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Exclusive: Steve Jordan—In Charlie Watts’s Chair on the Rolling Stones Tour—On Keef, Mick…and the Beatles

If, for some reason, you haven’t already watched it a hundred times, go to YouTube and check out the clip of James Brown performing on Late Night With David Letterman in 1982. It may well be the most riveting live-television musical performance of all time, as the Godfather of Soul runs through “Sex Machine” with the World’s Most Dangerous Band (supplemented by two of Brown’s horn players) at a tempo and intensity that is outright maniacal. The groove, let us say, is relentless. It’s also perfect. The drummer providing it is obscured by Brown and the band. You barely catch a glimpse of him, but it doesn’t matter. It’s obvious that everything is emanating from him. His name is Steve Jordan.

It’s a handy metaphor for Jordan’s career: You might not see him, but you feel him. In some ways, he is the ultimate musician’s musician, one of those names that come up whenever obsessives are talking about their favorite drummers. (“Bonham?” “No, Earl Palmer!” “Wait, Hal Blaine!” “Art Blakey!” “Keltner!”) Jordan’s career took off when he joined the Saturday Night Live band in 1977, just out of his teens, when it looked like he was barely old enough to shave. John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd then tapped him to provide a pile-driving backbeat for the Blues Brothers. For the next 40 years (Jordan is now 64), it seemed like whenever you needed the guy to play drums on your record or for a tour or for a gala event, Jordan—who also happens to be a producer, songwriter, arranger, and musical director—got the call. Those calls tended to come from artists like Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Stevie Nicks, Sonny Rollins, Sheryl Crow, Ashford & Simpson, John Mayer, and Alicia Keys.

Last summer, the call came from the Rolling Stones: the invitation to fill in for Charlie Watts on the band’s No Filter Tour. Watts had been sidelined with a health issue; in August, as the world knows, he died, at age 80. With the tour now underway (next stops: Nashville and L.A.), Jordan took a break to chat by phone with Vanity Fair about his long association with Keith Richards (solo albums going back to the 1980s), Mick Jagger ’s supergalactic charisma, the everlasting brilliance of his friend Charlie Watts, and a certain band from Liverpool.

Vanity Fair : You’re clearly the man for the job. How’s it been going so far?

Steve Jordan : Oh, man. It’s pretty wild. Pretty surreal. The whole thing…. I definitely have the best seat in the house! No question.

You’ve had a relationship with the Stones going back at least to the Dirty Work album, in 1986. Is that how you started working with Keith on his solo projects?

Well, that was our first working introduction. But I’d met Charlie when I was in the Saturday Night Liv e band. The Stones did the first show of the fourth season [October 7, 1978]. On that show, security was very high. There were a lot less backstage VIP passes for that week. Everybody obviously wanted to be around the band. It was coming off of [the album] Some Girls . That was a new chapter and a re-explosion, so to speak, of the band.

The Yankees were playing the Royals in the playoffs that night, which was the most important thing in life to me. [Jordan, who grew up in New York City, was a Yankees fan.] I didn’t really care what else was going on. So I just asked somebody to get me an autograph of the band. I didn’t want to try to hang out, meet the band. The Yankees were the priority! As it turns out, it was Charlie who got me the autographs. I ended up hanging out with Charlie in the dressing room and we watched the game together. I was explaining baseball to him. He said, “Oh, it’s like a combination of rounders and cricket!” That’s how we first met.

You go back over 40 years with Charlie? So how did your association with Dirty Work come about?

In 1985 I was in Paris doing a record with a Duran Duran offshoot called Arcadia, with Simon Le Bon and Nick Rhodes. We had a night off and the crew said, “We’re gonna hook up with some of the guys from the Stones.” Because they were recording at Pathé Marconi. And I said, “Could you get a message to Charlie? Just tell him I’m here and I say hello.” The message got to him, and he invited me to the studio. When I walked into Pathé Marconi, I went in the control room, and they were set up like they were playing live. I realized just then that that was the first time I’d really seen the Rolling Stones play live in person. My eyes started to well up. I couldn't believe it, because there was nobody there. It was only, like, Ron Wood’s wife, Keith’s dad, the engineer [Dave Jerden]… and me.

It was incredible. And I took a lot of lessons from that night into my recording practice. So they all greeted me after they finished playing—and then Charlie asked me to play. I said to him, “Absolutely not. I will not play. I’m a Rolling Stones fan. As a fan, if you are alive and well and I play and you could have played, well, I’d shoot the guy who played.” So I said, “I’ll play percussion with you or something like that.” Sometimes I played a little high hat. Sometimes a little bass drum. Sometimes a shaker. And maracas, of course. Maracas are a very important part of the Rolling Stones sound!

So I would work with Arcadia during the day, and then the Stones would start at midnight and I would go with them until, like, eight in the morning. I learned a lot about the inner workings of the Stones.

What’s it like working with Keith? You’ve had a relationship with him that goes beyond playing drums. There’s so much collaboration and friendship there.

Very few people that I’ve ever worked with in my life are more committed to music than Keith Richards. He’s really committed to the music. That’s the most important thing about Keith. He loves the Rolling Stones, and everything revolves around that music.

There’s a sense that what made the Stones’ sound unique was that Keith led the rhythm section, creating the groove with his guitar, and that Charlie followed—the opposite of the way we assume things usually proceed.

The way that he and Keith locked in—that’s really the engine room of the Rolling Stones, the guitar and drums. Not the bass and drums or the bass and guitar. No, it’s Keith and the drums.

Beyond that, the Stones always had a very tight bond. First of all, they loved the same type of music. Their love for Chicago blues, in particular, is the backbone of the band. I mean, Mick loves Little Walter. We jam on Little Walter sometimes. I don’t think people really understand the deep level of love for blues and jazz that the band has, especially Charlie’s love for jazz. Which is the reason why he approached the music the way he did. But rock ‘n’ roll has swing , you know? The drummers who invented rock ‘n’ roll, like Earl Palmer and Fred Below, they were jazz drummers. Earl Palmer, all he wanted to do was be Max Roach! Benny Benjamin, Motown genius, comes from jazz. Al Jackson comes from jazz. They all did.

That connects to your own playing, which ranges from rock ‘n’ roll to jazz; it’s something you have in common with Charlie—a shared passion, a shared lineage, even.

Basically, that’s why it’s not foreign to me how he played, what he played, and what drove him. So it’s very natural. But, you know, I’ve been listening to these records since I was eight years old. Some of those “fills” or whatever are embedded in my DNA. I can’t listen to the song without playing the exact fill that Charlie played, because that’s part of how you breathe, you know? People equate hooks to guitar lines or vocal melodies. But there are hooks in drums, too. And Charlie played a lot of hooks. And if you don’t play the hooks, then you’re not playing the song. So it’s imperative that I quote and play these hooks. I’m not trying to do an impersonation. It’s just part of the song. And that’s not going to go away. I’m always going to do that as long as I’m playing with these guys. But it’s got to feel great. It’s got to swing. And they all know how to swing.

It’s not an “impersonation.” So are you playing as Steve Jordan or as Steve Jordan as Charlie Watts or… Basically, how do you approach this?

The last time I saw them play, in Chicago [in 2019], I was amazed at how Charlie sounded. He sounded so good. And, you know, for me, my approach is I go back to the original stuff on the records and then work my way back, as opposed to trying to pick up where the band left off in 2019. Because I would say a good portion of the original recordings have been abandoned over time, which is a natural evolution. They don’t want to play it the same way for 50 years. But I can’t come in and start playing it like that. I have to come from the beginning and work my way through it. Because I’m coming from: “I’m a fan.” And as a fan I know what I’d like to hear. And sometimes I want to hear the band play the parts that they had long stopped playing. So I’m going to play it how it is on the record I loved and bought when I was a kid. So we’ve been able to implement some of the original flavor [on tracks such as “Satisfaction” and “Paint It, Black”] and make it work. And where it doesn’t work, we don’t make it work. We do something different. So that’s part of the discovery and rediscovery of this music, and basically a way to honor Charlie.

What were some of your earliest experiences listening to the Stones and records in general?

