Drummer Charlie Watts likely to miss Rolling Stones’ tour

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts will likely miss the band’s upcoming U.S. tour to allow him to recover from an unspecified medical procedure.

A spokesperson for the musician said the procedure was “completely successful” but that Watts needs time to recuperate. The Stones are set to resume their No Filter tour with a stadium show on Sept. 26 in St. Louis.

“With rehearsals starting in a couple of weeks it’s very disappointing to say the least, but it’s also fair to say no one saw this coming,” a spokesperson for Watts said in a statement.

Watts, 80, said in a statement he did not want his recovery to further delay the tour, which is set to visit several U.S. cities including Dallas, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

“For once my timing has been a little off. I am working hard to get fully fit but I have today accepted on the advice of the experts that this will take a while,” Watts said.

Watts successfully underwent treatment for throat cancer in 2004. He will be replaced by understudy Steve Jordan, who has played with Keith Richards for years.

-Associated Press

On heels of memoir, Keith Richards to publish children's book

NEW YORK, March 11 (Reuters) - Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, famous for surviving years of rock ‘n’ roll excess, will release a children’s picture book with illustrations by his daughter Theodora Richards, his publisher said on Tuesday.

The book, “Gus & Me: The Story of My Granddad and My First Guitar,” tells the story of how Richards was first introduced to music by his grandfather and given his first guitar.

The hardcover and ebook will be released on Sept. 9.

“‘Gus & Me’ invites readers to be in the room at the electrifying moment that Keith holds a guitar in his hands for the first time,” Megan Tingley, executive vice president and publisher of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, said in a statement.  

In his memoir, “Life,” Richards also recounts the role his grandfather - jazz big band member Theodore Augustus Dupree, who is known as Gus - played in his life.

In the best-selling book, Richards, 70, details his journey from being a shy, only child in London to co-founding the Rolling Stones in 1962 and becoming a rock and roll survivor following years of substance abuse.

“I have just become a grandfather for the fifth time, so I know what I’m talking about,” Richards said in a statement about the children’s book. “The bond, the special bond, between kids and grandparents is unique and should be treasured. This is a story of one of those magical moments.”

“Gus & Me,” which was written with Barnaby Harris and Bill Shapiro, will include pen-and-ink collages by Theodora, who was named after her grandfather, as well as photographs from the Richards family collection.

The hardcover edition will have an audio CD featuring bonus book content. (Reporting by Patricia Reaney; Editing by Eric Kelsey)

-reuters