Even so, Jagger, Richards and Watts , who were young when they and the other Stones at the time (Bill Wyman and Mick Taylor) put the song on wax, probably would have been amazed back then to learn that their common journey was destined to continue for decades more (Wyman and Taylor left the group ages ago. Wood signed up in 1975). As you listen, focus on Charlie Watts’ drum work. It is precise and gripping. He and his mates will carry you away.
Yeah, Another Blogger 
He always look slightly bemused, like he was wondering when the concert would be over and he could then go home and read a good book!
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Hi. Maybe so. And I think he also was getting a kick out of Jagger’s onstage “antics”.
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Agreed. He would have had a bird’s eye view of the excess of all the band members…
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This was a great column, Neil. . The drum uses so many different sounds, even sophisticated, like when drummers were like that. Excellent words from you.Joan
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Many thanks, Joan. I appreciate what you said.
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Poignant tribute to a legend, Neil. Charlie Watts was the pulse of the Stones. As the band’s timekeeper, he maintained the tempo for their timeless music. He is completely irreplaceable.
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Hey there, Joe. It will be fascinating to see if Jagger and Richards and Wood decide to continue after this upcoming tour.
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A wonderful tribute to Charlie Watts!
Thank you.
Joanna
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Hi, Joanna, and thanks. His passing is an enormous loss.
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Charlie was a quiet and humble guy in a band gone wild over the years. Seldom gave interviews and was married to same woman since 64. Had these pleasure of seeing him and his All Star band playing jazz at Academy of Music in Philly. Charlie just sat playing his drums with a big smile probably getting away from the Stones grind made him happy. RIP!
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Hi, Mike. I wish I had been at that show!
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Damn, that is a good song! I hadn’t heard it before. I think you picked a perfect tribute for Charlie Watts.
Speaking of drumming, I became friends with a drummer several years ago, a dinosaur like me, and after listening to him talk about high hats, drum fills, and such—and explaining them to me—I became aware as I never had before as to the importance of the drummer in a band. Since then, when I listen to music, my ear is always attuned to the beat.
Thanks for sharing…
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Hey there, KT. He boosted your appreciation of music, which was a very good deed on his part.
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Yes, he was a man who did many good deeds for many people. Sadly, he died back in April of underlying health conditions made worse by covid. I miss him…💙
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I’m sorry to hear that.
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Thank you.
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Great post and a very appropriate music choice! It seems that he was in good health until shortly and really pretty amazing that he was planning to tour at age 80. It bothers me as well that they are resuming the tour (or is this reminder of their mortality driving them to keep going, perhaps?). Seems rather disrespectful.
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I know. It doesn’t feel right. He had OKed the replacement drummer for the tour. But his passing changes the situation. I read that the remaining Stones plan to honor him at the shows, so we’ll see how it all goes.
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Hi Neil: I feel Charlie’s loss too; he was an integral part of the Stones; they will all miss him; heaven knows how we’ll cope when Mick and Keith shuffle off this mortal coil —-
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You know, I’m not sure if it always has been true, but Charlie Watts has been my favorite person in the Stones for a long time. He was someone you could relate to.
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Brilliant obituary. I grew up a stone’s throw away from the Stones in London. Mick Jagger was of course my hero and the music is still so powerful.
Should they still go on your despite the loss of Charlie Watts. I think so. Yes. Charlie’s memory will live on better that way I believe.
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Hi, Basia. Did you ever cross paths with any of them on the street, in a store, etc.?
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My parents rented a flat opposite South Kensington Station which was very near Chelsea the hun of rock star life in the sixties. I was young and naive but Sid Barrett of Pink floyd had a flat downstairs for about a year. His friends were numerous so we would occasionally bump into all sorts of pop people in the lift. Paul McCartney and Jane Asher frequently. Mick jaggers brother lived nearby in Cheyne Walk. And then the notorious Roman Polanski made a film: Repulsion in the lift of the flats itself I remember talking to him ans seeing Catherine deneuve and Sharon Tate. I was about ten so had no idea about anything. But I saw the film for the first time a few years ago and it brought back many memories. But I never met Mick Jagger. Though my husband sat next to him in a plane once! Does that count?
