Nick Cave recalls awkward airport encounter with Charlie Watts

Nick Cave has paid tribute to the late Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, sharing an anecdote of their awkward encounter ten years ago. 

As per Consequence of Sound, the Bad Seeds frontman used his latest update of his personal website The Red Hand Files to remember Watts, and he was unafraid to divulge a rather embarrassing meeting between the pair.

In the blog post, Cave recalled the time when he had to rush to Heathrow Airport straight from the gym before he had any chance to clean himself up. “I needed to have a piss so I stopped at the bathrooms and as I walked back out, in my tiny tracksuit, my giant white trainers and my bucket hat, there, walking toward me, was Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones,” Cave wrote.

“He had silver hair and was dressed in an elegant pearl-grey three piece suit, a button down checked shirt and a tie. He literally glowed with a kind of inner serenity, and as we passed each other we locked eyes for a moment and he smiled at me — not an unkind smile, but not a kind one either, rather the impassive look one animal might give to another in the wild, that signalled their complete and total supremacy.”

Cave continued: “As I watched Charlie Watts disappear into the crowd, I rearranged my bucket hat, and thought, ‘There goes a truly great drummer,’ which is what I thought when I heard the news this week of his passing — ‘There goes a truly great drummer.’”

Watts died on August 24th at the age of 80. Cave’s touching remembrance is the latest tribute to the quiet man of the Stones. Everyone from Keith Richards to Questlove to Paul McCartney to Elton John have offered their thoughts on the legendary drummer’s passing.

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