Former art student and notable Arabian horse breeder Shirley Ann Watts, who met Charlie Watts prior to joining the Rolling Stones and who went on to have one of rock’s longest marriages, has passed away. In terms of age, she belonged to the 84-year-old club.
“Shirley passed away peacefully on Friday 16th December in Devon after a short illness surrounded by her family.” her family announced Monday. Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones was among those who mourned her.
“We will miss you so much, but take comfort in being reunited with your beloved Charlie,” Wood wrote on Facebook.
Charlie and Shirley Watts were married for over 50 years until Charlie passed away in 2021. while Wood, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards all had many wives and girlfriends. In the mid-1980s, Charlie Watts had a heroin addiction that, in retrospect, nearly destroyed his marriage. Otherwise, he was considered so devoted to his wife and daughter Seraphina that the media largely ignored him.
“I’ve always wanted to be a drummer (and) as long as it’s comfortable with my wife, I’ll keep doing it,” he told Rolling Stone magazine in 1996.
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Charlie and his family owned a 600 acre 16th century estate in Devon. When he wasn’t on the road or in the studio, they were better known for their Polish Arabian horses and their rescue animals than for the drummer’s unique role in rock history. An article about Watts was as likely to appear in Arabian Horse World as it was in a music magazine.
Unlike Charlie, his wife seemed to be friends with Jagger and Richards and enjoyed listening to Stones music around the house. However, Shirley was conflicted; she told Vanity Fair in 1989 that the band’s drug use had damaged her life “very, very deeply” and that she generally had little love for the world of rock stars.
“It was kind of awful to be thrown into the life of the Rolling Stones,” she said. “I’ve been lost for about 25 years and I’ve never been able to process it. There has been a lot of anger, much of it deep. I like the people in the group – to an extent. But I’ve always hated the way rock music and its world treat women in particular rolling Stone attitude. There is no respect.”
Shirley Ann Shepherd met her future husband, a member of the London blues and jazz scene with Jagger and Richards, in the early 1960s while studying sculpture at the Royal College of Art. They began dating before Watts joined the Stones in early 1963, and they married the following year by which time the band had already become as successful as the Beatles in their hometown.
“She was so funny and smart, and she had the most infectious laugh you’d ever heard,” Charlie Watts said of her when interviewed by The Guardian in 2000. “And I loved the world she was in, art and sculpture. I just really, really admired Shirley.
Their decision to tie the knot was the source of most of the controversy surrounding their union. At the time, rock stars who got married were seen as bad for business because they repulsed young female followers. John Lennon of the Beatles was one of many musicians who avoided questions about his family life when interviewed by the press.
Without informing the other Stones, the Watts married in Bradford and had a quiet lunch at a nearby pub. According to Paul Sexton “Charlie’s Good Tonight,” a 2022 biography of the late drummer written with the collaboration of his family, Charlie Watts initially denied reports that he was married, saying “it would do a lot of damage to my career if the story got around .” But Shirley was happy to confirm the news, saying they “couldn’t bear to live apart any longer.”
Neither Charlie nor Shirley enjoyed the spotlight, but they did get into it from time to time. Customs officers at Nice airport detained Shirley Watts in 1971 after she allegedly assaulted them for selecting her husband. Polish government officials reportedly mistreated two Arabian mares on a state-run farm, prompting her to threaten legal action against them in 2016.
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Shirley Watts also had a rough time with alcoholism, but she overcame it with the help of many hours spent cutting horses and fangs. After Charlie bought his wife a half-Arabian stallion, the couple discovered a mutual love of horses that led to the breeding of hundreds of Arabians.
“I prefer my life here with the horses. I like the hunt. The feeling of power you get on a horse,” she said Vanity Fair. It’s a very old instinct. When you hear the dogs – they call it the music – when you hear the dog music, it’s blood-curdling, it’s so exciting. And it affects both you and the horse. Nothing beats it. It’s dangerous. It is exciting.”
She added, with a laugh: “It sounds more like a rock ‘n’ roll concert.”
Last lines
Shirley Ann Watts, a former art student and notable breeder of Arabian horses, passed away. She met drummer Charlie Watts before he joined the Rolling Stones and had one of the most enduring marriages with him. She turned 84 years old.
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