Mikkey Dee On Charlie Watts: ‘He Has Been A Lifelong Inspiration To Me’
Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Coachella – Mikkey Dee onstage during day three of Coachella 2014.Mikkey Dee onstage during day three of Coachella 2014.
onstage during day three of Coachella 2014.Mikkey Dee onstage during day three of Coachella 2014.
Tributes in honor of Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, who died Tuesday at the age of 80, keep on pouring in.
Mikkey Dee played with legendary British rock band Motörhead from 1991 until 2015, and became the drummer for German rock icons Scorpions in 2016. He told Pollstar, “Charlie Watts has been a lifelong inspiration to me. His very unique groove and ability to stay so calm and rock/bluesy has inspired me since early age.
“He has given the world all his time and soul. Therefore it is extremely sad when such a legend suddenly leaves us. Thank you so much for what you left behind and may You rest in peace.”
Musicians and many more took to social media and other outlets to honor Watts.
The Who founding members Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend wrote a tribute on The Who’s official website:
“I would like to extend my deepest condolences to Charlie’s wife Shirley, the rest of his family and to the guys in the band.He was always the perfect gentleman, as sharp in his manner of dress as he was on the drums.
“Charlie was a truly great drummer, whose musical knowledge of drumming technique, from jazz to the blues, was, I’m sure, the heartbeat that made the Rolling Stones the best rock and roll band in the world,” wrote Daltrey.
Hulton Archive/Getty Images – Members of the Who and the Rolling Stones at Internel Studios in Stonebridge Park, Wembley, during the making of the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus in 1968.
From left: Pete Townshend, former The Who drummer Keith Moon (1947-1978) and Charlie Watts. The Rolling Stones bassist, Bill Wyman, is stood behind them.
Townshend wrote: “I only played with Charlie once, when he drummed for Ronnie Lane and me on our Rough Mix album. We did two faultless live takes (no overdubs at all) of my song ‘My Baby Gives It Away’. His technique was obvious immediately, the hi-hat always slightly late, and the snare drumstick held in the flat of the left hand, underpowered to some extent, lazy-loose, super-cool. The swing on the track is explosive. I’ve never enjoyed playing with a drummer quite so much. Of course that brings up Keith Moon, who was so different to Charlie. At Keith’s funeral Charlie surprised me by openly weeping, and I remember wishing I could wear my heart on my sleeve like that. I was tightened up like a snare drum myself.
“Charlie lived a quiet life in the English countryside. He had a London bolthole in St James’s for many years which I think he used mainly to visit his tailor and buy paintings. He is the exemplar of the perfect marriage, still married to his art-school girlfriend who he married secretly in 1964. I understand he lived a quiet and respectable life on the road as well. I know that like me he wasn’t mad on touring, but that wry smile of his – that hid a mischievous side to him that few us saw – could turn into the most beautiful wide-mouthed laugh at very little urging. I could make him smile simply by talking about growing up following my father Cliff’s post-war dance band. Charlie loved the ‘real’ music of that era.
“I’ve said here that his playing on ‘My Baby Gives It Away’ was flawless. I have suddenly remembered that he had trouble with the clipped ending. On the second take he nailed it, but was so shocked he had managed it that he burst into laughter and fell off his stool. That was a Keith Moon stunt, ask any drummer what they most dread doing and they will probably reply that they never want to fall off their stool.”
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