Tom Sawyer
Senior Member
Very nice person, and grooving drummer.
Watts has this great "lift" thing he does with his right hand on certain beats, just on the back beat he'll throw in this 1/4 note pause that opens up the sound and makes the snare hit more up front and not buried with the hats. Very tasteful and subtle.
A couple of years ago I got to visit the DW factory and they showed me a picture of Charlie Watts playing Terry Bozzio's monsterous kit. Needless to say it was a very funny!
Yes, as I've delved into "Uncle Charlie" kit history a bit more, seems like he started out on Premiers (like most UK drummers), but jumped to Ludwigs as soon as he could. Had a Black Ludwig kit, and a Black Diamond Pearl kit. And picked up Gretsch, like PW states, 66-67. That makes his Gretsch kit already 10 years old when he got it.
He is a gentleman for sure, personally I like him better than his playing.