The Jagger-Watts confrontation

It's arrived. My copy of Keith Richards' autobiography called Life, a used copy bought through the online website, Book Depository. I had placed an order soon after the death of The Rolling Stones' drummer, Charlie Watts, last month. This tale of Watts' altercation with Mick Jagger had been famously told and retold until it was impossible to know the truth. But the original story is here in Richards' book. Cost me RM53 to have it confirmed but what the heck, I'm sure it'll be an interesting read. Such books usually are.

I won't repeat the whole tale here but I can confirm that pages 515 and 516 told it rather succinctly. Richards said Watts had to be badly provoked to throw his punch at Jagger. And what a punch it was. Jagger almost ended up in an Amsterdam canal. What happened was that Richards and Jagger - wearing Richards' wedding jacket - had come back to their hotel room at about five o'clock in the morning and a punch-drunk Jagger called up Watts.

I said, don't call him, not at this hour. But he did, and said, 'Where's my drummer?' No answer. He puts the phone down. About twenty minutes later, there was a knock at the door. There was Charlie Watts, Savile Row suit, perfectly dressed, tie, shaved, the whole fucking bit. I could smell the cologne! I opened the door and he didn't even look at me, he walked straight past me, got hold of Mick and said, 'Never call me your drummer again.' Then he hauled him up by the lapels of my jacket and gave him a right hook. 

Nothing mentioned at all about Watts saying that Jagger was his "damned singer." So that part had been embellished by anonymous writers through the years and become part of today's Internet urban legend.