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Charlie Watts, 80, Dies Peacefully In Hospital. Sympathy To Wife, daughter, Granddaughter And The Coworkers.
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Gregory Carr
Aug 24, 2021, 2:46:04 PM8/24/21
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Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts dies at 80
By Kate Holton
Keith Richards (R), Ronnie Wood (L) and Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones perform during their "Latin America Ole Tour" at the Foro Sol in Mexico City, Mexico March 14, 2016. Picture taken on March 14. REUTERS/Henry Romero
Charlie Watts of British veteran rockers The Rolling Stones performs with his band members Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Ronnie Wood during a concert on their "Latin America Ole Tour" in Santiago, Chile February 3, 2016. REUTERS/Rodrigo Garrido/File Photo
The Rolling Stones (L-R) Ronnie Wood, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts pose as they arrive for the opening of the new exhibit "Exhibitionism: The Rolling Stones" in the Manhattan borough of New York City, U.S., November 15, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar
Charlie Watts of British veteran rockers The Rolling Stones performs with his band members Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Ronnie Wood during a concert on their "Latin America Ole Tour" in Santiago, Chile February 3, 2016. REUTERS/Rodrigo Garrido/File Photo
LONDON, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, widely regarded as one of the coolest men in rock, a jazz enthusiast and snappy dresser during nearly 60 years with the band, has died, his spokesperson told Reuters on Tuesday.
He was 80 years old.
"It is with immense sadness that we announce the death of our beloved Charlie Watts. He passed away peacefully in a London hospital earlier today surrounded by his family," the spokesperson said.
"Charlie was a cherished husband, father and grandfather and also as a member of The Rolling Stones one of the greatest drummers of his generation."
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Among the first British bands to properly break the American market and a symbol of 1960s London, the Rolling Stones lineup of Watts, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones and Bill Wyman produced an extensive string of major hit records. The Stones also went on to break records with multimillion-pound grossing global tours that continue to this day.
Watts played drums on all of the group's 30 albums and on every tour, until he pulled out of the 13-date "No Filter" U.S. tour due to start this September after an emergency medical procedure.
"God bless Charlie Watts, we're going to miss you man, peace and love to the family, Ringo," former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr tweeted.
Watts was born in 1941 during World War Two and grew up in the Wembley area of northwest London, attending Harrow school of Art before starting work as a graphic artist with an advertising agency.
Unlike his bandmates, Watts had been in a successful group before agreeing to join the Rolling Stones in 1963. He married Shirley Ann Shepherd in 1964 and they remained together until his death - the first regular member of the band to pass away since Jones in 1969.
While holding down the day job, Watts played in the evenings with Blues Incorporated led by Alexis Korner, alongside future Cream bassist Jack Bruce. He was replaced by future Cream drummer Ginger Baker when he left.
He played his first gig with the Stones at the Ealing Blues Club in West London with the six piece band that included pianist Ian Stewart, Wyman on bass and Jones on guitar.
Watts left the hell-raising that defined the Stones in the 1960s and '70s to the other members, but provided the heartbeat of the band, and with Wyman was considered one of the great rock rhythm sections.
"Charlie Watts was the ultimate drummer," Elton John posted on Twitter, calling this a very sad day. "The most stylish of men, and such brilliant company. My deepest condolences to Shirley, Seraphina and Charlotte. And of course, The Rolling Stones," he added mentioning Watts' wife, daughter and granddaughter.
Away from the Rolling Stones, Watts found the time to play jazz with several groups including a 32-piece band, the Charlie Watts Orchestra, as well as to work with pianist Stewart in the band Rocket 88 during the 1980s.
In the 1990s, the Charlie Watts Quintet released several albums, including a tribute to jazz great Charlie Parker. In 2004, the quintet expanded to become Charlie Watts and the Tentet.
'DIDN'T SUIT ME AT ALL'
While his bandmates entertained groupies on an epic scale, Watts indulged instead - he once told a radio interviewer - in a compulsive habit of sketching every new hotel room he occupied.
He did speak of a short period in the 1980s when he tried to deal with a mid-life crisis by bingeing on drink and drugs. "It was very short for me. I just stopped, it didn’t suit me at all," he told the Daily Mirror newspaper in 2012.
"I drank too much and took drugs. I went mad really. But I stopped it all. It was very easy for me."
