ROLLING Stones legend Charlie Watts sadly died at the age of 80.
The superstar drummer passed away with his devoted wife Shirley Ann Shepherd by his side.
Why didn’t Charlie Watts tell his Rolling Stone bandmates he was married to Shirley Ann Shepherd?
Charlie was the most private member of the Rolling Stones, to the point where he didn’t even tell his fellow band members when he got married to wife Shirley.
For a while, he lived with his bandmates Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Brian Jones in a party flat in Chelsea.
But after the Stones started getting popular, he moved to an apartment overlooking Regent’s Park and married his art student girlfriend, Shirley.
Concerned that his marriage would alienate the group’s adoring fans, Charlie decided to hardly tell anyone about it.
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Despite the well documented shenanigans his fellow bandmates took part in with groupies, Charlie remained faithful to his beloved Shirley.
In Robert Greenfield’s STP: A Journey Through America with The Rolling Stones, a documentary of their 1972 American Tour, it is noted that when the group was invited to the Playboy Mansion, Charliets took advantage of Hugh Hefner’s game room instead of frolicking with the women.
“I’ve never filled the stereotype of the rock star,” he remarked. “Back in the Seventies, Bill Wyman and I decided to grow beards, and the effort left us exhausted.”
When did Charlie Watts and Shirley Ann Shepherd get married?
After getting married in 1964, the happy couple shared 57 blissful years together, with Charlie saying often that he was glad to have met Shirley before stardom
The couple share one daughter, Seraphina, who was born in 1968, and she gave the rocker his only grandchild, Charlotte.
Speaking out about his successful marriage in the past, Charlie credited the fact that he was “not really a rock star” and only wanted to make music.
His love for Shirley and Seraphina was his driving force for success, and he had no interest in being in the public eye.
He told NME: “I don’t have all the trappings of that. I’ve never been interested in doing interviews or being seen.”