Charlie Watts: “I Thought The Stones Were Just Another Band”
Charlie Watts contemplates The Rolling Stone's early days and their future in this month's MOJO Interview – out now.
SOME BELIEVE IT was destiny when Keith Richards bumped into Mick Jagger on the platform of Dartford Station in 1961 with a few of his favourite blues records under his arm, but Charlie Watts says he had no premonitions when he joined The Rolling Stones.
Speaking in the new issue of MOJO (August 14 / #261), on sale in the UK now, the drummer says he experienced no sixth sense that the group would do anything special when he finally agreed to join them in 1963.
“It was just another band that I was gonna be in for three months or three years,” he tells MOJO’s Mark Paytress of his initial impressions of the band.
“I got the sense that this was special a little bit in – say, three months – especially with the audiences’ reactions to Mick, Brian and Keith,” says Watts. “We’d play these small clubs and it was easy to see the crowd’s reaction.
“Sunday was a big day for The Rolling Stones,” he continues. “We used to leave Edith Grove and do the afternoon thing at Ken Colyer’s [Studio 51] in Leicester Square, which got boiling hot and mad after a few weeks. Then we’d pile in the van to Richmond and play there. That was something else, especially when we moved from the [Station Hotel] pub to the Athletic Club.”
Get our latest issue now for the full MOJO Interview with Watts, including his thoughts on jazz, clothes, Mick Taylor, The Stones’ future and more.
PHOTO: Alamy