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Watts’ grandpa energy is manifest in hotel sock drawers arranged in strict colour order, late night walks alone through deserted cities, cordial drop-ins to fellow band members’ hotel rooms, and utter refusal of any form of idol worship that might jeopardise his route to the next art shop, record store, stud farm, cricket match or daily phone call home.
Sexton’s style is necessarily anecdotal, as major upheavals fail to materialise and grieving colleagues queue up with fond recollections. Well, OK, there are famously two dramatic incidents to the Watts legend, but there’s little to say about a wealthy man’s brief, private lapse into drug addiction during a spell out of the spotlight, especially when he pulls himself out of it sans rehab or tragedy. And the one about punching his lead singer on the nose in a New York hotel room falls a little flat when Jagger simply denies it ever happened.
Instead, we get to marvel at small, sweet incidents and peccadillos that define a more intriguing distinction. The way the master of feel instantly knows someone has been touching his drums after an engineer applies a teeny quarter-turn to his snare skin, for example. Or the time in front of a squillion-strong crowd when he beckons his drum tech Don McAulay in the middle of Waiting on a Friend not for technical assistance, but to ask after his ailing father.
Of course, this is the only kind of book that could emerge from the inner sanctum so soon after the passing of such a universally adored musician. But with ego and decadence effectively subtracted from the legend, it’s impossible not to be moved by the true backbone of the Rolling Stones operation: a genuine and ever-expanding family bond that relishes its opulence, yes, but never at the expense of somebody’s birthday.
The rest of us can take comfort forever in the records that he never listened to. But to fully appreciate the grandpa energy enveloping all those here that he loved so dearly, from the lead singer he probably never actually punched to the granddaughter who made his final tours such a joy, makes the loss of Charlie Watts almost too much to bear.
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