On 14 October 1964, Watts married Shirley Ann Shepherd (11 September 1938 – 16 December 2022), whom he had met before joining the Stones in 1963. The couple had one daughter, Seraphina, born in March 1968, who in turn gave birth to Watts's only grandchild, a girl named Charlotte. Watts and Shirley were married for 57 years, until Watts's death in 2021. He also owned a percentage of the Rolling Stones' various corporate entities. While all the Rolling Stones collected cars, Watts never had a driving licence, preferring to view his cars as beautiful objects. Watts was also a fan of
cricket, and had a collection of cricket memorabilia.
Touring and band relationships , 1964|213x213pxWatts expressed a
love–hate attitude towards touring, stating in 2003 that he "loved playing with Keith [Richards] and the band" but "wasn't interested in being a pop idol sitting there with girls screaming". In 1989, when the Rolling Stones were inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Watts did not attend the ceremony. In a 1996 interview with
Rolling Stone magazine, he said that he had sketched every bed he had slept on while on tour since 1967. By 2001, he had filled 12 to 15 diaries. One anecdote relates that in the mid-1980s, an intoxicated Jagger phoned Watts's hotel room in the middle of the night, asking, "Where's my drummer?" Watts reportedly got up, shaved, dressed in a suit, put on a tie and freshly shined shoes, descended the stairs, and punched Jagger in the face, saying: "Never call me your drummer again. You're
my fucking
singer!" Watts expressed regret for the incident in 2003, attributing his behaviour to alcohol. Despite quitting smoking in the late 1980s, Watts was diagnosed with
throat cancer in June 2004. He underwent a course of
radiotherapy and the cancer went into remission. "I went into hospital," Watts recalled, "and eight months later Mick said, 'We're going to do a record. But we'll only do it when you're ready.' They were buggering about, writing songs, and when I was ready I went down and that was it,
A Bigger Bang. Then I did a
two-year tour. It seems that whenever we stop, I get ill. So maybe I should carry on!" On 5 August 2021, it was reported that Watts had elected to sit out the resumption of the U.S.
No Filter Tour due to heart surgery and that
Steve Jordan would temporarily replace him on drums.
Death and tributes On 24 August 2021, Watts died from
squamous-cell carcinoma at the
Royal Brompton Hospital in
Chelsea, London, at the age of 80, with his family around him. Watts's former bandmates Jagger, Richards, Wood and Wyman, all paid tribute to him. Many other celebrities and rock musicians paid tribute to Watts on his death, including
Paul McCartney,
Ringo Starr,
Elton John,
Brian Wilson,
Pete Townshend,
Nick Mason,
Roger Daltrey, the members of
U2,
Bryan Adams,
Brian May,
Kenney Jones,
Chad Smith,
Questlove,
Peter Criss, and
Max Weinberg. For 10 days, the contents of the Rolling Stones' official website were replaced with a single picture of Watts in his memory. Two days after his death,
Jason Isbell and Brittney Spencer dedicated a cover performance of "
Gimme Shelter" to Watts. On 27 August, the band's social media accounts shared a video tribute to Watts consisting of a montage of pictures and film footage. An authorised biography was released in October 2022. On the first anniversary of Watts's death, Jagger shared what
Rolling Stone described as a "moving tribute" on social media, which included a voiceover by Jagger backed with "
Till the Next Goodbye". To commemorate what would have been his 82nd birthday, Watts's estate launched official Facebook and
Instagram accounts on 2 June 2023, saying in a statement that "Charlie was too modest to embrace social media in his lifetime" and encouraging fans to "celebrate his huge musical contribution to the world of rock 'n' roll, blues and jazz, and the wonderful man known and loved to the millions of fans around the world". In September 2023 his private book collection was set to be put up for auction; his signed first edition of
The Great Gatsby was expected to fetch between £200,000–300,000. In January 2024, the Bayeux Museum in France announced that it had paid £16,000 to acquire a lifesize replica of the
Bayeux Tapestry from Watts's estate. == Equipment and style ==