{"id":943898,"date":"2026-10-28T11:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T11:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/943898\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T11:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T11:40:10","slug":"dear-charlie-letter-revealing-move-to-snare-future-rolling-stones-drummer-up-for-auction-the-rolling-stones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/943898\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Dear Charlie\u2019: letter revealing move to snare future Rolling Stones drummer up for auction | The Rolling Stones"},"content":{"rendered":"

A handwritten letter from Brian Jones to Charlie Watts<\/a> in which he attempts to recruit the drummer to join the band that would soon become the Rolling Stones is being auctioned later this year.<\/p>\n

Photograph: Brian Jones<\/p>\n

The 1962 letter, which comes directly from Watts\u2019s sister and has remained in the family for more than six decades, will be revealed to the public for the first time.<\/p>\n

Watts was still working in advertising at the time while playing with Alexis Korner\u2019s Blues Incorporated, one of the leading groups in London\u2019s burgeoning rhythm and blues scene. He was initially reluctant to commit to Jones\u2019s fledgling band, which had yet to be named.<\/p>\n

Photograph: Brian Jones<\/p>\n

The letter comes with its original envelope and is addressed to \u201cMr. C. Watts\u201d at his childhood home in Wembley. Jones begins: \u201cDear Charlie, if you consider this letter rather impertinent, please excuse me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He goes on to enquire about Watts\u2019s involvement with Blues Incorporated, before making his case for Watts to join his own band.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are looking for a good drummer. Already we consider our band far better than Alex\u2019s \u2013 we are getting a very tightly-knit sound.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a particularly memorable postscript, Jones outlines the band\u2019s existing lineup of two guitars, harmonica, piano and drums, noting their intention to eventually introduce a bass guitar, before offering a rather frank assessment of their current drummer: \u201cOur present drummer is atrocious!\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite Jones\u2019s early overtures, it would take another seven months before Watts officially joined the Rolling Stones, in January 1963. By then, bassist Bill Wyman had also joined, completing the rhythm section that would become central to the band\u2019s distinctive sound.<\/p>\n

On 2 February 1963, the Rolling Stones performed with their early six-member lineup of Watts, Wyman, Jones, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger and pianist Ian Stewart.<\/p>\n

The band\u2019s desire to recruit Watts was later recalled by Richards in his autobiography Life, in which he described the lengths to which the musicians were prepared to go to bring him into the fold.<\/p>\n

Richards remembered that they had even cut back on food to afford the drummer, declaring: \u201cWe starved ourselves to pay for him!\u201d<\/p>\n

Photograph: Brian Jones<\/p>\n

Sotheby\u2019s said the letter offered \u201ca remarkable first-hand glimpse\u201d into the band\u2019s formative months and its determination to recruit Watts, who would become an integral part of their sound for nearly six decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cFew documents bring us as close to the formation of a legendary band as this letter,\u201d said Craig Inciardi, Sotheby\u2019s music and pop culture specialist.<\/p>\n

\u201cWritten just weeks before the Rolling Stones\u2019 first performance and months before Charlie Watts officially joined the group, it captures the excitement and ambition of a band on the cusp of history.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving remained in the Watts family for more than six decades, it stands as an extraordinary first-hand record of the moment Brian Jones<\/a> set out to recruit the drummer whose distinctive sound would help shape one of the most influential bands in rock history.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter will be on public view at Sotheby\u2019s New York from 2 December to 8 December, with online bidding open from 2 December until the Rock & Pop sale on 15 December. It is estimated to fetch between $70,000 and $80,000 (\u00a352,000-\u00a360,000).<\/p>\n

Watts would go on to remain the Rolling Stones\u2019 drummer for nearly six decades, performing and recording with the band until his death in August 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A handwritten letter from Brian Jones to Charlie Watts in which he attempts to recruit the drummer to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":943899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":["post-943898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=943898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/943899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=943898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=943898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=943898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}