The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards has revealed that he misses his late bandmate Charlie Watts “every day.”
Watts passed away in 2021 at the age of 80. Although his cause of death was never officially announced, Richards claimed that his bandmate had been battling cancer.
In an appearance on The Howard Stern Show, Richards explained that he pays tribute to Watts every day, who served as The Rolling Stones’ drummer from 1963 until his death.
“I miss Charlie every day. As I come out of my bedroom, the first thing I see is a portrait of Charlie on the staircase — I always give him a salute on the way. Charlie Watts was a solid guy,” he explained.
Remembering his beloved friend, Richards said, “He had feel, he had intelligence, rock and roll doesn’t necessarily need the whole battery of drums, it’s got to do with when to not hit… if you’re making music, silence is your canvas.”
“He would throw in ideas that you hadn’t really thought of [and] at the same time, such a solid beat. I never had to worry about anything, which gives the rest of us the freedom to, like, fly,” Richards added.
Ahead of the release of The Rolling Stones’ new album Hackney Diamonds on October 20th, Richards also recently discussed how his style of guitar playing has changed since his arthritis diagnosis.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme in an interview: “Funnily enough, I’ve no doubt it has, but I don’t have any pain: it’s a sort of benign version. I think if I’ve slowed down a little bit it’s probably due more to age.”
The guitarist continued: “And also, I found that interesting, when I’m like, ‘I can’t quite do that any more,’ the guitar will show me there’s another way of doing this. Some finger will go one space different and there’s a whole new door just opened here. And so you’re always learning. You never finish school, man.”
Watch the clip from The Howard Stern Show below.
