# Brian Jones’s 1962 letter recruiting Charlie Watts heads to auction

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/dear-charlie-letter-revealing-move-to-snare-future-rolling-stones-drummer-up-for-auction/
- Published: 2026-10-28T13:11:14+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-28T13:21:04+00:00
- Original publisher: The Guardian (publisher lean: Left)
- Original article: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/oct/28/charlie-watts-brian-jones-letter-rolling-stones-auction
- Topics: Culture, Entertainment, Music

## Key points

- Jones’s 1962 recruitment letter to Watts is going to auction.
- It remained with the Watts family for more than six decades.
- The letter is estimated to fetch up to $80,000.

## Summary

The previously private 1962 letter Brian Jones wrote to recruit Charlie Watts to his fledgling band will go on public display for the first time before being auctioned. Preserved by Watts’s family for more than six decades, it offers a rare record of the group’s early ambition and the effort to bring in the drummer who helped shape the Rolling Stones’ sound.

Jones asked Watts to leave Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, claiming his own band was already “far better” and calling its current drummer “atrocious”. Watts joined seven months later, in January 1963, by which time bassist Bill Wyman had also joined; the letter is estimated at $70,000 to $80,000 (£52,000 to £60,000). It will be displayed at Sotheby’s New York from 2 to 8 December, with online bidding open until the 15 December sale.

## Coverage

- [The Guardian: Brian Jones’s 1962 letter recruiting Charlie Watts heads to auction](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/oct/28/charlie-watts-brian-jones-letter-rolling-stones-auction)
- [Rolling Stone: Historic Brian Jones Letter Inviting Charlie Watts to Join Rolling Stones in 1962 Surfaces](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/brian-jones-letter-charlie-watts-1962-1235648785/)

---
Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.