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

Rolling Stones sax legend Bobby Keys dead at 70

NEW YORK | Bobby Keys, a defining saxophonist of the rock era who offered a jolt both musically and personally to the Rolling Stones, died Tuesday. He was 70.

Keys, a hard-partying jazz lover born in Texas, befriended Buddy Holly as a teenager and gradually became a go-to saxophonist for rock acts including the Rolling Stones — whom he first stumbled upon in 1964.

Keys provided the tenor sax that contributed to the blues sound of “Brown Sugar,” one of the Stones’ greatest hits, and toured with the rock legends for most of their five decades as a band.

“The Rolling Stones are devastated by the loss of their very dear friend and legendary saxophone player, Bobby Keys,” the band said in a statement announcing his death.

“Bobby made a unique musical contribution to the band since the 1960s. He will be greatly missed,” it said.

Keys was particularly close to guitarist Keith Richards, who was born on the exact same day — December 18, 1943.

“I have lost the largest pal in the world and I can’t express the sense of sadness I feel, although Bobby would tell me to cheer up,” Richards said in a handwritten statement posted on Twitter.

“My condolences to all that knew him and his love of music,” Richards said.

Besides the Rolling Stones, Keys also collaborated with the other giants of English rock, The Beatles. He joined John Lennon — both in music and in drug use — during the ex-Beatle’s so-called “Lost Weekend” of estrangement from Yoko Ono.

Among other artists with whom he collaborated were Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker and Carly Simon. He also played saxophone on Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.”

Keys’ rowdiness on the road was notable even by the standards of the Rolling Stones.

“I’ve been smoking pot for over 50 years, and I never let a day go by unless I’m in jail,” Keys said in a 2012 interview with Rolling Stone magazine. “I am a devout pothead.”

Richards, in his autobiography “Life,” remembered Keys’ lifestyle when the Rolling Stones were staying at a villa in the southern French town of Nellcote, where the band recorded parts of the classic 1972 album “Exile on Main Street.”

Richards recalled that Keys one day “caused a disturbance by throwing his furniture out of the window in a moment of Texan self-expression.”

Keys eventually retired from the road as his health failed. He died at his home in Franklin, Tennessee.

source: interaksyon.com

Grieving Mick Jagger comforted by daughters in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES | Mick Jagger is being comforted by his daughters in Los Angeles after postponing a Rolling Stones tour following his girlfriend’s suicide in New York, a spokesman said Thursday.

The grieving Stones frontman flew from Australia to California, where one of his daughters lives and two others are staying following L’Wren Scott’s shock death.

It remains unclear when the funeral will be held for the former model turned fashion designer, who was found hanged in her luxury apartment on Monday.



“No information on funeral yet,” Jagger’s spokesman Bernard Doherty told AFP in an email, confirming the 70-year-old was in Los Angeles with his daughters, but giving no further details.

His daughter Karis lives in Los Angeles, while Elizabeth and Georgia May are also staying here, according to media reports.

The Stones postponed their tour of Australia and New Zealand on Tuesday. They were to play a first gig Wednesday in Perth, and vowed to reschedule shows there and in Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Auckland.

Jagger has not been seen in public since hearing the tragic news, but in a blog post on his website a day after Scott was found dead he described her as not only his lover but his best friend.

“I am still struggling to understand how my lover and best friend could end her life in this tragic way,” he wrote under a post entitled “L’Wren”, featuring a black and white photo of Scott. “I will never forget her.”

British media said Jagger was so distraught at the loss that he has barely slept and was being monitored by his entourage, including medical professionals as well as his daughters Elizabeth and Georgia May.

source: interaksyon.com

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