Well, I remember the first time I heard “Honky Tonk Women.” I thought it was one of the funkiest things I ever heard in my life! It’s funky . Period. And I remember hearing “Brown Sugar” for the first time. I just played it over and over again.

I collected records from a very, very early age. The culture I grew up with, it was music all the time. My dad was listening to Miles Davis. My mom listened to all types of music. And they were always supportive of music. I started collecting records, like, three years old? My parents got me a record rack. And if I was good, they would get me a 45 and I would make my own charts up. “This is the number one record this week!” I just loved records. I started DJ-ing for the adults—my parents, my aunts and uncles. And then I DJ-ed for my classmates on school trips. I had a Panasonic battery-operated portable record player that I would carry around. That I still have! So records are everything to me. The first album I ever got was Henry Mancini's Peter Gunn . The sound of that record is something that’s indelible. And I was a big Chubby Checker fan and got all of his records—“The Twist,” “Let’s Twist Again,” “The Fly,” all of that stuff. And then of course I got all Motown, all Stax, Atlantic, and all things James Brown.

Dare I ask, how about the Beatles?

I was a complete Beatle fanatic! When I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan [in 1964], it changed my life. Many times in class I was drawing the Beatles onstage and not doing my schoolwork. I’d just be drawing the Beatles logo and Ringo behind the kit and stuff like that. So I’m growing up listening to Ringo Starr in my right ear and Tony Williams in my left ear!

How do the Stones feel about your unabashed Beatlemania?

Well, you know, as a kid you had to make the choice: You couldn’t be a Beatles fan and a Stones fan. You were forced to make a choice. That’s how it was then. So I chose the Beatles. And for the longest time when I started working with Keith, I couldn’t have him over to my apartment, because it was like a Beatles museum! Which I guess was a little strange—like, I’m in my twenties [at the time] so maybe I should be growing up a little bit! And we’re working right around the block, literally. One day I finally say, “Okay,” and Keith comes over. He comes in, and he looks, and he just starts laughing. The next day, he sends me four Beatle figurines, like the kind you get in those novelty stores in Times Square!

Of course, we now know that the Stones and Beatles were pals. Keith and John Lennon had an interesting friendship, which Keith wrote about it in his memoir, Life .

Yeah. I’ve picked Keith’s brain about his relationship with John. And he would describe stories to me of him with John. And he would describe them vividly. Of which I felt: that’s as close to John as I was ever going to get.

Charlie was famous for using a Gretsch kit. How did that influence your decisions about the kit you’re using on this tour?

First of all, there was no question it had to be Gretsch drums, because that’s the sound of the band. So that was a no-brainer. But I wasn’t going to go and use exactly what he was using, because, you know, this is not a Stones karaoke band. I’m going to do my thing: I’m going to approach it in the way I want to hear the Stones. One of my favorite periods of the Stones was when all hell was breaking loose as far as their sound [in] live [performance], between ’71 and ’75. I just loved that period. They were on fire. So that’s what I’m hearkening back to. Charlie was using the black Gretsch kit then. So I looked at that set up and that was the treatment I wanted. I’m basically doing my version of that with a little bigger bass drum, a 24-inch bass drum. [Watts used a 22-inch bass drum.] That’s my set up. And I have a clear view of Keith without a cymbal in my way and I can really see Mick.

Talk about having a great perspective on the band! How do you find the chemistry of the Rolling Stones observing it from the drum riser?

A funny thing is, as many Stones concerts as I’ve seen, and I’ve seen a few, I’d never seen an entire show, because you either arrive at a certain time or you’re backstage or you leave before the encore, whatever. So in St. Louis when we played the first show [on September 26], that was actually the first Stones show that I ever saw in its entirety! So I’m playing, and I’m looking at the show, and I’m like, Wow, this is really cool! And then I’m like, Wait a minute, I’m in the show! Better snap out of it!

The magic is just palpable—the interplay between Keith and Woody, and the connection that you have to have with Mick, no matter if he’s eight million miles away from you, you know? The whole thing.

Overall, how’s the reception from the fans?

Obviously, we know that we’re under a microscope. So, there’s that. And then there’s people who don’t approve of them going out without Charlie. And people who are excited about me doing it. And also there are people that don’t understand that I lost a friend. So they’re happy for me but they don’t understand that I’d rather not have this be the case. But the Rolling Stones have really, really done everything in their power to make the transition smooth and sympathetic and empathetic. They’ve been cognizant of everyone’s feelings. I personally appreciate that.

Going back to last summer, you were invited to fill in for Charlie until he got better. But in August, the gig really changed when Charlie died. It was obviously a pretty devastating moment.

It was a complete and utter shock, just devastating. Because I was of the mindset that he was getting better. I had no idea that things had taken a turn.

I was almost the last to know that I was going to be asked to do this. I spoke to Keith and then I spoke to Mick. It was laid out that this was a work in progress. Charlie was going to come back and they would be rocking again. So, I thought, Okay, yeah, I’ll do it. I’m just filling in for my friend. Purely that. I wrote Charlie a short letter to say that “Meegan [Steve Jordan’s wife, singer Meegan Voss, who plays with Jordan in the Verbs] and I wish you a speedy recovery and I’ll keep your seat warm until your glorious return. All the best, your friend, Steve.” Mick was gracious enough to get it to him. So I would say, Okay, well, I’ll do these few shows and it’s kind of like rock ‘n’ roll fantasy camp. It was like, Let’s all just have fun playing the music until Charlie returns. That was the attitude. And then things turned. I was crushed. The world was crushed. It was very, very difficult. It’s still difficult.

But as we were saying before, you’ve had such a long relationship with these guys. It’s like, Who better to sit on that throne night after night?

Well, I didn’t know when I first saw the Stones on The Ed Sullivan Show [in 1964] when I was eight years old that I would ever be playing with any of them, much less knowing any of them! So the whole thing is kind of crazy.

I think my working relationship with Keith and the fact that we’ve played for so long together may have factored in the decision. I don’t really know. And the fact that I’ve known each of them for a long time and worked with them individually. I played on “Ruthless People,” Mick’s solo track for the film Ruthless People [1986]. I did that actually before I worked with Keith solo. I worked with Woody solo. So I was in a unique position.

And, of course, you know, my friendship with Charlie. That too. I mean, the power of that chair—I think a lot of people still underestimate what Charlie did, quite frankly. And it is not to be underestimated. Sitting in that chair and playing that stuff is no joke.

Has there been any talk of recording or future tours?

No. I mean, I did do some stuff, some writing sessions, a couple of years ago. I played on a demo of “Living in Ghost Town” before they made the record [released in 2020]. So there has been that type of collaboration. But I’m not looking that far in advance. My approach is that I accepted the position to fill in for Charlie for these shows. And that’s how I’m still looking at it. My goal is just to have things get better and better every show. One game at a time. We’re not in the playoffs yet! We’re working towards it.

Bonus question: Who did the best version of “Satisfaction”? The Stones, Otis Redding, or Devo?

[ Laughing ] All three of them are great!

Very diplomatic!

I’ll break it down. My favorite thing on the Stones record, besides the Maestro Fuzz-Tone guitar riff that Keith wrote, the most classic riff of all time, was the Brian Jones acoustic guitar part. Which is paramount to that record. It’s an incredible freaking part. And, of course, there’s the loudest tambourine ever recorded. Now, with Otis’s version, which is so tight and so hip, there’s no wonder there was a mystery in England, with people thinking that Otis’s version came first. Because the R&B fanatics in London back then were, you know, “Why would Otis Redding cover a Stones song? The Stones must have covered an Otis Redding song!” Now, the Devo version… I was a big Devo fan, so I couldn’t believe their take on it. Great, great record.

But I have to go with the original because I get goosebumps every time I hear it. All the happy accidents are so unbelievable. It’s just like this kind of Mother Nature-type of thing. You know what I mean? And here again—the perfect example of rediscovering the original. On this tour I’m playing the stomp beat Charlie originally played. Because that’s the record to me. And I can’t hear it any other way.

This interview has been edited. And the author apologizes that he neglected to ask about Britney Spears’s version of “Satisfaction.”

