Charlie’s Good Tonight: The Life, the Times, and the Rolling Stones: The Authorized Biography of Charlie Watts by Paul Sexton
“Paul Sexton has written a sweet gem of a biography and tribute to the late, great Charlie Watts.”
Rolling Stones fans rejoice! The Life, the Times, and the Rolling Stones: The Authorized Biography of Charlie Watts … Charlie’s Good Tonight written by trusted family and band members’ friend Paul Sexton is now available in paperback and translated into several languages.
Charlie Watts was the jazz drummer in the world’s most successful rock and roll band for nearly sixty years. This warm, heartfelt biography contains forewords by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and a prelude by Andrew Loog Oldham, manager and producer of the Rolling Stones from 1963-1967. Anecdotes, reminiscences from his lifelong friend and childhood neighbor Dave Green, band mates including Bill Wyman and Ron Woods as well as Charlie’s sister, Linda, and granddaughter, Charlotte, provide entertaining previously unpublished details chronicling the life of this legendary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Drummer.
This charming tribute serves as a eulogy and memento of a singular life well lived. Contained within are a generous helping of rare, unseen photographs shared by friends and family. While there are shelves of books and uncountable numbers of magazine and newspaper articles about the band, this book stands out as being deeply personal, truly exceptional and a must have volume for rock and roll aficionados.
From War-Torn London to a Life of Jazz
Charles Robert Watts was born in war torn London, England on June 2, 1941, and died on August 24, 2021. His family which grew to include his younger sister Linda, born in 1944, lived in the nearby suburb of Wembley which had suffered tremendous housing losses from wartime German bombing. Their home was a tiny prefab constructed in a factory and trucked in with other identical homes in their community as well as many other cities in England as stopgap housing supplied by government services to replace homes destroyed in the Blitz. Bathroom and kitchen were built back-to-back with shared plumbing and there were two bedrooms and a dining/living room.
Charlie was five when he met future jazz bassist Dave Green who was four, his neighbor and immediate and lifelong best friend until Charlie’s death at age 80. They first performed together publicly in the 1950’s. Green was a regular session and house musician at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club and a founding member of Charlie Watts’s Quintet beginning in 1991 along with Gerard Presencer, Peter King and Brian Lemon.
The Rhythm That Never Missed a Beat
Playing his small drum kit while smiling his beatific smile first in clubs, then in massive arenas, Charlie was the Timekeeper for the Rolling Stones or as Mick Jagger nicknamed him “The Wembley Whammer”, never missing a beat or a performance. Charlie was a self-taught drummer who could not read music, a trained graphic designer and gifted sketch artist who designed some of the Stones’ album covers and contributed significantly to tour stage designs. He habitually drew the beds and interiors of every hotel room he slept in on each out-of-town club date or tour accumulating more than a dozen volumes of these sketches.
Except for a brief interlude beginning about age 45, Charlie didn’t drink excessively nor do drugs. This “midlife” crisis created issues with his family and quickly came to an end, never to be repeated. After concerts, he might take walks but usually retired to his room eschewing the party lifestyle of the other Stones.
Charlie was strictly a one-woman man. He was an art student and member of a jazz band, Blues Incorporated, when he met his wife Shirley Shepherd in the early 1960’s at the Royal College of Art. She was three years older, studying painting and sculpture; blond and beautiful with an infectious laugh. They were instantly smitten and married in 1964. Their only child, daughter Seraphina, was born in 1968. Her daughter Charlotte, a fashion model, is their sole grandchild.
Charlie stated his one regret in life was the prolonged absences from home his work demanded. According to his granddaughter, he phoned Shirley daily from the road. They were intensely private people who lived a rich and full life separately from the music that funded their interests. As suited their reserved natures, they were quiet philanthropists who generously supported a number of causes.
