Shirley Ann Watts, former art student and notable Arabian horse breeder who met drummer Charlie Watts before he joined The rolling stones And formed one of his StoneHer most enduring marriage is dead. She was 84 years old.
On Monday (19th December) her family announced that "Shirley passed away peacefully Friday 16th December in Devon after a short illness surrounded by her family". Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones was among those who mourned her.
“You will be greatly missed, but comfort you to be reunited with our beloved Charlie,” Wood wrote. in Facebook.
While Wood, Mick Jagger, and Keith Richards had several wives and girlfriends, Charlie and Shirley Watts have been together for more than 50 years, until Charlie's death in 2021. Their only known crisis occurred in the mid-1980s, when Charlie Watts suffered from heroin addiction, a time he later said nearly cost him his marriage. Otherwise, he was seen as devoted to his wife and daughter, Seraphina, to the point that journalists left him alone.
"I've always wanted to be a drummer [and] As long as she is comfortable with my wife, I will continue to do so.” Rolling Stone magazine in 1996.
When Charlie wasn't touring or recording, he and his family lived on a 600-acre 16th-century farm in Devon, better known for their Polish Arabian horses and animal rescue than for being the most unique drummer in rock history. Stories about Watts were more likely to appear in The world of Arabian horses They were also in a music publication.
According to Charlie, his wife had a warm relationship with Jagger and Richards and, unlike him, played Stones music throughout the house. But Shirley herself expressed mixed feelings, saying Vanity Fair in 1989 that the band's drug use affected her life "very, very deeply" and that it was otherwise of little use to the world of rock stars.
"It was absolutely awful to be sucked into the life of the Rolling Stones," she said. "I was really lost for 25 years and I could never handle it. There was a lot of anger, a lot of it very deep. I love the people in the group - to a degree. But I always hated the way rock music and its world treated women and especially the Rolling Stones attitude . There is no respect ".
Shirley Ann Shepherd was born in London in 1938 and was studying sculpture at the Royal College of Art in the early 1960s when she first saw her future husband, who was at the time part of an emerging blues and jazz scene in England that also included Jagger and Richards. They were already dating when Watts joined the Stones early in 1963, and married the following year, just as the band established themselves second only to the Beatles in local popularity.
Charlie Watts said about it when I questioned it Watchman in 2000. “And I loved the world she was in, the world of art and sculpture. I admired Shirley very, very much.”
The biggest scandal in their marriage was their decision to get married. Weddings of rock stars were considered a bad thing at the time, and this was a turn-off for young female fans — the Beatle's John Lennon was among those who hedged when asked about his home life by reporters.
Without telling the other Stones, Watts married in Bradford and had a quiet lunch at a nearby pub. According to Paul Sexton Charlie's Good Tonighta 2022 biography of the late drummer written in collaboration with his family, Charlie Watts initially denied reports that he was married, saying: daily expression that it "would do great harm to my career if the story got out". But Shirley happily confirmed that newslettersaying they couldn't "afford to live apart any longer".
Neither Charlie nor Shirley liked to draw attention to themselves, but sometimes they did it anyway. Shirley Watts was arrested at Nice Airport in 1971 for attacking customs officials after they reportedly singled out her husband for attention. In 2016, it threatened to sue Polish government officials over the alleged mistreatment of two Arabian mares at a state-run farm.
Shirley Watts also endured a battle with alcoholism, a battle she helped overcome with hours of sculpting horses and dogs. Watts' shared interest in horses grew from collecting figurines to breeding hundreds of Arabian horses, a passion that began after Charlie purchased a part-stallion for his wife.
“I much like my life here with horses. I love hunting. The feeling of power one gets on a horse,” she said. Vanity Fair. "It's a very primal instinct. When you hear the hounds—they call it music—when you hear the hounds music, it's very exciting. And it affects you and the horse. There's nothing like it. It's dangerous. It's exciting."
"It's like a rock 'n' roll concert," she added with a laugh.
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