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Rolling Stones Plan to Hit Studio With New Drummer Steve Jordan

"We were halfway through making an album when he [original drummer Charlie Watts] died," Keith Richards told Rolling Stone.

By Gil Kaufman

Gil Kaufman

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As they gear up to celebrate 60 years of rocking stages this summer, the Rolling Stones plan to soldier on in the studio following last year’s death of original drummer Charlie Watts. In an interview with Rolling Stones ‘ Music Now podcast , guitarist Keith Richards revealed that touring drummer Steve Jordan will be behind the kit during sessions for the band’s as-yet-untitled follow-up their most recent album of originals, 2005’s A Bigger Bang .

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“We do have a lot of stuff of Charlie Watts still in the can,” Richards said of the dapper timekeeper who died on August 24, 2021 at age 80. “We were halfway through making an album when he died… Of course, if we want to carry on recording, we’re gonna need drums, and it’s gonna be Steve Jordan.” Longtime friend of the band and collaborator Jordan began filling in for an ailing Watts on last year’s No Filter tour and will be behind the kit for the group’s summer European tour as well.

Daughtry's 'Pieces' Fits at No. 1 on Mainstream Rock Airplay Chart

Though veteran session and live player Jordan is more than up to the task, Richards, 78, told RS that he was initially unsure about carrying on without their beloved bandmate. “I was in, ‘Oh, I cannot do this without Charlie,'” Richards said. “But Charlie said to me, ‘You can do it with Steve. He can take my seat anytime. And he talked me into it.’…God damn, I loved that man.” At press time the Stones had not yet revealed the name or a scheduled release date for their next album.

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The Stones announced a run of 14 European summer shows this week to celebrate their 60th anniversary.

Richards also revealed that the Stones got a personal note from Paul McCartney after their old pal made headlines last year when he referred to them as a “blues cover band” in a New Yorker profile. “I got a note from Paul about that, saying ‘I was taken totally out of context,’” Richards explained. “He said, ‘That’s what I thought when I first heard them.’ Paul and I know each other pretty well, and when I first read it. I said, there’s been a lot of deleting and editing going on here. And the next day I got a message from Paul saying, ‘If you’ve read this s–t, it’s all out of context, believe me, boys’… Paul’s a great guy, man. I mean, Jesus Christ, look at the songs he’s written.”

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Who Is Playing Drums on the Rolling Stones’ New Album?

The Rolling Stones ' new album Hackney Diamonds arrives on Oct. 20, and it will feature two drummers.

Charlie Watts was a fixture in the lineup for nearly 60 years. He joined in 1963, roughly six months after they played their first proper show. During the ensuing decades, as the Stones ascended to their place among the greatest acts in rock history, Watts remained a dependable presence. No surprise then that Mick Jagger said the group lost their “heartbeat” when Watts died in 2021 .

“He was a very reliable person, wasn’t a diva — that’s the last thing you want in a drummer,” Jagger later explained . “Charlie was a very subtle drummer. ... He did love jazz, and that gave him the subtlety that perhaps he wouldn’t have had if he hadn’t been such a student of [jazz] and played [it] a lot. But he was a rock drummer, as well. He was a steady rock drummer. He wasn’t just a jazz drummer showing off or trying to be too technical.”

READ MORE: Ranking Every Rolling Stones Album

Despite his passing, Watts’ playing will still be featured on a pair of Hackney Diamonds tracks: “Mess It Up” and “Live by the Sword.”

How Did the Rolling Stones Replace Charlie Watts?

The Rolling Stones were preparing to tour in 2021 when Watts became ill. The drummer chose his “great friend ” Steve Jordan to fill in for him. When Watts passed, Jordan accepted the role on a full-time basis – though he is still not officially a member of the band.

“Ever since Charlie’s gone, it’s different, of course,” Keith Richards told Spin . “Of course, he’s missed incredibly. Thanks to Charlie, we have Steve Jordan, who was Charlie’s recommendation if anything should happen to him. It would have been a lot harder without Charlie’s blessing.”

READ MORE: 15 Musicians Who Almost Joined the Rolling Stones

Jordan certainly has the credentials for the job. As a drummer, producer or songwriter, he’s worked with an incredible array of musicians, including Stevie Nicks , Eric Clapton , Bob Dylan , Neil Young , Don Henley , James Taylor , Billy Joel , John Mellencamp and Rod Stewart – and, of course, Richards.

All but two songs on Hackney Diamonds feature Jordan.

Have the Rolling Stones Ever Used Other Drummers?

Though the Rolling Stones have regularly added percussionists to help fill out their sound, Jordan will only be the third drummer besides Watts to be credited on one of their albums.

Jimmy Miller produced 1968's Beggars Banquet , 1969's Let It Bleed , 1971's Sticky Fingers , 1972's Exile on Main St. and 1973's Goats Head Soup for the Rolling Stones. He also played drums on a handful of their songs, including "Tumbling Dice," “Happy,” “Shine a Light” and – perhaps most memorably – "You Can't Always Get What You Want."

Kenney Jones was already known for his work with Small Faces and Faces when he drummed on a single Rolling Stones track, the 1974 hit "It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)." He later joined the Who .

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Gallery Credit: Jeff Giles

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Keith Richards Reveals the Rolling Stones Are Recording New Music Without Charlie Watts

Updated March 21 2022, 8:37 a.m. ET

Unfortunately, a rock legend was lost when drummer for the Rolling Stones , Charlie Watts, died at the age of 80. He passed away in his sleep in August 2021. The band has been together since the 1960s and still performs together on stages all over the world.

But now that Charlie has passed, who is playing drums for the Rolling Stones? It turns out the band didn't have to go far to find someone to fill Charlie's shoes. Here's everything we know about the new drummer and his extensive music career.

Who is playing drums for the Rolling Stones?

According to the New York Post , a musician named Steve Jordan is playing the drums for the Rolling Stones. Charlie had asked Steve to fill in for him before his death. Because of health issues and surgery, Charlie had to skip the band's 2021 tour.

Steve has been playing the drums on the tour ever since, but he has his own impressive history in the music industry. Per the New York Post , he's worked with some legendary names in the industry including Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, B.B. King, Stevie Nicks, and more. And he's been working with the Rolling Stones since 1986, collaborating on various projects and filling in for Charlie at different points.

He's also performed in the house bands of Saturday Night Live and Late Night With David Letterman and was a member of the John Mayer Trio. But this isn't even half of his résumé.

"Steve Jordan is a tower of strength, as was Charlie Watts," said Mick Jagger, the Rolling Stones' frontman, per Variety . He even mentioned that the band has been working with him for 30 years.

"It was Charlie that recommended Steve to me in the mid-'80s: 'Looks like we got some time off. If you’re going to do anything by yourself, there’s your man – Steve Jordan,'" Mick said. "And here he is."

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In a recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Keith Richards reveals that Charlie Watts died before the latest Rolling Stones album could be finished. However, they cannot leave the album unfinished, and Keith said, "We do have a lot of stuff of Charlie Watts still in the can. We were halfway through making an album when he died. … Of course, if we want to carry on recording, we’re gonna need drums, and it’s gonna be Steve Jordan."

Is Steve Jordan blind?

Although Steve does wear sunglasses pretty often onstage, there's no indication that he's blind or that he wears them because of his vision. Although, it makes sense that people would think that since he's been wearing the shades for years. It could simply be a stylistic choice.

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People who think Steve is blind might be getting him confused with the musician Esteban “Steve” Jordan, who died back in 2010 and was partially blind. He played the accordion as well as dozens of other instruments, and was even known as "the Jimi Hendrix of the accordion."

But Steve Jordan the drummer has had a career all his own. He's been involved with music ever since he was a teenager and has played on albums from all kinds of artists. Kelly Clarkson, Alicia Keys, and Sheryl Crow are just a few of the people he's worked with.

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Drummer Steve Jordan On Joining The Rolling Stones: 'I Was Crushed'

By Andrew Magnotta @AndrewMagnotta

October 8, 2021

For drummer Steve Jordan , his new gig touring with The Rolling Stones feels more like a responsibility than an opportunity.