In 2004, he was diagnosed with throat cancer, despite having quit smoking in the late 1980s, and underwent a course of radiotherapy. The cancer went into remission, and he returned to recording and touring with the Stones.
Despite newspaper accounts of a drunken spat with Jagger in the 1980s over whether the singer or the drummer was more important to a group, Watts was in a magnanimous mood when he spoke to the Guardian newspaper in 2013.
"Mick is the show, really, we back him," he said, adding however, "but Mick wouldn’t dance well if the sound was bad."
Watts was always known as a keen shopper and a snappy dresser. The Daily Telegraph once named him one of the World's Best Dressed Men and in 2006 Vanity Fair inducted him into the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame.
"It's supposed to be sex and drugs and rock and roll," he once said. "I'm not really like that."
Reporting by Kate Holton and Stephen Addison; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Bill Berkrot
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. (Greg: The Thompson family of Canada which owns Reuters is Canada's richest.)
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/rolling-stones-drummer-watts-dies-80-publicist-2021-08-24/
In that spat with Mick Jagger he punched him in the eye. I hope the band plays on with a tour in Charlies memory. Will be listening to Stones music today good thing I have the 5 CD alt. rock-n-roll collection.
=============================================================
Charlie Watts, 80, Recovering From Operation Pulls Out Of Rolling Stones Tour Steve Jordan Will Replace Him.
Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts told bandmate Ronnie Wood “the show must go on” after he had to pull out of their US tour.
Charlie Watts replaced by Steve Jordan for Rolling Stones Tour Due to Medical Procedure
Guitarist Ronnie, 74, said: “I will miss Charlie on our upcoming tour, but he told me the show must go on.
“I’m really looking forward to Charlie getting back on stage with us as soon as he’s fully recovered. A huge thank you to the band’s old friend Steve Jordan for rockin’ on in Charlie’s place.”
Keith Richards, 77, added: “This has been a bit of a blow to all of us, to say the least, and we’re all wishing for Charlie to have a speedy recovery.” (Mirror)
Singer Sir Mick Jagger, 78, said they look forward to welcoming Charlie back “as soon as he is fully recovered”.
A spokesperson for the musician said in a statement to PEOPLE that doctors have concluded Watts, 80, “now needs proper rest and recuperation” from a procedure he had that was “completely successful.” (People)
Watts, who underwent treatment for throat cancer in 2004, will be replaced by understudy Steve Jordan.
VIDEO STORY] STEVE JORDAN by Corrado Bertonazzi – Il Pianeta dei Batteristi
steve jordan
“For once my timing has been a little off,” Watts said in a statement. “I am working hard to get fully fit but I have today accepted on the advice of the experts that this will take a while.”
“After all the fans’ suffering caused by Covid I really do not want the many RS fans who have been holding tickets for this tour to be disappointed by another postponement or cancellation,” he said. “I have therefore asked my great friend Steve Jordan to stand in for me.”
Recently the Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts has adopted a five-year-old greyhound during the coronavirus pandemic. (Dailymail)
The 78-year-old musician and his wife Shirley have welcomed new pet Suzie – who was rescued by the Forever Hounds Trust – into their home.
And the organisation admit they were delighted to help them find the right pet pooch to give a home to.
Lovely: The Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts has adopted five-year-old greyhound Suzie (pictured) during the coronavirus pandemic
In a statement, Jan Lake – Chair of Trustees for Forever Hounds Trust – said: ‘It’s a really difficult time for everyone at the moment, and that includes animal rescue charities as well.
‘There are still so many dogs that need our help but due to the extra precautions we have to take due to the coronavirus pandemic rescuing, rehabilitating and re-homing a dog is a much lengthier process than it has been previously.
‘We are still able to home dogs, but we can only do it in certain circumstances. Luckily Shirley and Charlie are well-known to the charity and we were able to find the right dog for their family.’
New owners: The 78-year-old musician and his wife Shirley have welcomed new pet Suzie – who was rescued by the Forever Hounds Trust – into their home
The drummer’s wife is a long-time supporter of the charity, which looks to find the best fit for each dog and potential family.
Although there are added difficulties due to the ongoing health crisis, the trust is continuing to do the best it can.
Jan added: ‘It’s so important that we keep working to rescue dogs throughout this period as there is no let-up in the number needing our help and as soon as we find a home for one there is another needing the space in our kennels and foster homes.’
