This story originally appeared on the Gents Cafe Newsletter. You can subscribe here.
“Close to Charlie’s drum kit in the studio, there was always a corner where he could hang his blazer. One could have said that he had come to the office.” This heartwarming anecdote, shared by longtime Rolling Stones chorist Lisa Fischer, appears in Paul Sexton’s authorized biography of Charlie Watts, Charlie’s Good Tonight. Charlie Watts was undoubtedly an atypical character among rock musicians in many ways. First, he always considered himself a jazz musician – jazz was his true love. Being the Rolling Stones’ drummer was just a job, though as he admitted, “a well paid job.”
Watts was also renowned for his understated and timeless elegance, a regular at legendary Savile Row tailor Huntsman and bespoke shoemaker George Cleverley, among others. Pictures of the band over the years consistently captured Charlie Watts as an outlier among the Stones. Yet he was more than just the image of a British gentleman in a double-breasted tweed suit; he embodied something deeper.
“A man out of his time but always perfectly in time.” These are the words Paul Sexton uses to summarize Charlie Watts in his biography. Indeed, Watts was literally always on time – over nearly sixty years, he never missed a beat. (Reportedly, he only ever missed one concert in 1964, due to a scheduling mix-up.) In comparison to his contemporaries, Charlie Watts was no Keith Moon. No disrespect to The Who’s phenomenal drummer, whose work on “5:15” is worth every listen, but Moon was unpredictable and mercurial. Playing with “Moon the Loon” was often a challenge.
In contrast, Charlie Watts was the embodiment of restraint, eschewing flamboyance or grandiosity. He never treated his drums as a lead instrument, but he had a quality even rarer: constancy. While his face often suggested detachment, as though saying, “I’m not really here,” he was in fact the band’s quiet engine—steady, reliable, always present. Mick, Keith, and the rest of the band could count on him, night after night, show after show. He never let them down. In a way, isn’t constancy the essence of being a gentleman?
Being a gentleman isn’t about shining brightly for one night or making a grand display of your best self. Sure, there are moments in life when we have the opportunity to stand out. But true gentlemanly behaviour is about how you act day in and day out. A gentleman is someone you can rely on, someone who cares for those around him. We all appreciate grand gestures, but it’s the small, daily acts of kindness that hold the most value. Perfection isn’t the goal – and Charlie Watts wasn’t perfect. But being a gentleman is a never-ending journey, one in which we continuously strive to improve ourselves and our treatment of others along the way.