Late-Stones drummer Charlie Watts announced Jordan as his replacement in early-August , when he revealed that he would be unable to join the Stones on the U.S. 'No Filter' tour after having a heart operation.

Watts planned to reunite with the Stones when he was healthy again, and he assured fans that the backbeat couldn't be in more trusted hands than those of Jordan. Watts passed away a few weeks later .

Jordan, a longtime friend of the Rolling Stones and trusted contributor to many of the members' solo projects, tells Vanity Fair that he never took the job lightly.

"There are people that don't understand that I lost a friend," Jordan explained, regarding congratulations he's received. "So they're happy for me, but they don't understand that I'd rather not have this be the case. But the Rolling Stones have really, really done everything in their power to make the transition smooth and sympathetic and empathetic. They've been cognizant of everyone's feelings. I personally appreciate that."

After Watts informed his bandmates that he was unlikely to be healthy enough to join them on the road, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards reached out to Jordan, asking him to keep Watts' seat warm until he could return. Jordan agreed, reasoning he was "filling in for my friend." He then sent the drummer a note wishing him a speedy recovery.

Jordan and Watts were friends for at least 40 years, dating back to Jordan's time as James Brown 's drummer. He says Watts' death was "a complete and utter shock" that put the Stones' tour "under a microscope." What he thought was going to be "like rock 'n' roll fantasy camp" became a behemoth obligation.

"I was crushed," Jordan said. "The world was crushed. It was very, very difficult. It's still difficult."

While Watts was known for his understated style, Jordan says his prowess was too often overlooked.

"I think a lot of people still underestimate what Charlie did, quite frankly," Jordan explained. "And it is not to be underestimated. Sitting in that chair and playing that stuff is no joke."

The 'No Filter' tour in the U.S. runs through November 20. Go here for the tour dates .

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Rolling Stones' new drummer Steve Jordan is 'just like Charlie Watts' sister says

Steve, 64, will join Mick Jagger, Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards on the Rolling Stones’ 13-date No Filter tour in the US, which starts next month after Charlie Watts died last week at the age of 80.

• 19:17, 28 Aug 2021

The drummer who will keep the Stones rolling on their US tour is a devoted family man, just like Charlie Watts.

Steve Jordan’s sister said he is a lot like the late, great Charlie, who died last week at the age of 80.

Glenda, 59, said: “Steve has been ­married for a very long time. I would say his background is similar to Charlie’s.

“He has always been deeply family orientated and has never forgotten where he came from, despite all his success.

“He has long-standing relationships even now with the people he grew up with, and he is always very supportive of people he has known for years. You can always count on him.”

Steve, 64, will join Mick Jagger, Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards on the Rolling Stones’ 13-date No Filter tour in the US, which starts next month.

The Grammy award-winner is a close pal of Keith’s and has played in bands on TV shows such as Saturday Night Live and Late Night with David Letterman.

He also toured with The Blues Brothers and Eric Clapton.

In the ‘80s, Steve teamed up with guitarist Keith to perform in his side project, The X-Pensive Winos.

He is also part of The Verbs alongside wife Meegan Voss and has recorded with the likes of Bob Dylan, BB King, Neil Young, Bruno Mars and Beyoncé.

Glenda said: “Steve loves all music. Like Charlie, he plays different kinds, like rock ’n’ roll and jazz.

“He has known the Stones for years and he and Keith have a long-standing relationship.

“He did co-write and co-produce an album with Keith back in the ‘80s.”

Glenda, who spoke to Steve shortly after Charlie’s death, told how he “felt so awful for everyone concerned”.

But she said: “I can hardly imagine how busy he is now. He has to prepare for the tour which is a huge thing.”

Glenda, who lives in Yorktown Heights, New York, said she would “love to” see her brother on stage with the Rolling Stones in the States.

And she added: “I am very proud of him. I am sure he will do a good job and a respectful job for them.”

MORE ON B. B. King Ron Wood Steve Jordan Neil Young Mick Jagger Eric Clapton Bob Dylan Keith Richards Rolling Stones Sunday People

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The Rolling Stones play first ever public gig without Charlie Watts

The band started its first tour with Steve Jordan on drums in St Louis last night

The Rolling Stones have played their first public gig since the passing of Charlie Watts, kicking-off the postponed US leg of the No Filter tour in St Louis with much-loved session drummer Steve Jordan behind the kit.

The band took to the stage at The Dome, St Louis last night, following an opening scene where a drum beat (played by Steve Jordan) filled the arena, and photos of Charlie Watts were displayed on the stage screens before the band launched into Street Fighting Man.

“I just want to say that it made me quite emotional seeing those pictures of Charlie up on the screen” Jagger, flanked by Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards told the audience after second song, It’s Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I like it).

“This is our first tour we’ve ever done without him, so I think the reaction from you guys and all the things you’ve said and we’ve heard from you has been very touching. I want to thank you very much for all your wishes

“We all miss Charlie so much, both on stage and off the stage. We’d like to dedicate this tour to Charlie.”

Playing a black Gretsch roundbadge kit (it’s unclear as to whether the kit was Charlie Watts’) with his rack tom mounted on a snare stand, along with his trademark oversized hi-hats, Steve Jordan propelled the Rolling Stones through a hit-packed, 19-song set that also included You Can’t Always Get What You Want, Start Me Up, Honkey Tonk Women, Midnight Rambler and more, closing with Satisfaction. 

The first official date of the tour follows a private warm-up gig last week, which was held to an invited audience of just 300 people at the Gillette Stadium on Foxboro, Massachusetts. 

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The event was organised by the owner of the New England Patriots, Robert Kraft, marking Steve Jordan’s first outing with the band.

pic.twitter.com/VfcR1dEpC4 September 21, 2021

“It’s a bit of a poignant night for us. This is our first tour in 59 years that we’ve done without our lovely Charlie Watts. We all miss Charlie so much. We miss him as a band. We miss him as friends, on and off the stage.

We’ve got so many memories of Charlie. I’m sure some of you that have seen us before have got memories of Charlie as well. I hope you’ll remember him like we do. We’d like to dedicate this show to Charlie.”

Charlie Watts passed away in August following complications from unspecified surgery. Steve Jordan had already been announced as his replacement for the then-upcoming tour before Watts' death on the 24 August.

I'm a freelance member of the MusicRadar team, specialising in drum news, interviews and reviews. I formerly edited Rhythm and Total Guitar here in the UK and have been playing drums for more than 25 years (my arms are very tired). When I'm not working on the site, I can be found on my electronic kit at home, or gigging and depping in function bands and the odd original project. 

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The Rolling Stones Are Back On Tour And Paid Tribute To Late Drummer Charlie Watts

The Rolling Stones perform in St. Louis. It was their first public concert since the death of longtime drummer Charlie Watts. Amy Harris/Invision/AP hide caption

The Rolling Stones perform in St. Louis. It was their first public concert since the death of longtime drummer Charlie Watts.

ST. LOUIS — The Rolling Stones are touring again, this time without their heartbeat, or at least their backbeat.

The legendary rockers launched their pandemic-delayed "No Filter" tour Sunday at the Dome at America's Center in St. Louis without their drummer of nearly six decades. It was clear from the outset just how much the band members — and the fans — missed Charlie Watts, who died last month at age 80. Except for a private show in Massachusetts last week, the St. Louis concert was their first since Watts' death.

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Appreciating charlie watts, the rolling stones' understated drum master.

The show opened with an empty stage and only a drumbeat, with photos of Watts flashing on the video board. After the second song, a rousing rendition of "It's Only Rock 'N' Roll (But I Like It)," Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood came to the front of the stage. Jagger and Richards clasped hands as they thanked fans for the outpouring of support and love for Watts. Jagger acknowledged it was emotional seeing the photos of Watts.

"This is our first-ever tour we've ever done without him," Jagger said. "We'll miss Charlie so much, on and off the stage."

The band then dedicated "Tumbling Dice" to Watts.

The tour had been scheduled for 2020 before the coronavirus virtually shut down the touring industry. Signs of the pandemic were everywhere at the show in Missouri, a state hit hard by the virus's delta variant.

