'I think about him when I’m playing': Mick Jagger remembers his old friend and late drummer Charlie Watts
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Mick Jagger has come a long way and is still going strong at his age.
The ‘Tumbling Dice’ star, while discussing his latest album ‘Hackney Diamonds’, remembered his old pal late drummer Charlie Watts.
‘Hackney Diamonds’ album songs were picked from around 80 tracks
Around 80 songs were written in the 18-year gap and presented for the new album and producer Andrew Watt was asked to decide.
Watt told The Guardian, "Some were demos; some weren’t developed. And there was a whole bunch of material with Charlie that we needed to listen through."
There are 12 tracks on 'Hackney Diamonds.' Some other tracks we’ve done with Charlie that’ll probably come out,” Jagger said.
“So he’s kind of still there — and I hope he likes the rest of the record," he added.
In his recent interview for the Wall Street Journal, Jjagger said he may sell The Rolling Stones' post-1971 music inventory.
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The 80-year-old continued, “It’s a couple of years now, and I still think about Charlie a lot. I think about him when I’m playing, and what he would have played; whether he’d have liked this song because I’d always bounce things off him. I’d be playing him the silly pop songs of the moment, and he’d love all that.”
The Rolling Stones frontman also touched upon mortality. “But I hate to say this: as you get older, a lot of your friends die," he said.
“It doesn’t get easier at all. There’s a lot of people around your age, they’re dying all the time. I don’t have any friends older than me, only one. Apart from the band, all my friends are much younger … You’re aware of your own mortality from quite an early age – it’s not something that occurs to you in your 70s,” Jagger said.
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Critic says ‘Hackney Diamonds’ is a 'classic'
Jem Aswad, a reviewer for Variety, said on ‘Hackney Diamonds’ album, "It sounds classic without feeling dated. if there’s a better way to end the Rolling Stones’ 60-plus-year recording career, it’s hard to imagine what it could be.”
While reflecting on the US politics, the 'Beast of Burden' singer said, “America is worrying, because if we get extremity governments in America, we get into too much fighting. People don’t really understand what they’re talking about half the time, to be honest. I’m sorry, they just don’t. And they have very strongly held views.”