A Rolling Stone with a Devotion to Family
It didn’t take long for Charlie to rise above his middle-class roots quickly transforming from jobbing musician to Lord of the Manor. Halsdon House in Devon, built in the 16th century, is a 600-acre estate that became the home of Halsdon Arabians, a renowned horse breeding farm managed by Shirley Watts, an expert and well respected horsewoman and entrepreneur. She owned over 250 Arabian horses and was an active member of The European Conference of Arab Horse Organizations. They also owned a similarly large estate in the south of France.
Their daughter Seraphina attended a village primary school there and similarly to Shirley became fluent in French and horseback riding. Charlie enjoyed accompanying his beloved wife to horse buying trips to Poland, attending the Royal Ascot and upmarket horse shows but did not himself ride. Interestingly, he amassed an impressive collection of superbly crafted automobiles but never learned to drive. He enjoyed their acquisition and ownership; sitting in them admiring their beauty was sufficient.
Artistry in Every Beat and Brushstroke
Charlie Watts possessed both a tremendous sense of style and a remarkable artistic eye for great beauty. Being a member of The Rolling Stones and participating in various merchandizing endeavors and projects provided him ample income to indulge his love of shopping. He was always immaculately dressed in bespoke attire from his favorite Savile Row tailor including the custom-made t-shirts worn when drumming. He never wore jeans and would only don a Stones jacket when taking a final bow. It was reported he owned 80 pairs of handmade footwear costing $4000 per pair.
Vanity Fair elected Watts into the International Best Dressed Hall of Fame List in 2006. Shopping and browsing in antique stores, bookstores and at auctions was a passion and something that could be enjoyed relatively anonymously. He was thrilled to discover two suits of clothing made by his own tailor for King Edward VII at an auction which fit him perfectly. Jazz memorabilia, drum kits and musical instruments owned by late jazz musicians provided another area of interest.
Charlie loved books and literature from early childhood and collected a vast number of complete book series of favorite authors such as Graham Greene, P.J. Wodehouse and F. Scott Fitzgerald among a multitude of others in autographed first editions. In 2023, Christie’s held two days of auctions of his books and jazz ephemera which broke many sales records.
The Christie’s catalog stated, “In his collecting journey, Charlie’s love of jazz found a match in his love of 20th-century British and American literature. The dynamic and crisp lines of the iconic covers of The Great Gatsby, The Maltese Falcon and more caught the eye of the ever-stylish Charlie. In addition to the literary giants of the 20th century, Charlie also had a great appreciation for the British crime genre, including works by Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers.
This love of a good story ran over into Charlie’s work — he was celebrated for his attention to detail, intellectual curiosity and deep appreciation for 20th-century culture, and perhaps his inimitable drum grooves can be described as his own version of storytelling. Musical passion became a dominant force in his collecting: his love of Charlie Parker, the jazz greats including Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman led to the creation of his unrivalled collection of jazz-related memorabilia.”
Charlie Watts Remembered by Legends
Bandmates Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood issued the following statement to the public following Charlie’s death: “Charlie was the heartbeat of the Rolling Stones for nearly sixty years, he was totally unique and devoted to jazz and literature from boyhood. He was the quintessential English gentleman and his absence is a great loss for us all. We miss him hugely.”
Paul Sexton has written a sweet gem of a biography and tribute to the late, great Charlie Watts in Charlie’s Good Tonight that belongs on the shelf of Rolling Stones fanatics and indeed anyone interested in rock and roll musical history.
About Paul Sexton:
Paul Sexton started writing about music as a teenager in 1977. His work has appeared in The Times (London), the Daily Telegraph, the Guardian, Billboard, and numerous other publications. He has made many documentaries and shows as a presenter and producer for BBC Radio 2, and is also the author of Prince: A Portrait of the Artist in Memories and Memorabilia. He lives in South London.
Publish Date: 10/8/2024
Genre: Biography, Nonfiction
Author: Paul Sexton
Page Count: 368 pages
Publisher: Harper
ISBN: 978-0063276581
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