A video tribute to Charlie Watts plays before the Rolling Stones perform during the "No Filter" tour at The Dome at America's Center on Sunday in St. Louis. Amy Harris/Invision/AP hide caption

A video tribute to Charlie Watts plays before the Rolling Stones perform during the "No Filter" tour at The Dome at America's Center on Sunday in St. Louis.

The tens of thousands of fans wore masks as required by St. Louis' anti-virus protocol. The Stones themselves appeared in a public service announcement urging anyone with symptoms to stay home. A vaccination site was set up at the dome, with plans for similar sites at each tour stop.

The concert itself featured the same driving beat personified by Watts, thanks to his replacement, Steve Jordan. The drummer may be new to fans but he's hardly new to the Stones — Jordan has performed for years with Richards' side project, X-Pensive Winos, along with many other leading acts.

Still, die-hard fans couldn't help but miss Watts, widely considered one of rock's greatest drummers, even though his real love was jazz. He joined Jagger and Richards in the Rolling Stones in 1963. Wood joined in 1975.

For Laura Jezewski, 62, of Omaha, Nebraska, seeing the Stones without Watts was bittersweet.

"It's really sad," she said. "He's the first of the old Stones to pass away."

The show featured the band's long litany of hits. Jagger hardly looked like a 78-year-old man, strutting around the stage like a man half — or one-third of his age; a constant whirl of motion. His vocals, and the guitar work of Wood and Richards, sounded as good as ever.

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I played jazz with charlie watts for 20 years. here's what i learned.

After St. Louis, the tour will include stops in Charlotte, North Carolina; Pittsburgh; Nashville, Tennessee; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Tampa, Florida; Dallas; Atlanta; Detroit; and ending in Austin, Texas, on Nov. 20. The band also added new dates in Los Angeles on Oct. 14 and Oct. 17, and a concert in Las Vegas on Nov. 6.

Jezewski and her 60-year-old husband, Brad, brought their 30-year-old daughter, Sarah, to St. Louis for the concert. It was Sarah's first chance to see the Rolling Stones. Her mom and dad have seen them in various places — Ames, Iowa; Boulder, Colorado; Denver; even Wichita, Kansas — dating back to the 1970s.

With the surviving band members well into their 70s, the Jezewskis didn't want to miss this chance.

"If it is their last time — we're here," Brad Jezewski said. "And if there's another tour, we'll be there, too."

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The Rolling Stones Really Might Never Stop

During a 19-song set at MetLife Stadium that spanned 60 years, the band tapped into what seems like a bottomless well of rock ’n’ roll energy.

By Lindsay Zoladz

Reporting from East Rutherford, N.J.

“This song’s for Manhattan!” Mick Jagger told the crowd on Thursday night at MetLife Stadium, before launching into a punchy rendition of “Shattered,” that agitated ode to late-70s New York City that closes out the band’s 1978 album “Some Girls.” In the ensuing 46 years, the city has changed in some superficial ways but somehow remained essentially the same — much, as they showed throughout an impressively energetic two-hour set, like the Rolling Stones.

The Stones’ first New York-area stadium gig in five years was sponsored, without a hint of irony, by AARP. It was appropriate: At times what transpired onstage felt not just like a rock concert but a display of the evolutionary marvel that is aging in the 21st century. (Albeit aging while wealthy, with every possible technological and medical advantage at one’s disposal. I’ll have whatever vitamins the Stones are taking, please.)

Ronnie Wood, the core group’s baby at age 76, still shreds on the guitar with a grinning, impish verve. Eighty-year-old and eternally cool Keith Richards pairs his bluesy licks with a humble demeanor that seems to say “I can’t believe I’m still here, either.” And then there is Jagger, who turns 81 a few days after the Hackney Diamonds Tour wraps in July. Six decades into his performing career, he is somehow still the indefatigable dynamo he always was, slithering vertically like a charmed snake, chopping the air as if he’s in a kung fu battle against a swarm of unseen mosquitoes, and, when he needs both hands to dance, which is often, nestling the microphone provocatively above the fly of his pants. Sprinting the length of the stage during a rousing “Honky Tonk Women” — the 13th song in the set! — he conjured no other rock star so much as Benjamin Button, as he seemed to become even more energetic as the night went on.

Last year’s “ Hackney Diamonds ” — the Stones’ first album of new material in nearly two decades — was the nominal reason for the tour, but they didn’t linger on it, and the crowd didn’t seem to mind. Across 19 songs, they played only three tunes from the latest release, including two of the best: The taut, growly lead single “Angry” and, for the first part of the encore, the gospel-influenced reverie “Sweet Sounds of Heaven.” Mostly it was a kind of truncated greatest hits collection, capturing the band’s long transformation from reverent students of the blues (Richards’ star turn on the tender “You Got the Silver”) to countercultural soothsayers (a singalong-friendly “Sympathy for the Devil”) to corporate rock behemoth (they opened, of course, with “Start Me Up”).

Jagger, Richards and Wood all still emanate a palpable joy for what they are doing onstage. But those joys also feel noticeably personal and siloed, rarely blending to provide much intra-band chemistry. That is likely a preservation strategy — the surest way to keep a well-oiled machine running and to continue sharing the stage with the same people for half a century or more. But when Jagger ended a charming story about a local diner that had named a sandwich after him (“I’ve never had a [expletive] sandwich named after me! I’m very, very proud”), I did not quite buy his assertion that he, Keith and Ronnie were going to go enjoy one together after the show.

Some of that fractured feeling is likely due to the absence of the great Charlie Watts , the band’s longtime drummer who died in 2021; the Hackney Diamonds Tour is the Stones’ first North American stadium tour without him. His replacement, Steve Jordan, does about as good a job as anyone could — like Watts, he balances a rock drummer’s power with a jazzy agility — and his presence never overwhelms. Though they are surrounded by plenty of talented backing musicians, the staging makes it clear that the Rolling Stones are now a trio.

The night’s breakout star, though, was Chanel Haynes, a backing vocalist who took center stage to sing with Jagger during two of the night’s best performances. Haynes — who played Tina Turner in the West End production of the jukebox musical “Tina” before joining the Stones’ touring band in 2023 — ably filled the shoes of the mighty Merry Clayton on a blazing “Gimme Shelter,” and sat in for Lady Gaga on “Sweet Sounds of Heaven,” matching the megawatt intensity of her “Hackney Diamonds” cameo. Though Haynes could be velvety soft when the song called for it, at her most impressive she sang with a low, grumbling hunger that often swelled into ferocity, as if she were taking big, meaty bites out of the songs.

Jagger, for his part, delivered many of his lines in his signature bark: The second song, a somewhat slowed down and blues-ified “Get Off of My Cloud,” was transformed by his almost scat-like delivery. But in fleeting moments — including a few falsetto runs — he showed that a certain tenderness in his tone remains intact.

That was most apparent on a gorgeous rendition of “Wild Horses,” the song that gained inclusion in the set by winning the nightly online “fan vote.” For so much of this show, the Stones effectively proved they could outrun age, irrelevancy and all the other indignities that time brings to mere mortals. But here they settled into something more contemplative, elegiac and vulnerable, and the show was better for it.

At a time when their few remaining peers are wrapping farewell tours and bands that have been together for half as long are running on fumes, the Stones are an anomaly. It’s not that their show is devoid of nostalgia, but it’s not coasting on it either. They don’t look like they did in the ’70s — who does? — but when their sound is gelling they are able to tap into some kind of eternal present. For better or worse, they seem intent to be the last band of their generation standing, to ride rock ’n’ roll all the way to its logical endpoint. Astoundingly, they don’t sound like they’ve reached it yet.

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‘You haven’t heard the last of Charlie’: Rolling Stones on a bittersweet tour and new music

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Tragically, the other Rolling Stones have not started referring to Mick Jagger as the Thirsty Beaver.

“At least not yet,” the 78-year-old frontman said the other day from Charlotte, N.C., where a couple of evenings before he’d enjoyed a beer at the historic dive bar of that name — then set the internet aflutter when he posted a photo of himself, ball cap pulled low, surrounded by half a dozen North Carolinians evidently unaware they were drinking next to a rock ’n’ roll legend.

