Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts dies at age 80

LONDON – Charlie Watts, the self-effacing and unshakeable Rolling Stones drummer who helped anchor 1 of rock’s top rhythms sections and utilized his “day job” to enactment his enduring emotion of jazz, has died, according to his publicist. He was 80.

Bernard Doherty said Tuesday that Watts “passed distant peacefully successful a London infirmary earlier contiguous surrounded by his family.”

“Charlie was a cherished husband, begetter and gramps and besides arsenic a subordinate of The Rolling Stones 1 of the top drummers of his generation,” Doherty said.

Watts had announced helium would not circuit with the Stones successful 2021 due to the fact that of an undefined wellness issue.

The quiet, elegantly dressed Watts was often ranked with Keith Moon, Ginger Baker and a fistful of others arsenic a premier stone drummer, respected worldwide for his muscular, swinging benignant arsenic the set roseate from its scruffy beginnings to planetary superstardom. He joined the Stones aboriginal successful 1963 and remained implicit the adjacent 60 years, ranked conscionable down Mick Jagger and Keith Richards arsenic the group’s longest lasting and astir indispensable member.

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The Stones began, Watts said, “as achromatic blokes from England playing Black American music” but rapidly evolved their ain distinctive sound. Watts was a jazz drummer successful his aboriginal years and ne'er mislaid his affinity for the euphony helium archetypal loved, heading his ain jazz set and taking connected galore different broadside projects.

A classical Stones opus similar “Brown Sugar” and “Start Me Up” often began with a hard guitar riff from Richards, with Watts pursuing intimately behind, and Wyman, arsenic the bassist liked to say, “fattening the sound.” Watts’ speed, powerfulness and clip keeping were ne'er amended showcased than during the performance documentary, “Shine a Light,” erstwhile manager Martin Scorsese filmed “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” from wherever helium drummed toward the backmost of the stage.

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