Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview
  • Charlie's Good Tonight

  • The Authorised Biography of Charlie Watts
  • By: Paul Sexton
  • Narrated by: Paul Sexton
  • Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (33 ratings)

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Charlie's Good Tonight

By: Paul Sexton
Narrated by: Paul Sexton
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

Featuring forewords from bandmates Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, this is the official and fully authorised biography of the world’s most revered and celebrated drummer.

Mid-1962. The newly formed Rolling Stones are on the hunt for a permanent drummer. Their sights are set on Charlie Watts, a jazz musician already well-known within London’s rhythm and blues clubs. Fortunately for future Stones fans the world over, they persuade him to take on the job.

Once installed at the drum seat, Charlie would not miss a beat for the rest of his life. He was there throughout the swinging sixties as the Stones reached superstardom and for the well-documented debauchery of the 1970s, typified by the iconic album Exile on Main St. Battling his own demons by the eighties, Charlie emerged unscathed, cementing his reputation as the thoughtful, cultured but no less compelling counterpoint to his more raucous bandmates.

For almost 60 years – through all the band bust-ups, bereavements and changes in personnel both on stage and off – Charlie remained the rock at the heart of the Rolling Stones. At the same time, he was the antithesis of the rock-star archetype, an intensely private man who valued his family above all else.

Drawing on new interviews with his family, friends and former bandmates – including Mick Jagger and Keith RichardsCharlie’s Good Tonight is the remarkable life story of Charlie Watts: official, authorised and as it’s never been told before.

©2022 Paul Sexton (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Tastemaker cover art
One Train Later cover art
John Farnham cover art
Moon the Loon cover art
Sweet Dreams Are Made of This cover art
No Beethoven cover art
Have a Little Faith cover art
Verse, Chorus, Monster! cover art
The Dreamer cover art
Exit Stage Left cover art
Absolute Beginner cover art
Where’s My Guitar? cover art
The McCartney Legacy cover art
Dana Gillespie cover art
My Book of Genesis cover art
Blues from Laurel Canyon cover art

Critic reviews

‘An affectionate portrait, one that recognises Watts as musician, colleague, family man, obsessive collector and immaculate dresser.’ Sunday Times

‘Sexton, a longtime Stones chronicler, tells Watts’s story with warmth and diligence’ Observer

‘Exhaustively researched… crammed with telling incidental information’ Telegraph

‘The book that every Stones fan will want to read this Christmas, largely because, like its subject, it’s sharp, straightforward and blessed with significant dry wit … an essential purchase’ Classic Rock

‘A book as gentle, fascinating and companionable as the man himself’ Mojo

‘Favours substance over flash, presenting an affectionate account of a devoted family man and friend, a particularly British type of eccentric, who just happened to play drums for the Rolling Stones.’ Irish Independent

What listeners say about Charlie's Good Tonight

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    25
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    20
  • 4 Stars
    8
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    24
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

English Gentleman

Charlie led a very interesting life. True gent, loved by all. Very down to earth.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A great listen

What a different person to what you imagine. Jazz at heart but the beating heart of the rolling stones

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Charlie 's good to night

Loved Charlie watts. Musicians and early band members would enjoy reading this. Too much for me to absorb. The narrator was monotonous.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

"Five and a half decades in a suitcase."

A fan of the music of the Stones since the mid 1960s, and especially of their jazz oriented drummer, I knew nothing about Charlie Watts other than his notorious desire for privacy. Now I can also add to that his generosity, love of family, an outrageous collecting newness and a sense of both style and design.
Much of the book covers the bare bones of fifty plus years of the Rolling Stones as a group - how could it not when this was so much of Charlie's life - but a life spent being himself is still glimpsed, with the help of his family and quotes from those who knew and loved him, including his fellow band members: 'An enigma,' Keith called him. It made me wish I'd met the man, not something I usually feel at the end of a biography.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!