“It was a pretty quiet night,” Jagger said. “I don’t think a lot happens on Wednesday in that area. But, you know, when I go to these towns, I don’t want to just stay in. I like to see something.” Indeed, not long before his moment at the Thirsty Beaver went viral, Jagger documented his visit to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis with a delightful picture in which he looks like somebody’s grandpa on holiday.

These postcards from America are the latest demonstration of Jagger’s lifelong fascination with the country that created the blues. But you can also think of his excursions as his way of making the most of a bittersweet affair: the Stones’ first tour minus their founding drummer, Charlie Watts, who died in August at age 80 ( having never missed a gig , it’s said). The No Filter road show — which launched in 2017, then paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic before resuming last month for a final 13 concerts — will stop at Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium on Oct. 14 and 17 with the band’s longtime associate Steve Jordan filling in for Watts.

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The drummer’s death from an unspecified cause came as a shock to his bandmates, according to Jagger, who said they’d believed he was on the mend after an earlier medical procedure. Guitarist Ronnie Wood, 74, said he was the last of the group’s members to see Watts, weeks before he died, in a London hospital room — the same room, in fact, where Wood was treated for cancer in 2020.

“We call it the Rolling Stones suite,” Wood said with a laugh. “We watched horse racing on TV and just shot the breeze. I could tell he was pretty tired and fed up with the whole deal. He said, ‘I was really hoping to be out of here by now,’ then after that there was a complication or two and I wasn’t allowed back. No one was.”

Added Keith Richards, 77, of Watts’ passing: “I’m still trying to put it together in my head. I don’t think I can be very erudite on Charlie at the moment.”

In a sense, the Stones’ choosing to carry on without Watts is in keeping with tradition: They’ve lost other important members — from bassist Bill Wyman and guitarist Mick Taylor, both of whom quit, to the late Brian Jones, who was fired shortly before he drowned in a swimming pool in 1969 — and they’ve rarely allowed anything to get in the way of doing what they love: playing sublime bar-band rock ‘n’ roll and pocketing vast sums of money in the process. (Remaining seats for the SoFi shows top out at around $500, with tickets going for many times that on the secondary market. In 2019, the Stones’ tour grossed $177 million, according to Pollstar.)

Still, Watts’ absence feels different. Beyond his musical skills — many regarded him as the greatest drummer in rock history, with an understated swing that elevated the Stones’ music to a kind of wasted elegance — Watts was the band’s soul; for more than half a century, he brought a wit and tastefulness to the gig that crucially offset his bandmates’ bad-boy flamboyance, as at the Rose Bowl two years ago, where he sat down behind his kit and got right to driving the swarming guitars of “Street Fighting Man.” No one ever expected a rock band to stick around for as long as the Stones have. Yet Watts’ crisply reliable beat kept them sounding vital — an irreproducible blend of chaos and beauty.

“Charlie was one of the funniest guys I’ve ever known,” Richards said, “and the most unlikely man to be famous. He hated that side of the job and used to savagely take the piss out of it.” Jagger fondly recalled the old-fashioned way he kept in touch with Watts when they were off the road. “He didn’t do email or text or FaceTime, so I’d phone him and we’d talk about football,” the singer said, Watts rooting for Tottenham Hotspur and Jagger for Arsenal.

Asked how he responds to those who say the band should’ve retired after Watts’ death, Jagger said, “I don’t, really — I think you’re exaggerating.”

He’s skeptical of the idea that huge numbers of people think the Stones aren’t the Stones without Watts. “Maybe one or two do,” he said. “But I don’t think that’s a movement.” In Jagger’s view, “No band is the same when you lose someone. But the Stones is a very resilient band. We’ve been through a lot of ups and downs through the years, and we’ve had changes of personnel, as have a lot of bands.”

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Oct. 1, 2021

There’s no arguing with him on that point. Steely Dan and Fleetwood Mac have toured successfully in recent years without key figures; the Eagles are scheduled to play the Forum this month with 28-year-old Deacon Frey in place of his father Glenn, who died in 2016.

“When you’re a band for this long, it’s unlikely you won’t have any changes,” Jagger continued. “Of course, this is probably the biggest one we’ve had. But we felt — and Charlie felt — that we should do this tour. We’d already postponed it by a year, and Charlie said to me, ‘You need to go out there. All the crew that have been out of work — you’re not gonna put them out of work again.’ So I think it was the right decision to keep going. The band still sounds great onstage, and everyone’s been really responsive at the couple of big shows we’ve done so far.

“They hold up signs saying, ‘We miss you, Charlie,’ and I miss him too.”

Steve Jordan, 64, who began playing with Richards in the mid-’80s as part of the guitarist’s X-Pensive Winos side project, is unconcerned with any criticism of his taking over Watts’ role. “No. 1, I’ve known Charlie since I was 19 years old,” he said. “No. 2, I’m just as devastated if not more than any fan out there about the loss. So nobody can tell me anything about that.”

Jordan, also known for his work with Eric Clapton and John Mayer, said he thinks of his job as “carrying a legacy” but that he’s “not up there to do a Charlie Watts impersonation.” He’s quoting some of Watts’ iconic fills “because that’s what the music calls for — and because they’re hooks. Charlie had a lot of hooks. But I’m also bringing the way I play to it.”

In rehearsals the band worked though 80 songs, Jordan said, including some relatively deep cuts (such as 1971’s “ Moonlight Mile ” and ’76’s “ Memory Motel ”) along with the all-time classics (e.g. “ Honky Tonk Women ,” “ Paint It Black ,” “ Satisfaction ”). According to published set lists, the Stones have been playing “ Living in a Ghost Town ,” which they finished recording last year while in COVID quarantine, and “ Troubles A’ Comin ,” a Chi-Lites cover that serves as one of nine previously unreleased outtakes featured on an upcoming 40th-anniversary reissue of 1981’s “Tattoo You.”

One song the band seems to have dropped from its set since the tour started up again is “Brown Sugar,” the Stones’ gleefully problematic early-’70s smash that opens on a “Gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields.”

“You picked up on that, huh?” Richards said when asked why they’re not playing the tune. “I don’t know. I’m trying to figure out with the sisters quite where the beef is. Didn’t they understand this was a song about the horrors of slavery? But they’re trying to bury it. At the moment I don’t want to get into conflicts with all of this s—.” He laughed in his signature raspy fashion. “But I’m hoping that we’ll be able to resurrect the babe in her glory somewhere along the track.”

Jagger, as usual, was more circumspect than his freewheeling counterpart. “We’ve played ‘Brown Sugar’ every night since 1970, so sometimes you think, We’ll take that one out for now and see how it goes,” he said. “We might put it back in.” For the frontman, “the set list in a stadium show, it’s kind of a tough one” — all those thousands of people to please while you work to stay engaged yourself in the music. “We did ‘Let It Bleed’ last night, which I managed to play on 12-string guitar,” Jagger said proudly.

There’s also his famous dancing to keep himself (and us) amused. Jagger recently shared a much-discussed video in which he’s seen spinning around a rehearsal studio, jazz hands flying. Turns out he’s got “a guy on the tour,” as he put it, with whom he works on his moves-like-Jagger.

“When you’re not a trained dancer, you tend to repeat the same moves over and over,” Jagger said. “So if you have 10 good moves, it’s good to have someone to tell you, ‘Don’t forget to do this one and that one.’” (Fun fact: The frontman has seen your memes about his and David Bowie’s manic 1985 video for “ Dancing in the Street ,” and he approves. “It is kind of hilarious,” he said of the clip.)

Traveling dance advisor aside, the Stones’ road operation is leaner than it used to be, thanks to COVID. “I’m really stripped down bare,” Richards said. “What I’ve got is a guitar and a mask. That’s it, pal.” Wood is out with his wife, Sally, and their 5-year-old twin daughters, Alice and Gracie — “the St. Trinian’s girls, I call them,” Wood said, referring to the postwar British comic strip about a boarding school populated by young hell-raisers. “They cause wreckage behind them wherever they go. But they’ve got their mini-masks and we’re having as much fun as possible.” With chemotherapy behind him, Wood said he’s “in fine fettle” and has been keeping to a daily regimen of tai chi, yoga and “a little Boxercise.”