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It counts!
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Your tribute hit the mark. Our music heroes are indeed mortal and so are we.
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Sad but true.
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Beautiful words and a loving tribute to Charlie. I hadn’t heard this track before, so thank you, Neil. The words and music are fitting. ❤
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Greetings, Jane. I’m glad you liked this essay. It meant quite a lot to me to write it.
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In the stream of cultural life, it does feel like a stone has shifted from beneath our feet & we’re suddenly drifting out. We should cling to the life raft of the music & continue to enjoy.
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Right. In some ways, music is timeless.
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Very nicely expressed, Neil.
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Hi, Paddy. I thank you.
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Hi Neil – excellent tribute, excellent tune. I love music too, and appreciate the places it takes me, you expressed this very well, “liberating and mind-expanding.” Re his lifespan and fretting about the grains of sand in the hourglass – there’s no end of random trolls nowadays, who delight in disparaging anyone & everyone just for the judgmental pleasure of it, and I’m not taking shots at Watts for the joy of it, he had not just skill but backbone, and his passing is a real loss, just that it makes sense to factor in years of drug abuse and reckon he would’ve had more than eighty years without that stuff. And all of us would’ve enjoyed his skilled drumming for another decade. Not to speak ill of the dead, just to take an honest look.
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Hi. You make a good point. I suppose that a pretty high percentage of celebrities get caught up in drugs and other excesses. The temptations are around them a good deal of the time.
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I’m so glad that you composed a tribute post for Charlie Watts. Like you, I’m a boomer who found the news of his passing very difficult. I was privileged to hear the Stones live during their “Bigger Bang” tour in 2005. THE most fantastic concert I’ve ever attended. Even the lead up bands were fantastic (The Tragically Hip and Maroon 5) When the Stones made their ‘bigger bang’ entrance the price of admission was fully realized within the first 2 minutes. FANTASTIC!
Charlie Watts was always the ‘grown-up’ of the group. A classy and quiet family man with his bespoke suits and unassuming manner…
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Thanks for adding your thoughts and observations, Lynne. I’ve read interviews with Charlie Watts in which he said that he hates living our of suitcases and dislikes all the other inconveniences that go with touring. Still, he bit the bullet and went on tour time after time, because he liked being on stage and playing the music!
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No Watts on the drums…no group. Not for me.
II saw them at the Epsom Baths Hall while they were still doing small gigs in the 60s..I followed them that moment onwards. Watts was the stable one…apart from a couple of years on the drugs trip which he stopped in order to save his marriage to the woman he met and married when young. I wish he had written a book on drumming technique as Keith did for guitar work in his autobiography
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Helen, I’m impressed and jealous that you saw them in small clubs in their early days. You rock!
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More like wobble these days….!
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Nice tribute, and thoughtful reflections on the journey that awaits us all. Your choice of song to mark Charlie’s passing is so appropriate.
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Hi. It’s a great song, beautifully crafted. And it goes on and on, which is wonderful.
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Thanks for the reflections, Neil.
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Hey, Sam. This is an essay that I couldn’t help but write.
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That is big. I too grew up with the Rolling Stones’ artistry.
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It’s hard to believe that he’s no longer with us.
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As a longtime drummer with a poster of Charlie on my office wall throughout my work life, I can say that this hit me hard, too. Neil, I think your song selection is perfect. Just listen to how Charlie uses each piece of his austere drumkit, at various times, in the most simple and emotionally appropriate way.
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His drumming is magnificent on Time Waits For No One. What a fantastic song.
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Yes very sad! Rolling Stones on top of my list of favorites. Good post and good song.
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Thanks, Joyce. Yeah, the Stones have been a big part of the lives of millions and millions of people.
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Saw the Stones in 2002 on their Forty Licks tour (with my 12-year-old boy). My memory of Charlie came during their blues set, when they strolled out on a long platform to a miniature stage, middle of crowd. Charlie came down the platform smiling the whole time and high-fiving the crowd. Solid drummer, classy guy.
