{"id":480778,"date":"2019-01-11T11:52:27","date_gmt":"2019-01-11T18:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=777756"},"modified":"2019-01-11T11:52:27","modified_gmt":"2019-01-11T18:52:27","slug":"rolling-stones-charlie-watts-opens-up-to-chad-smith-in-rare-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/music-news\/rolling-stones-charlie-watts-opens-up-to-chad-smith-in-rare-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Rolling Stones\u2019 Charlie Watts Opens Up to Chad Smith in Rare Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For many Rolling Stones fans, Charlie Watts<\/a> is the band\u2019s most mysterious and intriguing member. He\u2019s a guy who prefers jazz to rock, yet has spent nearly 60 years playing in the world\u2019s greatest rock & roll band. (When the Stones played Glastonbury in 2013, he said, \u201cI don\u2019t want to do it. Everyone else does. I don\u2019t like playing outdoors, and I certainly don\u2019t like festivals.\u201d) A well-dressed eccentric,\u00a0he is known to draw a sketch of every single hotel room he stays in and owns cars despite being unable to drive. \u201cHe\u2019s a very secretive man,\u201d Keith Richards recently told Rolling Stone,<\/a>\u00a0asked to explain how Watts is still able to carry a two-plus hour show at his age. \u201cI think it\u2019s just him. I don\u2019t think he does anything particularly. That is just Charlie. That\u2019s what\u2019s so amazing about the man. It\u2019s my privilege to play with Charlie Watts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watts doesn\u2019t do a lot of interviews, but he recently did grant one to Chad Smith<\/a> of the Red Hot Chili Peppers for the site DrumChannel.com<\/a>, as part of Smith\u2019s regular series. While Watts usually comes across as quiet or extremely dry in interviews, here he\u2019s relaxed, funny and ready to open up. In part one of the interview (the only portion available for free), Watts traces his musical evolution, from hearing Gerry Mulligan\u2019s \u201cWalkin\u2019 Shoes<\/a>\u201d to his early teen years watching dance bands. He remembers hearing Charlie Parker when he was 14. \u201cI suppose it\u2019s like kids hearing Jimi Hendrix. You suddenly think, \u2018What the hell is he playing?\u2019 I heard Bird and I thought, \u2018That\u2019s fantastic. I want to do that in a club in New York.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But he also reveals that he isn\u2019t a purist. While some have suggested Watts flat-out doesn\u2019t like rock & roll, he brings up Elvis drummer D.J. Fontana as a key influence, and draws a line from early jazz to Louis Prima\u2019s jump-blues to rock & roll. \u201cIt was all one thing. In those days you and to learn rhumba for the dance and then cha-cha-cha.\u00a0Brian and Keith used to play Jimmy Reed all day. It was the same as playing jazz to me. It was another drum thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watts mentions he\u2019s never taken formal lessons \u201cmuch to my regret.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cI learned to play from watching people,\u201d Watts tells Smith. \u201cIf you were playing up there, I would be watching you.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For many Rolling Stones fans, Charlie Watts is the band\u2019s most mysterious and intriguing member. He\u2019s a guy who prefers jazz to rock, yet has spent nearly 60 years playing in the world\u2019s greatest rock & roll band. (When the Stones played Glastonbury in 2013, he said, \u201cI don\u2019t want to do it. Everyone else […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-480778","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-12 12:58:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KQZR - The Reel","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}