The pandemic slowed work on the Stones’ latest studio album, their first of original songs since “A Bigger Bang” in 2005. “If everything hadn’t gotten closed down, we might’ve finished the damn thing,” Richards said. Added Jagger: “We have a lot of tracks done, so when the tour’s finished we’ll assess where we are with that and continue.”

Both men were reluctant to describe the new music in any detail. Yet they happily confirmed that their late drummer — the steadfast presence they’ll have to get used to not seeing when they turn around onstage — laid down his parts for a number of songs before he died.

“Let me put it this way,” Richards said. “You haven’t heard the last of Charlie Watts.”

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Keith Richards confirms Steve Jordan will help finish The Rolling Stones’ new album

The Stones' touring drummer stepped in following the death of Charlie Watts last year

Keith Richards has confirmed that The Rolling Stones ’ touring drummer Steve Jordan will be on hand to help the long-running band finish their forthcoming new album.

Jordan has been filling in on drums for the Stones following the death of their longtime drummer Charlie Watts, who passed away in August last year .

• READ MORE: The story of NME in 70 (mostly) seminal songs

Speaking on the latest episode of the Rolling Stone Music Now  podcast , Richards clarified reports which previously claimed that Watts had finished work on the Stones’ next studio album before his death.

“We do have a lot of stuff of Charlie Watts still in the can,” he said. “We were half-way through making an album when he died…”

The guitarist added: “Of course, if we want to carry on recording, we’re gonna need drums, and it’s gonna be Steve Jordan.” You can listen to the full podcast with Richards below.

Richards also revealed on the podcast that he was initially reluctant to tour without Watts when the late drummer fell ill last year .

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“I was in, ‘Oh, I cannot do this without Charlie’,” he recalled. “But Charlie said to me, ‘You can do it with Steve. He can take my seat anytime’. And he talked me into it.

“God damn, I loved that man.”

Richards’ comments follow on from a recent interview he gave to CBS Sunday Morning , where he revealed that he and frontman Mick Jagger have “eight or nine new pieces of material” which they are working on with Jordan.

“It’ll be interesting to find out the dynamics now that Steve’s in the band,” he added. “It’s sort of metamorphosing into something else. I was working with Mick last week, and Steve, and we came up with some, eight or nine new pieces of material. Which is overwhelming by our standards. Other times, [songwriting is] like a desert.”

Richards also told The Daily Star this week that he’d been “playing a lot of bass” on the new Stones material .

The Rolling Stones will perform in London and Liverpool this summer to celebrate their 60th anniversary – you can find tickets to the shows here .

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Charlie Watts’s Final Gift Was a Rolling Stones Succession Plan

The Rolling Stones have a new album under their thumb, and it’s their first of original music in 18 years: Hackney Diamonds , the most British diptych of words you’ll read today. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Ronnie Wood confirmed their very loud return to the studio at a September 6 press conference, where they revealed the energizing lead track, “ Angry .” (Our current contender for best lyrics: “Don’t just bitch at my face!”) The glaring absence is, of course, their former glue of a drummer, Charlie Watts, who died unexpectedly in 2021 . As Richards now reveals, Watts personally anointed the band’s new drummer, Steve Jordan, to be his replacement in the event he could no longer perform.

“Ever since Charlie’s gone, it’s different. He’s number four. Of course he’s missed incredibly,” Richards explained. “Thanks to Charlie Watts, we have Steve Jordan, who was Charlie’s recommendation. If anything should happen to him, Steve Jordan is your man .” Richards, who worked with Jordan for decades as part of his side project, the X-Pensive Winos, said Watts made this declaration “way, way, way back” to his bandmates. “He’s been a friend of ours. I’ve worked with Steve. So it was a natural progression,” Richards added. “It would’ve been harder without Charlie’s blessing on that.” Jagger also confirmed that out of Hackney Diamond ’s 12 tracks, two of them — “Live by the Sword” and “Mess It Up” — were recorded with Watts on drums prior to his death. The album will be released on October 20, giving Google enough time to organize “Angry” and “Angie.”

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Rolling stones open american tour, pay tribute to late drummer charlie watts.

The legendary rockers launched their pandemic-delayed “No Filter” tour Sunday in St. Louis without their drummer of nearly six decades.

By The Associated Press

The Associated Press

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The Rolling Stones are touring again, this time without their heartbeat, or at least their backbeat.

The legendary rockers launched their pandemic-delayed “No Filter” tour Sunday at the Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis without their drummer of nearly six decades. It was clear from the outset just how much the band members — and the fans — missed Charlie Watts, who died last month at age 80. Except for a private show in Massachusetts last week, the St. Louis concert was their first since Watts’ death.

The show opened with an empty stage and only a drumbeat, with photos of Watts flashing on the video board. After the second song, a rousing rendition of “It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll (But I Like It),” Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood came to the front of the stage. Jagger and Richards clasped hands as they thanked fans for the outpouring of support and love for Watts. Jagger acknowledged it was emotional seeing the photos of Watts.

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“This is our first-ever tour we’ve ever done without him,” Jagger said. “We’ll miss Charlie so much, on and off the stage.”

The band then dedicated “Tumbling Dice” to Watts.

The tour had been scheduled for 2020 before the coronavirus virtually shut down the touring industry. Signs of the pandemic were everywhere at the show in Missouri, a state hit hard by the virus’s delta variant.

The tens of thousands of fans wore masks as required by St. Louis’ anti-virus protocol. The Stones themselves appeared in a public service announcement urging anyone with symptoms to stay home. A vaccination site was set up at the dome, with plans for similar sites at each tour stop.

The concert itself featured the same driving beat personified by Watts, thanks to his replacement, Steve Jordan. The drummer may be new to fans but he’s hardly new to the Stones — Jordan has performed for years with Richards’ side project, X-Pensive Winos, along with many other leading acts.

Still, die-hard fans couldn’t help but miss Watts, widely considered one of rock’s greatest drummers, even though his real love was jazz. He joined Jagger and Richards in the Rolling Stones in 1963. Wood joined in 1975.

For Laura Jezewski, 62, of Omaha, Nebraska, seeing the Stones without Watts was bittersweet.

“It’s really sad,” she said. “He’s the first of the old Stones to pass away.”

The show featured the band’s long litany of hits. Jagger hardly looked like a 78-year-old man, strutting around the stage like a man half — or one-third of his age; a constant whirl of motion. His vocals, and the guitar work of Wood and Richards, sounded as good as ever.

After St. Louis, the tour will include stops in Charlotte, North Carolina; Pittsburgh; Nashville, Tennessee; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Tampa, Florida; Dallas; Atlanta; Detroit; and ending in Austin, Texas, on Nov. 20. The band also added new dates in Los Angeles on Oct. 14 and Oct. 17, and a concert in Las Vegas on Nov. 6.

Jezewski and her 60-year-old husband, Brad, brought their 30-year-old daughter, Sarah, to St. Louis for the concert. It was Sarah’s first chance to see the Rolling Stones. Her mom and dad have seen them in various places — Ames, Iowa; Boulder, Colorado; Denver; even Wichita, Kansas — dating back to the 1970s.

With the surviving band members well into their 70s, the Jezewskis didn’t want to miss this chance.

“If it is their last time — we’re here,” Brad Jezewski said. “And if there’s another tour, we’ll be there, too.”

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Rolling Stones open American tour, pay tribute to drummer

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The Rolling Stones are touring again, this time without their heartbeat, or at least their backbeat.

The legendary rockers launched their pandemic-delayed “No Filter” tour Sunday at the Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis without their drummer of nearly six decades. It was clear from the outset just how much the band members — and the fans — missed Charlie Watts, who died last month at age 80. Except for a private show in Massachusetts last week, the St. Louis concert was their first since Watts' death.