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Charlie was having a ball that night. Hi, Pete. Thanks for the input.
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Was fortunate enough to see the Stones in concert about 8 years ago…But your blog also touched on our vulnerability and mortality – I unexpectedly contracted COVID (fully vaccinated) on my recent trip to France. Makes one think about when the final curtain’s going to come down….!
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The final curtain sucks.
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Nice tribute Neil. Glad you wrote it. My husband thinks they should pack it in too, while they’re “on top.” But … he’s also a musician and torn about it.
As a musician, you want to perform, and I think they should for as long as they can, and as long as they want to.
I’ve seen the band once and was happy I did, but for those who don’t know the Stones well, it still gives them an opportunity to see them, sadly without Charlie.
It will never be the same, but it will still be great music, and it will likely win over a new generation of listeners.
eden
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Without Charlie, it’s not really the Stones. He was there from 1962 or 63. After Keith Moon died, and then John Entwistle, The Who continued, but it isn’t really The Who. To me, anyway.
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A fond farewell…..and also a thoughtful pondering of life’s limits.
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Thanks. I appreciate that.
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I hated to hear of his passing, too. Your tribute’s one of the best I’ve read. I do find myself on the other side of one fence from you, though. I’m glad they’re going on with the tour. Of course it will be different, but what we as fans think doesn’t matter as much as what the group thinks. It’s not impossible that Charlie wanted them to continue on, and that the tour itself is their tribute to him. One thing’s certain; Charlie won’t be forgotten, and the music will endure, even after the rest of them are playing with him in that great dive bar in the sky.
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Hi. Right, maybe Charlie at some point (either recently or in the past) told the others that he’d like them to continue if he passed away.
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The Stones were a huge influence when I was in high school and they became my favorite band. The blues songs that they performed (“covered”, but that’s a word usage that bugs me, for whatever reasons), led me to look into Downbeat magazine and seek out the records of the original Delta and Chicago bluesmen.
I loved the fact that they were still performing. Seeing all those earlier musical and artistic figures passing on is really sad for me.
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Thanks for adding your thoughts, Leah. Other well-known or pretty well-known musicians have died this year. Such as: Chick Corea; Lee “Scratch” Perry, a reggae musician; Nancy Griffith; Dusty Hill, from ZZ Top. .
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Wow – I don’t remember this song … I’ve lost three friends this year, one was younger than me. Soon I will have more than one foot in that other place and that’s what comforts me in a strange way.
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The whole setup of life is bewildering. We’re here, and then we’re gone. And that’s true for every animal and plant.
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Good piece, Neil. That thing about not knowing how long you’ve got? I just know you’re going to squeeze every last drop out of the (I hope long, long) time you have allocated. Carpe that f*cking diem, man!
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Thanks, Andrew. I appreciate your good wishes a whole lot!
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I’m not a Rolling Stones fan, but know the feeling of having one’s musical heroes pass away. As you say, a part of our youth dies. A reminder of our own mortality is never a welcome thought.
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One day we’re young. And then, seemingly in the blink of an eye, we’re not young at all anymore.
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The years go by so fast that time seems to overtake us as we get pass the midway mark.
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Hey there Neil, This is one of your best essays. I play the drums and The Rolling Stones have always been a favorite to tap along with. Thanks for your eflections and I hope both of us rock on for a long time. All the best. Jerry
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Thanks, Jerry. I hope so too, that’s for sure. See ya!
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Somehow, I knew you’d felt deeply about this. It’s funny how musicians’ deaths affect us all. I guess it’s because they kind of supplied the soundtrack of our lives.
Sending condolences because I know this type of realization is hard.
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Right. Music can be very powerful. And we sometimes associate certain musics with lifestyles and with cultural/societal movements that mean a lot to us.
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I didn’t know that song – and I loved the appropriate ending. Charlie Watts is a classic and irreplaceable, but I’m glad the tour is carrying on. After all the disruption of the last couple of years it would be so hard on the fans to cancel.
