Rolling Stones couldn't see Charlie Watts before death

The Rolling Stones weren’t “allowed” to see Charlie Watts before he died.

The group’s drummer passed away in August at the age of 80 and his bandmates admitted it came as a shock because they thought he was on the mend after undergoing a medical procedure, only to then experience a “complication or two”.

Guitarist Ronnie Wood was the last member of the band to see Charlie alive when he visited him in a London hospital weeks before he passed away – and by coincidence, Charlie was in the same room the 74-year-old muian had stayed in when he was being treated for cancer in 2020.

Ronnie joked: “We call it the Rolling Stones suite.”

He then added in an interview with the Los Angeles Times newspaper: “We watched horse racing on TV and just shot the breeze. I could tell he was pretty tired and fed up with the whole deal. He said, ‘I was really hoping to be out of here by now,’ then after that there was a complication or two and I wasn’t allowed back. No one was.”

Keith Richards admitted he still hasn’t processed the loss of his friend.

He said: “I’m still trying to put it together in my head. I don’t think I can be very erudite on Charlie at the moment.”

But the 77-year-old guitarist praised his late friend’s sense of humour.

He said: “Charlie was one of the funniest guys I’ve ever known, and the most unlikely man to be famous. He hated that side of the job and used to savagely take the p*** out of it.”

Frontman Sir Mick Jagger recalled how he and Charlie used traditional methods to stay in touch when the group weren’t working.

He said: He didn’t do email or text or FaceTime, so I’d phone him and we’d talk about football.”

The group have been working on a new studio album and confirmed Charlie will feature on some of the tracks.

Keith said: “Let me put it this way. You haven’t heard the last of Charlie Watts.”