The world lost a rock legend on August 24th, 2021, when Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts passed away at age 80. Although he is gone, his legacy will live on with the remaining band members revealing that they recorded some new music with Watts before he died.
The remaining members of the band Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood were working with Charlie to record a new Rolling stones album and revealed to the Los Angeles Times that they had a few songs finished.
“If everything hadn’t gotten closed down, we might’ve finished the damn thing,” Richards said, referring to the pandemic and the effect the associated closures had on recording an album.
“We have a lot of tracks done, so when the tour’s finished we’ll assess where we are with that and continue,” added Jaggar.
“Let me put it this way,” Richards chimed in. “You haven’t heard the last of Charlie Watts.”
The cause of Watt’s death hasn’t been disclosed. Watt’s was the drummer of Rolling stones from 1963 until his death this year. He has often been called the greatest drummer of all time.
“It is with immense sadness that we announce the death of our beloved Charlie Watts. He passed away peacefully in a London hospital earlier [Tuesday] surrounded by his family,” a spokesperson for the drummer said in a statement at the time.
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Reflecting on their bandmate and friend in the same Los Angeles Time interview, Richards and Jagger spoke fondly about Watts.
“Charlie was one of the funniest guys I’ve ever known,” Richards said
“I’m still trying to put it together in my head. I don’t think I can be very erudite on Charlie at the moment,” Richards continued. “[Watts was] the most unlikely man to be famous. He hated that side of the job and used to savagely take the piss out of it.”
“This is our first-ever tour we’ve ever done without him,” Jagger said. “We’ll miss Charlie so much, on and off the stage.”
The Rolling Stones are currently touring the US on the No Filter Tour, which started in September and runs until November 20th.
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