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I appreciate your thoughts, Anabel. The Stones were scheduled to tour for a few months last year, but had to cancel all the shows because of the virus.
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Perfect tribute.
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Mucho gracias.
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Lovely read 🙏. We are all an eternal presence wrapped into a passing story
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Hello there. I thank you for the compliment and for adding your insight. Take care.
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Splendid post, Neil! I was more of a Beatles fan (as you know), but Charlie was just always so…cool. That he was also a jazz drummer made him even more so! Time Waits for No One is a great tune. Charlie’s quiet tick-tocks at the very end of it made me smile, somewhat sadly.
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Evening, Cindy. It’s a great song, and it has been stuck in my head for the last couple of days.
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Their music is still alive and kickin’ ! Charlie lives on.
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Hi. You’re right. The Stones recorded a whole, whole lot of terrific songs.
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Good pic on th tune Neil. Yeah from the sounds of it you dont get cheated on this life thing we’re doing. I dig your style and the frame of mind you carry. Thanks fella. By the way I was listening to “Time Is On My Side’ today. Love that tune.
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Morning, CB. The other day I heard a Stones tune I like quite a lot. Hadn’t heard it in a long time. Undercover Of The Night.
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I like the feel of that one too.
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His death is a huge loss to the music world! And this is a touching tribute to a very talented drummer. It is hard when our icons begin to die, and to face our own mortality. It just doesn’t feel right, or natural.
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You know, a lot of folks have written about him since he passed. He meant a great deal to musicians and non-musicians alike.
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Great post, Neil. Full of poignant, hard-to-face truths, and the wonderful gift that is remembering. RIP Charlie. You are not forgotten.
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Thanks, Amy. He was an unassuming guy who made a big impression on millions of people.
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A wonderful post and tribute. Only went to one the Stones concert in my lifetime (was never a fan, to be honest), but also saw Charlie and his quintet and thoroughly enjoyed the show. A truly talented man on so many levels.
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He was a modest and cool guy.
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Great post. So many of our heroes are passing on now, it’s heartbreaking. I agree that it’s hard to really see the Stones as the real deal without Charlie. I feel that way whenever I see the Who now also. When John Entwistle died, the band sort of ended for me. – Marty
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On a related subject: I’m a big fan of The Kinks. They never officially broke up, but haven’t played a show since 1996 or so. Three of the original members are still with us. I wish they’d re-form.
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Your tribute made me tear up too, Neil. Great loss. Too soon.
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It’s hard to believe that he no longer is with us.
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A beautiful, soulful post. Brought tears to my eyes. Farewell, Charlie Watts!
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Hi, Laurie. He is missed and will continue to be missed.
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You are right, certain events remind us painfully about our own mortality. I’ve never been a Stones fan (grew up with very different music), but I enjoyed reading your tribute. It really is the end of an era.
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Hi. thanks for adding your thoughts. I appreciate it a lot. See ya!
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I think his death hit a lot of people. The Stone are timeless and seemed immortal-until a few days ago! Ciao, Cristina
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He was a Stone from 1963 till 2021. What a great career. Hi, Cristina. Thanks for stopping by.
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That stinks, Neil.
Their tour in the States will not have the same joy it used to have.
But Watts left so many great memories for millions. More than I can say when I go, no doubt. 🙂
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Hi, Stacey. I think he was amazed and amused by the band’s popularity.
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I always felt he looked like he didn’t take it all seriously. His passing reminds me I’m living in the ‘death zone.’ Cheers, Muriel
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All of us keep getting older, not younger. C’est la vie!
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Sad and unexpected – Somehow it felt like they would all go on forever. Definitely gives us a jolt when these things happen.
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Jagger, Richards and Watts had been together since 1963. They had a very long run together.
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Great tribute, Neil. We were saddened by his passing as well. My life partner has always called the Stones his favorite band, and their music is about all he listens to! Enjoyed your song choice, although I’d never heard it. 🌞
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Hi, Lisa. You know, I’d forgotten that another famous musician died very recently: Don Everly, of The Everly Brothers.
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Another huge loss.
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