=============================================================
From Springsteen to ‘Letterman,’ Rolling Stones’ Touring Drummer Has Rich Musical History
Steve Jordan’s new gig filling in for Charlie Watts is just the latest in a decades-long career working with rock royalty
NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 20: Steve Jordan performs during rehearsals for 'The Music of Van Morrison' show at City Winery on March 20, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Al Pereira/Getty Images)
Steve Jordan performs during rehearsals for 'The Music of Van Morrison' show at City Winery on March 20, 2019 in New York City.
Al Pereira/Getty Images
Wednesday’s announcement that Charlie Watts would be sitting out the upcoming Rolling Stones tour was jarring; for the first time since 1963, Watts (who is recovering from an unspecified surgical procedure) won’t be behind the drum kit. But the least surprising news was the person who’ll be filling in for him. Although not a bold-face name to some, Steve Jordan has had a connection with the band that dates back decades — to Richards’ X-Pensive Winos and even one of the Stones’ own albums.
As a name in album credits, Jordan, 64, has been familiar to anyone who’s owned records by Keith Richards (all his solo work), John Mayer, Stevie Nicks, Bruce Springsteen, the Blues Brothers (the John Belushi/Dan Aykroyd project), and many more. Sharp-eyed TV watchers may recall Jordan as the drummer in the house bands of Saturday Night Live (1977-78) and Late Night with David Letterman (1982-86). Before that, Jordan also played in Stevie Wonder’s band Wonderlove and contributed to a slew of R&B, jazz and fusion albums.
During that same period, Jordan explored a blend of pop, funk and fusion with the 24th Street Band, which also featured guitarist Hiram Bullock and bassist Will Lee, among others. Paul Shaffer co-produced one of their albums, leading to a major leap in Jordan’s career. “The situation came up when Paul was asked to be musical director of Letterman,” Jordan told Rolling Stone in 2011. “He called me and wanted to pick my brain about what to do. I said, ‘Look, if we get Will and Hiram, we have a band.’”
Dubbed the World’s Most Dangerous Band, that quartet became Letterman’s in-house combo, backing almost all of the show’s musical guests during those early years. “Little Richard was amazing,” Jordan told RS. “I remember him playing amazing piano and afterward walking down the hall and coming up to me and hugging me. And saying, ‘I love the way you feel!’ I didn’t know how to take that. But it was the thrill of a lifetime to play with him.”
The highlight, Jordan said, was backing James Brown. “We did ‘Sex Machine’ and it was incredible. He was scat singing at the end. He kind of took over the show. We were playing James Brown tunes on the breaks. If you look at the tape, he’s completely blown away by the end and is looking at Dave and saying, ‘I see why you got the hottest show, David!’ He points to Dave, and Dave is completely confused and says, ‘I’m gonna play “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag.”‘ We only rehearsed two songs with him but he was so comfortable with us so we closed with ‘I Got the Feelin'” even though we only rehearsed two songs with him. Afterwards, I went into the dressing room and he grabbed me and said, ‘Brother, you’re high–your energy is high!’ I walk into James’ dressing room to shake his hand and get an autograph. It looks like he’s sitting on a throne with a crown. But it’s a dyer to blow out his hair, which had gotten wet from the sweat. Behind the dryer was Al Sharpton. It was like a dream.”
Jordan also said he introduced Letterman to Bruce Springsteen when the two men, and Late Night writer/producer Merrill Markoe, went to a show at the Meadowlands Arena in New Jersey during this time. The exposure Jordan received from that gig led him to become one of rock’s in-demand session drummers. “I got a lot of work because people got to hear me every night,” he said. “I wasn’t contractually bound like Paul. So I could go off for a week of absence and play with Neil Young or Stevie Nicks or the Stones. I would leave the show and then come back.”
During that period, Jordan contributed to albums by Donald Fagen (The Nightfly) and Nicks (Rock a Little) as well as the Pretenders’ “Don’t Get Me Wrong.” His pairing with Neil Young in 1989 was particularly triumphant. When Young blasted out “Rockin’ in the Free World on SNL that year — one of the most electrifying live performances on that show, if not all of live music on TV — Jordan was right there with him, slamming away on his kit.
But Jordan’s longest-running association has been with the Stones. According to Richards in his memoir Life, Watts first took notice of Jordan’s kinetic playing on SNL in 1978. Years later, when Richards was asked to produce a remake of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” for Aretha Franklin, he remembered Watts’ recommendation and recruited Jordan for that track.
