{"id":639754,"date":"2026-06-15T11:45:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T11:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/639754\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T11:45:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T11:45:15","slug":"the-one-frontman-charlie-watts-said-was-better-than-mick-jagger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/639754\/","title":{"rendered":"The one frontman Charlie Watts said was better than Mick Jagger"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Charlie<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out \/ Bent Rej<\/p>\n

Mon 15 June 2026 10:50, UK <\/p>\n

A lot is made of Mick Jagger<\/a> and Keith Richards\u2019 significance. After all, they are the figureheads of The Rolling Stones, one of the most influential bands of all time, great songwriters, and the definitive stereotypical rockstars.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, due to their long list of storied exploits, including hightailing it to France as tax exiles and Richards snorting his father\u2019s ashes, their characters overshadow the many band members that propped them up over the years, including the late drummer Charlie Watts. The band, in fact, by definition, were always a team, not just two star players.<\/p>\n

As Richards said of the finest aspect of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll, \u201cThere\u2019s something beautifully friendly and elevating about a bunch of guys playing music together. This wonderful little world that is unassailable. It\u2019s really teamwork, one guy supporting the others, and it\u2019s all for one purpose, and there\u2019s no flies in the ointment, for a while. And nobody conducting, it\u2019s all up to you.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really jazz,\u201d he continued, \u201cthat\u2019s the big secret. Rock and roll ain\u2019t nothing but jazz with a hard backbeat.\u201d Watts was that backbeat. He was the puppeteer of the framework, even if he was modest enough to avoid \u201cconducting\u201d. Because from his seat behind the kit, he knew how vital Jagger\u2019s enthusiasm was to the mix.<\/p>\n

The Rolling Stones could never have reached their towering heights without Watts behind the drums. In stark contrast to the flamboyant, outlandish personas of the \u2018Glimmer Twins\u2019,<\/a> Watts brought a jazz-infused sophistication to his playing, providing an intellectually nuanced counterbalance to the band\u2019s raw rock \u2018n\u2019 roll energy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Mick<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ Nationaal Archief<\/p>\n

His quiet, reserved demeanour was perfectly suited to the man behind the kit, the steady musical anchor every band needs. Eschewing the excesses of his bandmates\u2019 hedonistic lifestyles, the understated rhythmic genius remained a breath of fresh, ice-cool air throughout the band\u2019s storied career.<\/p>\n

Watts was an original until the very end and was never one to be pulled in directions he didn\u2019t want to. Although he attributed his brief dalliance with drugs and alcoholism in the 1980s to a mid-life crisis, it\u2019s absolutely symbolic of his character that he stayed faithful to his wife Shirley when on the road. Brilliantly, when the group visited Hugh Hefner\u2019s Playboy Mansion during their 1972 US tour<\/a> and presumably got up to all kinds of filth, he removed himself from danger and instead took advantage of the sprawling games room. <\/p>\n

I\u2019d argue that Watts was possibly a touch eccentric \u2013 as implied by sketching every tour bed he slept on since 1967 \u2013 which probably allowed him to be in the group for so long despite not being one for bouts of hedonistic mania like most of his bandmates. This is why you could often see him smirking from behind the kit when they were in their heyday; he was likely laughing at what was unfolding and how ridiculous others in the band looked. <\/p>\n

Just as Watts was the quietest member of his band and the coolest head, he was also the one best placed to comment on the nature of the other Rolling Stones. Due to his position as the drummer and his naturally reserved character, he was a perennial observer during his time with them. He knew things about them that they didn\u2019t even comprehend. In 1994, he gave an enlightening interview with 60 Minutes, giving his honest opinion on each man\u2019s role in The Rolling Stones. <\/p>\n

The greatest frontman ever?<\/p>\n

His comments on Mick Jagger were particularly interesting. Despite once punching the frontman for calling him \u201cmy drummer\u201d<\/a>, Watts was in no doubt about what was supreme about Jagger\u2019s revered onstage presence and named the only man who he thought topped him. Although he knew Jagger was \u201cthe best\u201d, Watts believed James Brown outdid him when he was in his pomp, with his electric, acrobatic moves going a step further than Jagger\u2019s. <\/p>\n

Watts said, \u201cMick is just the best frontman in the world. I mean that in the nicest possible way. I think he\u2019s the best thing on stage in the world, apart from probably James Brown when he was younger.\u201d <\/p>\n

He concluded, \u201cI mean actually working an audience, 50, 60,000 people, just standing in front of three guitar players or two guitar players and the bass player and singing. Mick is the best thing in the world I think I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a big call, but Watts was right. Jagger took a lot from Brown when forming his famous approach in the early days of The Rolling Stones. His spirited, relentless movement across the stage and expressive delivery were precursors to that of the Englishman. He simply wouldn\u2019t be the same without the influence of the \u2018Get Up\u2019 singer. Brown could cause a fire at a waterpark, and Watts was in rightful awe of that.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE \"\"\/ <\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Far Out \/ Bent Rej Mon 15 June 2026 10:50, UK A lot is made of Mick…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,25720,96,25722,15747,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-639754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-charlie-watts","tag-entertainment","tag-mick-jagger","tag-the-rolling-stones","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}