Charlie Watts once named the only performer better than Mick Jagger
The musical relationship between the late Charlie Watts and Mike Jagger bordered on telepathic. The Rolling Stones instinctively knew how the other would respond in any given situation, providing an edge to their performances that helped the group become the most electrifying live band on the planet.
For Watts, there was nobody in the world that he’d prefer to have shared a stage alongside than Jagger, and every performance was an utter joy. Despite playing in front of mammoth crowds for decades with The Stones, Watts was acutely aware that Jagger’s job came with a different type of pressure, which he wouldn’t have felt comfortable handling.
Although Jagger makes being a frontman look easy, it’s a craft he’s been carefully honing over the last 60 years since The Rolling Stones regularly frequented The Marquee in London. In the eyes of Watts, who viewed countless acts taken to the stage, he believed the star power of Jagger was in a different league from anybody else he’d witnessed live. However, there is one figure Watts believed was a greater performer during his peak.
During an appearance on the American television show 60 Minutes in 1994, Watts provided an intriguing insight into the dynamics of The Rolling Stones. He spoke adoringly about his bandmates, detailing the elements of their personality which made the band tick, and ran out of superlatives while discussing Jagger, who he saw as an almost unmatched talent.
Watts explained: “Keith is the leader, he is the heart. Mick is just the best frontman in the world. I mean that, the nicest possible way. I think he is the best thing on stage in the world, apart from James Brown, probably when he was younger.”
The drummer elaborated: “I mean actually working an audience, 50-60,000 people. Just standing in front of three guitar players or two guitar players and a bass player and singing. Mick is the best thing in the world I ever seen.”
Although Watts wasn’t fortunate enough to witness Brown perform in the flesh, he studied him immensely and held the singer incredibly high regard. However, despite his brilliance, Brown didn’t play to crowds the same size as Jagger and couldn’t compete in terms of longevity at the top.
Brown was a key source of inspiration for Jagger and Watts. During an interview with Mojo after the drummer’s death, The Rolling Stones frontman reflected on their partnership, likening it to Brown and his bandmate.
“He could play off my [vocal] riffs with the audience. If you’re a singer, you have a relationship with a drummer which is all about the dance, the accent you’re doing physically as well as vocally,” Jagger explained. “The most obvious example of that was when James Brown had a second drummer. All he’d do was hits when James moved his body or went, ‘Hey, hey.’ That guy just watched James, so if he kicked his leg in a certain way, he would accentuate it.”
It was a relationship that evolved over the years, and they eventually knew each other better than themselves musically. They were perfect partners for each other, and even if Watts was paired with Brown, he wouldn’t have flourished as much as he did alongside Jagger.
