Charlie Watts has stepped down from being drummer of the upcoming Rolling Stones Tour No Filter, due to recovering from a medical procedure. At the moment, he is recovering from throat cancer that he was diagnosed with back in 2004. Doctors have said he needs rest and recovery, meaning he cannot make it to rehearsal. His understudy and good friend Steve Jordan will be taking his place as he recovers.
This will have been his third surgery. He has been through this process before and told BBC, “I thought I was going to die.” “I thought that’s what you did. You get cancer and waste away and die. I had another operation to take the lymph nodes out and radio therapy, which was six weeks long. Now it’s five years clear.”
It may not be known to some people, but Charlie Watts is not the original drummer of the Stones. In the first few months of 1962 they played with Tony Chapman and Carlo Little but he hasn’t missed a gig since 1963.
The Rolling Stones have released their tour dates that will start on September 26th in St. Louis, Missouri at The Dome at America’s Center, and finish on November 20th in Austin, Texas at Circuit of the Americas. The tour will last roughly two months and tickets are still on sale.
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