The bond between Richards and Jordan came in doubly handy when the Stones assembled to make the troubled Dirty Work album in the mid-Eighties — a period when Watts was struggling with drug and alcohol problems. “Jordan came to hang out in the studio, and then played on the album, filling in for Charlie, who was having a wobble of his own, carried away for a time on various stupefiants, as the French have it.” (The album credits don’t specify which tracks Jordan contributed to.)
When Richards started his first solo album, 1988’s Talk Is Cheap, he and Jordan became full-on collaborators and hang-out buddies — writing songs together and co-producing the album. “I’d never really written with anybody on a long-term basis except Mick, and I wasn’t really writing much with Mick anymore,” Richards wrote. “…And I didn’t realize until I worked with Steve Jordan how much I’d missed that. And how important it was to collaborate.” Richards eventually dubbed the band — which also included Drayton, guitarist Waddy Wachtel, and keyboardist Ivan Neville — the X-Pensive Winos.
As Jordan recalled in the same book of those early jams with Richards, “The first time we went in there, we played 12 hours straight. Keith didn’t even go out and take a piss!”
In the decades since, Jordan — a multi-instrumentalist and singer, as well — continued working with Richards on his outside-Stones projects, was in the John Mayer Trio (with Mayer and bassist Pino Palladino), and played on albums by Bruno Mars, Kelly Clarkson, Alicia Keys, and Springsteen (Devils & Dust and Wrecking Ball). He also formed a band, the Verbs, with wife and singer Meegan Voss, which has recorded several albums.
Next year, another period of Jordan’s past may return with the release of Young’s archival album Road of Plenty, which will include tracks Young cut in the studio with Jordan, Crazy Horse guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro, and bassist Charley Drayton in New York in 1989. The album will supposedly include the original studio version of “Fuckin’ Up” with those players.
As Jordan later said, “I learned a long time ago that writing songs is very important. I used to read album credits, and I saw that Al Jackson wrote [Al Green’s] ‘Let’s Stay Together’ with Willie Mitchell. And I thought, ‘Well, he must be an actual writer, because you don’t get paid as a writer just for playing a great beat’ – even though sometimes I think you should.”
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/steve-jordan-charlie-watts-rolling-stone-1207907/
By Kate Holton
Keith Richards (R), Ronnie Wood (L) and Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones perform during their "Latin America Ole Tour" at the Foro Sol in Mexico City, Mexico March 14, 2016. Picture taken on March 14. REUTERS/Henry Romero
Charlie Watts of British veteran rockers The Rolling Stones performs with his band members Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Ronnie Wood during a concert on their "Latin America Ole Tour" in Santiago, Chile February 3, 2016. REUTERS/Rodrigo Garrido/File Photo
The Rolling Stones (L-R) Ronnie Wood, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts pose as they arrive for the opening of the new exhibit "Exhibitionism: The Rolling Stones" in the Manhattan borough of New York City, U.S., November 15, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar
Charlie Watts of British veteran rockers The Rolling Stones performs with his band members Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Ronnie Wood during a concert on their "Latin America Ole Tour" in Santiago, Chile February 3, 2016. REUTERS/Rodrigo Garrido/File Photo
LONDON, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, widely regarded as one of the coolest men in rock, a jazz enthusiast and snappy dresser during nearly 60 years with the band, has died, his spokesperson told Reuters on Tuesday.
He was 80 years old.
"It is with immense sadness that we announce the death of our beloved Charlie Watts. He passed away peacefully in a London hospital earlier today surrounded by his family," the spokesperson said.
"Charlie was a cherished husband, father and grandfather and also as a member of The Rolling Stones one of the greatest drummers of his generation."
Report ad
Among the first British bands to properly break the American market and a symbol of 1960s London, the Rolling Stones lineup of Watts, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones and Bill Wyman produced an extensive string of major hit records. The Stones also went on to break records with multimillion-pound grossing global tours that continue to this day.
Watts played drums on all of the group's 30 albums and on every tour, until he pulled out of the 13-date "No Filter" U.S. tour due to start this September after an emergency medical procedure.
"God bless Charlie Watts, we're going to miss you man, peace and love to the family, Ringo," former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr tweeted.
Watts was born in 1941 during World War Two and grew up in the Wembley area of northwest London, attending Harrow school of Art before starting work as a graphic artist with an advertising agency.
