Ronnie Wood recalls final meeting with Rolling Stones band mate Charlie Watts

Ronnie Wood has recalled his final meeting with Charlie Watts, revealing he spoke to his Rolling Stones bandmate weeks before he died.

Watts, the group’s beloved drummer, died in August at a London hospital at the age of 80.

His death led to an outpouring of tributes from around the world of rock and roll.

Guitarist Wood, 74, said he visited Watts before he died – in the same hospital room where Wood was treated for cancer in 2020.

“We call it the Rolling Stones suite,” Wood told the Los Angeles Times. “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.”

Guitarist Keith Richards, 77, told the newspaper he was still coming to terms with his friend’s death, which occurred following an unspecified medical procedure.

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.”

The band has embarked on its No Filter tour of the US and paid tribute to Watts on stage in St Louis, Missouri, during their first major performance following his death.

Sir Mick Jagger said Watts would have wanted them to go ahead with the tour, which had been delayed by the pandemic.

He said: “We’d already postponed it by a year, and Charlie said to me, ‘You need to go out there. All the crew that have been out of work – you’re not gonna put them out of work again’. So I think it was the right decision to keep going.

“The band still sounds great onstage, and everyone’s been really responsive at the couple of big shows we’ve done so far.”

The 13-date No Filter tour is scheduled to end in Austin, Texas, on November 20.