Handwritten Letter Brian Jones Penned Asking Charlie Watts To Join The Rolling Stones Is Going up for Auction
A handwritten letter from Brian Jones inviting Charlie Watts to leave Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated and join the group that became the Rolling Stones is going up for auction in New York this December. Dated 3 June 1962, it captures Jones seeking a drummer before the band had its name, and offers a glimpse of how its early line-up and sound were taking shape.
Watts did not join until January 1963, alongside Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and remained with the Stones until his death in 2021. The letter had been owned by Watts’ sister and is estimated to sell for $70,000 to $80,000. In it, Jones describes the group’s rehearsals and ambition, while bluntly calling its current drummer “atrocious”.
In short
- Brian Jones’s 1962 letter inviting Charlie Watts to join the Stones is up for auction.
- The letter is expected to fetch $70,000 to $80,000.
- Watts joined the band in January 1963 and played with it until 2021.
Explained simply
The Rolling Stones formed in London in the early 1960s, drawing on American blues and rhythm and blues. Brian Jones helped bring the group together, while Mick Jagger and Keith Richards became its best-known singers and songwriters.
Before the Stones had settled on a name or line-up, they were looking for a drummer. Charlie Watts was then playing with Blues Incorporated, a blues band led by Alexis Korner; he joined the Stones in January 1963 and stayed with them until his death in 2021.
The letter offers a glimpse of the band’s early plans and its links to London’s blues scene. Its significance lies in documenting a moment before Watts joined, as the group was still taking shape.