Unlike his bandmates, Watts had been in a successful group before agreeing to join the Rolling Stones in 1963. He married Shirley Ann Shepherd in 1964 and they remained together until his death - the first regular member of the band to pass away since Jones in 1969.
While holding down the day job, Watts played in the evenings with Blues Incorporated led by Alexis Korner, alongside future Cream bassist Jack Bruce. He was replaced by future Cream drummer Ginger Baker when he left.
He played his first gig with the Stones at the Ealing Blues Club in West London with the six piece band that included pianist Ian Stewart, Wyman on bass and Jones on guitar.
Watts left the hell-raising that defined the Stones in the 1960s and '70s to the other members, but provided the heartbeat of the band, and with Wyman was considered one of the great rock rhythm sections.
"Charlie Watts was the ultimate drummer," Elton John posted on Twitter, calling this a very sad day. "The most stylish of men, and such brilliant company. My deepest condolences to Shirley, Seraphina and Charlotte. And of course, The Rolling Stones," he added mentioning Watts' wife, daughter and granddaughter.
Away from the Rolling Stones, Watts found the time to play jazz with several groups including a 32-piece band, the Charlie Watts Orchestra, as well as to work with pianist Stewart in the band Rocket 88 during the 1980s.
In the 1990s, the Charlie Watts Quintet released several albums, including a tribute to jazz great Charlie Parker. In 2004, the quintet expanded to become Charlie Watts and the Tentet.
'DIDN'T SUIT ME AT ALL'
While his bandmates entertained groupies on an epic scale, Watts indulged instead - he once told a radio interviewer - in a compulsive habit of sketching every new hotel room he occupied.
He did speak of a short period in the 1980s when he tried to deal with a mid-life crisis by bingeing on drink and drugs. "It was very short for me. I just stopped, it didn’t suit me at all," he told the Daily Mirror newspaper in 2012.
"I drank too much and took drugs. I went mad really. But I stopped it all. It was very easy for me."
In 2004, he was diagnosed with throat cancer, despite having quit smoking in the late 1980s, and underwent a course of radiotherapy. The cancer went into remission, and he returned to recording and touring with the Stones.
Despite newspaper accounts of a drunken spat with Jagger in the 1980s over whether the singer or the drummer was more important to a group, Watts was in a magnanimous mood when he spoke to the Guardian newspaper in 2013.
"Mick is the show, really, we back him," he said, adding however, "but Mick wouldn’t dance well if the sound was bad."
Watts was always known as a keen shopper and a snappy dresser. The Daily Telegraph once named him one of the World's Best Dressed Men and in 2006 Vanity Fair inducted him into the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame.
"It's supposed to be sex and drugs and rock and roll," he once said. "I'm not really like that."
Reporting by Kate Holton and Stephen Addison; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Bill Berkrot
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. (Greg: The Thompson family of Canada which owns Reuters is Canada's richest.)
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/rolling-stones-drummer-watts-dies-80-publicist-2021-08-24/
In that spat with Mick Jagger he punched him in the eye. I hope the band plays on with a tour in Charlies memory. Will be listening to Stones music today good thing I have the 5 CD alt. rock-n-roll collection.
=============================================================
Charlie Watts, 80, Recovering From Operation Pulls Out Of Rolling Stones Tour Steve Jordan Will Replace Him.
Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts told bandmate Ronnie Wood “the show must go on” after he had to pull out of their US tour.
Charlie Watts replaced by Steve Jordan for Rolling Stones Tour Due to Medical Procedure
Guitarist Ronnie, 74, said: “I will miss Charlie on our upcoming tour, but he told me the show must go on.
“I’m really looking forward to Charlie getting back on stage with us as soon as he’s fully recovered. A huge thank you to the band’s old friend Steve Jordan for rockin’ on in Charlie’s place.”
Keith Richards, 77, added: “This has been a bit of a blow to all of us, to say the least, and we’re all wishing for Charlie to have a speedy recovery.” (Mirror)
Singer Sir Mick Jagger, 78, said they look forward to welcoming Charlie back “as soon as he is fully recovered”.
A spokesperson for the musician said in a statement to PEOPLE that doctors have concluded Watts, 80, “now needs proper rest and recuperation” from a procedure he had that was “completely successful.” (People)
Watts, who underwent treatment for throat cancer in 2004, will be replaced by understudy Steve Jordan.
