Brian Jones’s 1962 letter recruiting Charlie Watts heads to auction
The handwritten invitation offers a glimpse of the Rolling Stones’ unsettled early lineup. Sotheby’s New York plans to display it in December before a sale estimated at $70,000 to $80,000.
A handwritten letter Brian Jones sent Charlie Watts in July 1962, asking him to join the fledgling band that became the Rolling Stones, is set for its first public display at Sotheby’s New York in December before an auction. The letter shows Jones trying to recruit the drummer months before Watts joined the group in January 1963.
What Brian Jones wrote to Charlie Watts
Jones asked whether Watts intended to keep playing with Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, where he was then the drummer. ‘We are looking for a good drummer,’ he wrote, arguing that his own band was ‘far better than Alex’s’ and developing a ‘very tightly-knit sound.’ Watts was also working in advertising at the time, according to the Guardian.
In a postscript, Jones described a lineup of two guitars, harmonica, piano and drums, with plans to add a bass guitar. ‘Our present drummer is atrocious!’ he wrote. Rolling Stone suggested he most likely meant Tony Chapman, but said the band tried several drummers during that period, leaving the identification uncertain.
The letter, still accompanied by its original envelope, was addressed to Watts at his childhood home in Wembley. The Guardian reported that it comes from Watts’s sister and had remained in the family for more than six decades. Jones sent it days before the band’s first official performance at London’s Marquee Club, according to Rolling Stone.
How the letter fits the Rolling Stones’ early lineup
Watts did not accept the invitation immediately. The band continued with other drummers before he joined in January 1963. By then bassist Bill Wyman had also joined; the Guardian reported that Watts, Wyman, Jones, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger and pianist Ian Stewart performed together on 2 February 1963. The letter captures the earlier point when Jones was still making his case to a drummer who had yet to commit.
‘Few documents bring us as close to the formation of a legendary band as this letter,’ Craig Inciardi, Sotheby’s music and pop culture specialist, said, according to the Guardian. The document records Jones’s proposed lineup and his effort to recruit Watts in Jones’s own words.
When the letter goes on display and sale
Sotheby’s New York plans to display the letter from 2 to 8 December. Online bidding is scheduled to open on 2 December, ahead of its Rock & Pop sale on 15 December. The reported estimate for the letter and envelope is $70,000 to $80,000.
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Sources and context
- Historic Brian Jones Letter Inviting Charlie Watts to Join Rolling Stones in 1962 SurfacesRolling Stone
- ‘Dear Charlie’: letter revealing move to snare future Rolling Stones drummer up for auctionThe Guardian
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