Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts dies | STERN.de

The drummer of the legendary British rock band Rolling Stones, Charlie Watts, is dead. He died on Tuesday with his family in a London hospital, as his agent Bernard Doherty announced. Watts had written rock history with the Rolling Stones together with singer Mick Jagger and guitarists Keith Richards and Ron Wood in the past decades.

The band confirmed the death of their founding member on their Twitter account. “Charlie was a wonderful husband, father and grandfather, and as a member of the Rolling Stones, one of the greatest drummers of his generation,” it says. This is followed by a request to respect the privacy of family, friends and members of the Rolling Stones “during this difficult time”.

Charlie Watts: 58 years with the Stones

Charlie Watts was born on June 2, 1941 in Kingsbury, Middlesex. Since January 1963 he was the drummer for the Rolling Stones. Contrary to what many rock fans believe, he was not a founding member of the “greatest band in the world”, but was a member of it for almost the entire time and with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards celebrated all the world successes of one of the most influential rock bands. Before joining the Stones, Watts also briefly drummed with Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, had the legendary all-star formation of British blues-rock, which also included the later Stones musicians Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Brian Jones were active as guest musicians, but left in December 1962 – allegedly because he did not consider himself good enough for the always top-class band. Watts made his first appearance with the Rolling Stones on January 12, 1963 – and with his dry beat became one of the Stones’ trademarks.

Watts had been married to his wife Shirley since 1964. Their daughter was born in 1968. In 2004 the musician was diagnosed with throat cancer. Watts recovered from the illness and went on tour again with the Rolling Stones a year later. At the beginning of August he had to cancel his participation in a US tour because of medical treatment. At the time, however, a spokesman had emphasized that the treatment had been “completely successful”. Nothing was known about the type of treatment at the time. Stones singer Mick Jagger tweeted on August 5th: “We are very happy to welcome Charlie back as soon as he is fully recovered.” This hope was not fulfilled.