VIDEO STORY] STEVE JORDAN by Corrado Bertonazzi – Il Pianeta dei Batteristi
steve jordan
“For once my timing has been a little off,” Watts said in a statement. “I am working hard to get fully fit but I have today accepted on the advice of the experts that this will take a while.”
“After all the fans’ suffering caused by Covid I really do not want the many RS fans who have been holding tickets for this tour to be disappointed by another postponement or cancellation,” he said. “I have therefore asked my great friend Steve Jordan to stand in for me.”
Recently the Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts has adopted a five-year-old greyhound during the coronavirus pandemic. (Dailymail)
The 78-year-old musician and his wife Shirley have welcomed new pet Suzie – who was rescued by the Forever Hounds Trust – into their home.
And the organisation admit they were delighted to help them find the right pet pooch to give a home to.
Lovely: The Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts has adopted five-year-old greyhound Suzie (pictured) during the coronavirus pandemic
In a statement, Jan Lake – Chair of Trustees for Forever Hounds Trust – said: ‘It’s a really difficult time for everyone at the moment, and that includes animal rescue charities as well.
‘There are still so many dogs that need our help but due to the extra precautions we have to take due to the coronavirus pandemic rescuing, rehabilitating and re-homing a dog is a much lengthier process than it has been previously.
‘We are still able to home dogs, but we can only do it in certain circumstances. Luckily Shirley and Charlie are well-known to the charity and we were able to find the right dog for their family.’
New owners: The 78-year-old musician and his wife Shirley have welcomed new pet Suzie – who was rescued by the Forever Hounds Trust – into their home
The drummer’s wife is a long-time supporter of the charity, which looks to find the best fit for each dog and potential family.
Although there are added difficulties due to the ongoing health crisis, the trust is continuing to do the best it can.
Jan added: ‘It’s so important that we keep working to rescue dogs throughout this period as there is no let-up in the number needing our help and as soon as we find a home for one there is another needing the space in our kennels and foster homes.’
=============================================================
From Springsteen to ‘Letterman,’ Rolling Stones’ Touring Drummer Has Rich Musical History
Steve Jordan’s new gig filling in for Charlie Watts is just the latest in a decades-long career working with rock royalty
NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 20: Steve Jordan performs during rehearsals for 'The Music of Van Morrison' show at City Winery on March 20, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Al Pereira/Getty Images)
Steve Jordan performs during rehearsals for 'The Music of Van Morrison' show at City Winery on March 20, 2019 in New York City.
Al Pereira/Getty Images
Wednesday’s announcement that Charlie Watts would be sitting out the upcoming Rolling Stones tour was jarring; for the first time since 1963, Watts (who is recovering from an unspecified surgical procedure) won’t be behind the drum kit. But the least surprising news was the person who’ll be filling in for him. Although not a bold-face name to some, Steve Jordan has had a connection with the band that dates back decades — to Richards’ X-Pensive Winos and even one of the Stones’ own albums.
As a name in album credits, Jordan, 64, has been familiar to anyone who’s owned records by Keith Richards (all his solo work), John Mayer, Stevie Nicks, Bruce Springsteen, the Blues Brothers (the John Belushi/Dan Aykroyd project), and many more. Sharp-eyed TV watchers may recall Jordan as the drummer in the house bands of Saturday Night Live (1977-78) and Late Night with David Letterman (1982-86). Before that, Jordan also played in Stevie Wonder’s band Wonderlove and contributed to a slew of R&B, jazz and fusion albums.
During that same period, Jordan explored a blend of pop, funk and fusion with the 24th Street Band, which also featured guitarist Hiram Bullock and bassist Will Lee, among others. Paul Shaffer co-produced one of their albums, leading to a major leap in Jordan’s career. “The situation came up when Paul was asked to be musical director of Letterman,” Jordan told Rolling Stone in 2011. “He called me and wanted to pick my brain about what to do. I said, ‘Look, if we get Will and Hiram, we have a band.’”
Dubbed the World’s Most Dangerous Band, that quartet became Letterman’s in-house combo, backing almost all of the show’s musical guests during those early years. “Little Richard was amazing,” Jordan told RS. “I remember him playing amazing piano and afterward walking down the hall and coming up to me and hugging me. And saying, ‘I love the way you feel!’ I didn’t know how to take that. But it was the thrill of a lifetime to play with him.”