The show opened with an empty stage and only a drumbeat, with photos of Watts flashing on the video board. After the second song, a rousing rendition of “It's Only Rock ‘N’ Roll (But I Like It),” Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood came to the front of the stage. Jagger and Richards clasped hands as they thanked fans for the outpouring of support and love for Watts. Jagger acknowledged it was emotional seeing the photos of Watts.

“This is our first-ever tour we've ever done without him,” Jagger said. “We'll miss Charlie so much, on and off the stage.”

The band then dedicated “Tumbling Dice” to Watts.

The tour had been scheduled for 2020 before the coronavirus virtually shut down the touring industry. Signs of the pandemic were everywhere at the show in Missouri, a state hit hard by the virus’s delta variant.

The tens of thousands of fans wore masks as required by St. Louis' anti-virus protocol. The Stones themselves appeared in a public service announcement urging anyone with symptoms to stay home. A vaccination site was set up at the dome, with plans for similar sites at each tour stop.

The concert itself featured the same driving beat personified by Watts, thanks to his replacement, Steve Jordan. The drummer may be new to fans but he's hardly new to the Stones — Jordan has performed for years with Richards' side project, X-Pensive Winos, along with many other leading acts.

Still, die-hard fans couldn't help but miss Watts, widely considered one of rock's greatest drummers, even though his real love was jazz. He joined Jagger and Richards in the Rolling Stones in 1963. Wood joined in 1975.

For Laura Jezewski, 62, of Omaha, Nebraska, seeing the Stones without Watts was bittersweet.

“It's really sad,” she said. “He's the first of the old Stones to pass away.”

The show featured the band’s long litany of hits. Jagger hardly looked like a 78-year-old man, strutting around the stage like a man half — or one-third of his age; a constant whirl of motion. His vocals, and the guitar work of Wood and Richards, sounded as good as ever.

After St. Louis, the tour will include stops in Charlotte, North Carolina; Pittsburgh; Nashville, Tennessee; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Tampa, Florida; Dallas; Atlanta; Detroit; and ending in Austin, Texas, on Nov. 20. The band also added new dates in Los Angeles on Oct. 14 and Oct. 17, and a concert in Las Vegas on Nov. 6.

Jezewski and her 60-year-old husband, Brad, brought their 30-year-old daughter, Sarah, to St. Louis for the concert. It was Sarah's first chance to see the Rolling Stones. Her mom and dad have seen them in various places — Ames, Iowa; Boulder, Colorado; Denver; even Wichita, Kansas — dating back to the 1970s.

With the surviving band members well into their 70s, the Jezewskis didn't want to miss this chance.

“If it is their last time — we're here,” Brad Jezewski said. “And if there's another tour, we'll be there, too.”

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Rolling Stones Honor Charlie Watts, Power Through Their Hits at 2021 Tour Kickoff

By Andy Greene

Andy Greene

Two songs into the launch of the Rolling Stones ’ No Filter Tour 2021 at the Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis on Sunday, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards stepped to the front of the stage, clutched their hands together, and addressed the intense sorrow hanging over the event. “I just want to say that it’s quite emotional seeing those images of Charlie up on the screen,” Jagger said, referencing a video montage of the late drummer that had kicked off the evening. “This is our first tour that we’ve ever done without him.

“The reaction from you guys, everything you’ve said and we’ve heard from you, has been really touching,” he continued. “And I want to thank you very much for all your appreciation. We all miss Charlie so much, on the stage and off the stage, and we’d love to dedicate this tour to Charlie. Here’s to you, Charlie!”

Discounting a private warmup gig the Stones played for Robert Kraft and his guests six days earlier in Massachusetts, this was the first concert they’ve done without Watts since he joined the band in January 1963. At that time, John F. Kennedy was president, the Beatles were just beginning to make a name for themselves outside of Liverpool, and Lawrence of Arabia was in movie theaters.

In other words, this was an absurdly long time ago. And to some fans, the Stones launching a tour just a month after Watts’ death felt a little callous. But the band played London’s Hyde Park just two days after founding guitarist Brian Jones died in 1969, and they soldiered on past the defection of Mick Taylor in 1974, the death of Ian Stewart in 1985, and the resignation of Bill Wyman in 1993. This latest blow is particularly devastating, but Watts approved of their decision to tour with replacement drummer Steve Jordan before he bowed out of the run due to illness, and he’d be the first one to say that the band should carry on now.

The show opened with an explosive rendition of “Street Fighting Man.” It was a momentous moment for Jordan, who has been in the band’s orbit since the Eighties, and toured and recorded with Richards in his side project the X-Pensive Winos. With his sunglasses and gold chains, Jordan has a lot more flash and charisma than the notoriously stoic and expressionless Watts, but he’s a student of Watts’ drumming and played his parts with precision, power, and respect.

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Thanks to the pandemic, the band hadn’t played a proper show in two years, but as they powered through “It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (but I Like It),” “Tumbling Dice,” and “Under My Thumb,” it was clear that they hadn’t picked up any rust during the downtime. Jagger was in particularly fine form, singing and gliding across the enormous stage like it was 1975. It’s almost impossible to believe he’s 78 when you watch him in action. Richards let his hair grow gray during the forced hiatus and Ron Wood successfully fought cancer for the second time , but their guitar interplay remained as sharp as ever.

It’s tough to stray too far from familiar hits when you’re playing a place as large as the 50,000-seat Dome, but the Stones did debut their 2020 single “Living in a Ghost Town,” and broke out their 1966 classic “19th Nervous Breakdown” for the first time in 16 years. It crackled with life and had the whole stadium singing along. For most bands, a song that beloved would be a staple at every concert. For the Stones, it’s just another tune in their ridiculously vast catalog.

The highlight of the night may have been “Midnight Rambler,” which lasted for an incredible 12 minutes and gave Jordan the best opportunity to show off his chops. The song grows in scope on every single tour, but it’s never sounded this devious and menacing. It also went through more distinct sections than an early-Seventies Yes song. Amazingly, the crowd held on through the entire ride and never seemed bored.

The acoustic B-stage set that’s been a feature of the show for several years was cut, and the band skipped “Brown Sugar” for the first time in ages, but Richards played his standard two-song set after the band introductions. He opted for “Happy” and the Steel Wheels ballad “Slipping Away.” “It’s been a while,” he told the crowd. “Thank you all for coming. It’s been a bit of a ride to get here, but we can all make this happen.”

(It should be noted that the venue didn’t require a vaccine card or negative Covid test for entry. Fans were asked to stay masked when not eating or drinking, but only around 15 percent of them, at best, complied. To the Stones’ credit, they did offer free vaccines at the show and they’ll continue to do that at every stop of the tour.)

The main set ended in familiar fashion with “Paint It Black,” “Sympathy for the Devil,” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” The encore of “Gimme Shelter” gave backup singer Sasha Allen to chance to show off her pipes, replicating Merry Clayton’s bridge to chilling effect. The show ended with an inevitable “Satisfaction” and some indoor fireworks.

Charlie’s absence was felt through the entire set, and it was hard not to get a little misty-eyed when just three men as opposed to four stepped up at the end of the night to take a special bow. As they walked off, a photo of the latter-day Watts, dressed impeccably as always, filled the screens to thunderous applause.

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This tour will keep the Stones on the road through November 20th, and there are already rumors of a 60th-anniversary run in Europe next year. In an ideal world, they would have reached that landmark year with Watts behind the drum kit. But they’d been working on a new album for several years when he died, so his final recordings will hopefully be heard at some point in the not-too-distant future.

In the meantime, this is the start of yet another new chapter for the Stones. Let’s hope it’s another long one.

Rolling Stones Set List

1. Street Fighting Man 2. It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll (but I Like It) 3. Tumbling Dice 4. Under My Thumb 5. 19th Nervous Breakdown 6. Wild Horses 7. You Can’t Always Get What You Want 8. Living in a Ghost Town 9. Start Me Up 10. Honky Tonk Women 11. Happy 12. Slipping Away 13. Miss You 14. Midnight Rambler 15. Paint It Black 16. Sympathy for the Devil 17. Jumpin’ Jack Flash 18. Gimme Shelter 19.  Satisfaction

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