(Credits: Far Out / Bent Rej)
Sat 27 September 2025 15:00, UK
Imagine a day in the future where you’ve gotten famous and suddenly, everyone’s reading your diary. Sounds hellish, right? Well, sorry, Keith Richards, that’s what we’re doing.
Somehow, the diaries of famous people always seem to land in the public archives. We can now look back and see George Harrison’s day-by-day planner, including his note on January 10th, 1969, where he wrote simply, “got up, went to Twickenham. Rehearsed until lunch time, left The Beatles, went home”.
“If you read, you’ll judge” was scribbled on the cover of Kurt Cobain’s diary that now millions have, as it was published as an entire book. The private notepads of so many have been released, including Nina Simone and Ian Curtis, Marilyn Monroe and Andy Warhol.
For them, though, that happened posthumously. They never had to deal with the weirdness of the world peering into their inner life. Keith Richards does as he’s still working while the world can read a lot of his private scribblings, like a letter he sent the day he met Mick Jagger or this key diary entry from the first gig Charlie Watts played with the band.
Richards’ diary was a short-lived project, but it hit a fruitful time. Dated from January 1962 but then never touched again after March of the same year, the things he did write about capture the band taking shape. On January 15th, it captured Richards’ thoughts on Watts’ first performance with them.
“Ealing—Charlie,” he writes as a subtitle. He says to himself, “Maybe due to my cold but didn’t sound right to me, but then Mick & Brian & myself still groggy from chills and fever!!!” But despite the excuse, he dared note down a worry: “Charlie swings but hasn’t got right sound yet,” telling himself, “Rectify that tomorrow!”
Half a to-do list and have a private venting forum, the rest of the entry is merely reminders of things to do or notes about how the band had agreed to pool all their fees for a while to buy an amp instead. But that note about Watts is telling, capturing the first moment where the new drummer, with his background in jazz, joined the rock band.
Obviously, as we know, Watts eventually found the sound, or even, the sound adapted to him. He really became the backbone of it, holding down the foundational beats on all of their hits and giving them all the kick. After decades of working together, Watts more than won Richards over, as after the drummer’s passing, Richards said, “Anything I do is a tribute to Charlie Watts”.
“If you’ve got Charlie Watts on it, man, that’s it,” he said, adding emotionally, “I so miss that, man”. With absolutely no doubts anymore about the vital role Watts played in the band, reflecting on Richards’ old diary note is like reflecting on a fool with no idea of the power and beauty that was coming. Watts sure did find the sound, and he certainly always did have the swing.
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