The highlight, Jordan said, was backing James Brown. “We did ‘Sex Machine’ and it was incredible. He was scat singing at the end. He kind of took over the show. We were playing James Brown tunes on the breaks. If you look at the tape, he’s completely blown away by the end and is looking at Dave and saying, ‘I see why you got the hottest show, David!’ He points to Dave, and Dave is completely confused and says, ‘I’m gonna play “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag.”‘ We only rehearsed two songs with him but he was so comfortable with us so we closed with ‘I Got the Feelin'” even though we only rehearsed two songs with him. Afterwards, I went into the dressing room and he grabbed me and said, ‘Brother, you’re high–your energy is high!’ I walk into James’ dressing room to shake his hand and get an autograph. It looks like he’s sitting on a throne with a crown. But it’s a dyer to blow out his hair, which had gotten wet from the sweat. Behind the dryer was Al Sharpton. It was like a dream.”
Jordan also said he introduced Letterman to Bruce Springsteen when the two men, and Late Night writer/producer Merrill Markoe, went to a show at the Meadowlands Arena in New Jersey during this time. The exposure Jordan received from that gig led him to become one of rock’s in-demand session drummers. “I got a lot of work because people got to hear me every night,” he said. “I wasn’t contractually bound like Paul. So I could go off for a week of absence and play with Neil Young or Stevie Nicks or the Stones. I would leave the show and then come back.”
During that period, Jordan contributed to albums by Donald Fagen (The Nightfly) and Nicks (Rock a Little) as well as the Pretenders’ “Don’t Get Me Wrong.” His pairing with Neil Young in 1989 was particularly triumphant. When Young blasted out “Rockin’ in the Free World on SNL that year — one of the most electrifying live performances on that show, if not all of live music on TV — Jordan was right there with him, slamming away on his kit.
But Jordan’s longest-running association has been with the Stones. According to Richards in his memoir Life, Watts first took notice of Jordan’s kinetic playing on SNL in 1978. Years later, when Richards was asked to produce a remake of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” for Aretha Franklin, he remembered Watts’ recommendation and recruited Jordan for that track.
The bond between Richards and Jordan came in doubly handy when the Stones assembled to make the troubled Dirty Work album in the mid-Eighties — a period when Watts was struggling with drug and alcohol problems. “Jordan came to hang out in the studio, and then played on the album, filling in for Charlie, who was having a wobble of his own, carried away for a time on various stupefiants, as the French have it.” (The album credits don’t specify which tracks Jordan contributed to.)
When Richards started his first solo album, 1988’s Talk Is Cheap, he and Jordan became full-on collaborators and hang-out buddies — writing songs together and co-producing the album. “I’d never really written with anybody on a long-term basis except Mick, and I wasn’t really writing much with Mick anymore,” Richards wrote. “…And I didn’t realize until I worked with Steve Jordan how much I’d missed that. And how important it was to collaborate.” Richards eventually dubbed the band — which also included Drayton, guitarist Waddy Wachtel, and keyboardist Ivan Neville — the X-Pensive Winos.
As Jordan recalled in the same book of those early jams with Richards, “The first time we went in there, we played 12 hours straight. Keith didn’t even go out and take a piss!”
In the decades since, Jordan — a multi-instrumentalist and singer, as well — continued working with Richards on his outside-Stones projects, was in the John Mayer Trio (with Mayer and bassist Pino Palladino), and played on albums by Bruno Mars, Kelly Clarkson, Alicia Keys, and Springsteen (Devils & Dust and Wrecking Ball). He also formed a band, the Verbs, with wife and singer Meegan Voss, which has recorded several albums.
Next year, another period of Jordan’s past may return with the release of Young’s archival album Road of Plenty, which will include tracks Young cut in the studio with Jordan, Crazy Horse guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro, and bassist Charley Drayton in New York in 1989. The album will supposedly include the original studio version of “Fuckin’ Up” with those players.
As Jordan later said, “I learned a long time ago that writing songs is very important. I used to read album credits, and I saw that Al Jackson wrote [Al Green’s] ‘Let’s Stay Together’ with Willie Mitchell. And I thought, ‘Well, he must be an actual writer, because you don’t get paid as a writer just for playing a great beat’ – even though sometimes I think you should.”
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/steve-jordan-charlie-watts-rolling-stone-1207907/
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