Mick Jagger pays tribute to Charlie Watts on first anniversary of his death
The Rolling Stones frontman paid tribute to the late drummer with a new video shared to social media
Mick Jagger has paid tribute to late bandmate Charlie Watts on the first anniversary of his death.
Watts, who played drums in The Rolling Stones for more than 50 years, died on 24 August 2021, aged 80.
The Stones have since returned to the stage with Steve Jordan as the band’s new touring drummer.
Posting to social media, Jagger shared a montage of pictures of Watts and the band throughout the years, soundtracked to their 1974 song ‘Till The Next Goodbye’.
“Thinking of Charlie today,” the frontman captioned the video.
The video also featured a voiceover: “I miss Charlie because he had a great sense of humour,” Jagger said. “Outside of the band, we used to hang out quite a lot and have interesting times. We loved sports, we’d go to football, we’d go to cricket games, and we had other interests apart from just music.
“But of course I really miss Charlie so much.”
In May this year, Jagger opened up about the impact of losing Watts in an interview with The Sunday Times. “I don’t really expect him to be there any more if I turn round during a show. But I do think about him. Not only during rehearsals or on stage, but in other ways too,” he said.
“I would have phoned him up and talked about last night’s Arsenal game because he supported Tottenham and I’m Arsenal. I miss him as a player and as a friend.
“In the show, when we come to the front and bow at the end, there’s no Charlie. He’d always be the last one down. I’d go: ‘Come on, what have you got to do?’ He’d be fiddling with his sticks because he always had to have them in a row before he’d get off the seat.”
Keith Richards recently revealed on the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, that he initially had reservations about continuing on tour when Watts became ill.
“I was in, ‘Oh, I cannot do this without Charlie’,” he said. “But Charlie said to me, ‘You can do it with Steve. He can take my seat anytime’. And he talked me into it.
“God damn, I loved that man.”
The band recently finished their 60th anniversary UK and European headline tour. Earlier this month, Richards said that he hoped the band could have new material recorded by the end of this year.