Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts revered by North Bay musicians

To veteran musicians in Sonoma County, the death of legendary Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts is more than just sad news. It’s the end of something that can never be replaced.

“When I was 16, I went to see the Stones at Winterland. Then I saved up my money and bought my first drum kit,” said Johnny Campbell, 65, of Cotati, longtime drummer and lead singer with the local band The Pulsators.

“I even named my only son after Charlie Watts, in a way,” Campbell said. “My son’s name is Joseph Charles Campbell. He’s 19 now, and he’s studying jazz drumming at Santa Rosa Junior College.”

Watts, whose solid, powerful but never flashy drumming style drove the Rolling Stones’ music for more than 50 years, died on Tuesday in London at age 80.

Rather than fill the air with a frenzied flurry of drumbeats, Watts would pick his shots in the opening bars of classics like “Get Off My Cloud” or “Gimme Shelter,” and set the mood.

“Charlie was so cool,” Campbell said. “He’d sit back there when the crowd was going wild and Mick was dancing around, and Charlie would just hold it all together.”

His work affected not only the style, but the lives of musicians who revered him.

“It’s a strange feeling to be in a world where there is no Charlie Watts,” said Sebastopol guitarist and singer Robin Pfefer. “The Rolling Stones without Charlie Watts is effectively a very good Rolling Stones cover band. I don’t care if you still have Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. A great drummer is the beating heart of a rock band, and the Stones have lost their heart.”

Pfefer, 59, who cofounded the band Wild Brides in the 1980s and ran the Black Cat Bar & Cafe in Penngrove from 2002 to 2010, currently works with two newer bands and does production work at the Prairie Sun recording studios in Cotati.

She saw the Stones live 26 times over a 25-year span and admired Watts for his offstage life as well as his music, a stark contrast in some ways with the Stones’ enduring bad boy image. “He was married to the same woman since 1964,” she said.

Willy Jordan, 62, of San Pablo, the drummer with Marin blues guitarist Elvin Bishop’s Big Fun Trio, echoed Pfefer’s admiration.

“Charlie went home after every tour,” Jordan said, who admires the Rolling Stones for several reasons. “He was nice people. I got the chance to meet him at a rhythm and blues tribute show in Detroit. And I like the Stones for their part in getting America to wake up to its own blues music, and picking black acts to open for them.”

But above all, it was that driving beat and cool onstage demeanor that endeared Watts to his millions of fans. Once, at an early ‘60s show in Seattle before the Stones even became superstars in the United States, the sound system went out briefly at the beginning of their set. Watts filled with the time with an improvised drum solo, while Jagger played the harmonica.

“Charlie knew how to carry himself,” Campbell said. “He had a way about him. He had class. He had a jazz background, and he could swing. His drumbeats were always in the right place. And the Stones put the blues out there for skinny middle-class white kids who didn’t know that music.”

Watts’ impact won respect from fans and professionals alike.

“I knew he was a great drummer, but I never got to meet him,” said Sonoma County’s internationally known blues harmonica virtuoso Charlie Musselwhite, 77. “The only one of the Rolling Stones I met was Mick Jagger when we played together in Australia, but he wasn’t touring with the Stones then.”

For Cambell, the Pulsators drummer, Watts was everything a drummer should be.

“Charlie Watts was a bad ass,” he said. “With the way he played, he really kicked every song in the butt. When I discovered Charlie Watts, everything changed for me. I learned it’s about the groove, not being flashy, but having substance.”

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5243. On Twitter @danarts.