“Dear Charlie, if you consider this letter impertinent, please excuse me…”
This was the opening line in Brian Jones‘s bid to poach drummer Charlie Watts for the Rolling Stones, delivered to “Mr C Watts” at his childhood home in Wembley.
The historic handwritten letter, postmarked 3 June 1962, is being auctioned by Watts’s sister after remaining in the family for six decades, with its contents revealed to the public for the very first time.
Band co-founder Jones made a strong case for Watts to quit Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated and join the ambitious new group he’d formed with Keith Richards and Mick Jagger.
“I don’t know at the moment what your relationship with Korner’s band is,” he wrote. “I noticed Nick Nicholls was drumming last night at Ealing. If you are not going to work with Alex in the future, and still want to play R&B, we are looking for a good drummer.”
Jones continued: “Already we consider our band far better than Alex’s – we are getting a very tightly-knit sound.”
He told Watts that the band were rehearsing three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays: “Anyway, if you have time, let me know what’s happening.”
Brian Jones urged Charlie Watts to ditch his current band and join the group who would go on to become the Rolling Stones (Sotheby’s New York)
In a “PS”, he added a rundown of the current set-up for the band (“two guitars, harp, piano and drums. We are going to use a bass guitar eventually”).
The letter from a young Brian Jones as he attempted to recruit Charlie Watts to the Rolling Stones (Sotheby’s New York)
He also delivered a rather scornful assessment of their drummer at the time, whom he branded “atrocious!”.
It is unclear who he was referring to: it could have been the Stones’ first drummer, Tony Chapman, who played with them at their live debut at the Marquee Club on 12 July 1962, then left in January when Watts joined. Carlo Little also had brief stints with the Stones in 1962, again before Watts joined.
At the time Jones made his pitch, Watts – who went on to be regarded as one of the greatest drummers of his generation – was still working a day job in advertising while playing with Korner’s band, and resisted the Stones’ early attempts to recruit him.
The letter along with the envelope it was mailed in, addressed to “Mr C Watts” at his childhood home in Wembley (Sotheby’s New York)
Despite Jones’s plea, it was another seven months before Watts agreed to officially join the Stones in January 1963. He remained with the band for almost six decades until his death in 2021.
Indeed, the band had been so determined to get him on board that they were prepared to sacrifice luxuries like food to be able to afford him: “We starved ourselves to pay for him!” Keith Richards later recalled in his autobiography, Life.
Watts, for his part, joked in a 1986 interview that he “worked five years” then spent “20 years hanging around”. He died aged 80 in August 2021.
“What’s so fascinating about this letter is that it shows just how highly regarded Charlie Watts already was at this incredibly early stage,” Craig Inciardi, Sotheby’s music and pop culture specialist, told The Independent.
“The Rolling Stones band name didn’t yet exist, but Brian Jones clearly understood how important the right drummer would be to the sound they were trying to create.”
L-R: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts (Getty)
He added: “There’s something wonderful about seeing that history unfold in real time, especially knowing that Charlie’s distinctive drumming style would go on to define the band’s sound.”
The letter, which is estimated to fetch between $70,000 to $80,000, will be on public view along with its original envelope at Sotheby’s New York between 2 – 8 December, with online bidding open from 2 – 15 December ahead of its sale on 15 December.
The Stones released their latest album, Foreign Tongues, to critical praise in July this year, with The Independent praising the band for “melding pop polish with good old-fashioned rock’n’roll grit” in its four-star review.