Drummer Steve Gorman On Charlie Watts' Untouchable Legacy

Paul Natkin / Getty Images – Start Me Up
Charlie Watts circa the 1994 Voodoo Lounge tour. Gorman with the Black Crowes opened for the Stones on some big shows around that era.

On the day news broke on the passing of the great Charlie Watts, the rudder that kept the Rolling Stones ship upright and in the pocket for more than 60 years, Pollstar spoke with Steve Gorman, a drummer who before his current band, Trigger Hippy, was part of the Black Crowes and at one point toured with the Stones. Here, the Westwood One radio host and former Fox Sports host, discusses Watts’ enduring legacy, his kindness, running into him at the Bobby Keys tribute and far more.

Pollstar: What was it like playing with the Stones? What was Charlie like?
Steve Gorman: We [The Black Crowes] toured with The Stones in ‘95 in Europe. And so we had a few occasions backstage where he’d see me in the hallway and just come over because he just knows, “Oh, that’s the drummer in the opening band.” I don’t think he was spinning Black Crowes records back in his hotel rooms (laughs). But he would always come over and go, “How’s it going? Everything okay? Yeah? Good.” Yeah, great. Thanks, Charlie. And I was just very careful not to – I wanted to grab him and, “Come here, dude, let me pick your brain for a day,” right? I was always happy that he would smile, and we’d shake hands and move on with our day. I didn’t want to bug him because even in 1995, The Rolling Stones were at that time, they were, what, 33 years old and everyone then is going like, “How long can this continue?”

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Steve Gorman, drummer for Trigger Hippy and, previously, The Black Crowes, who opened for the Stones in 1995.

Any other Charlie experiences?
And then I saw him a few years ago, the Stones played in Nashville in 2015, so six years ago. And we had a really nice chat that night. The night before their show there was a tribute gig to Bobby Keys, their longtime saxophonist, who had died. And I played a bunch of shows with Bobby. We put a band together. Bobby lived in Nashville like I do, so me and some guys put a band together. And we just went out and played clubs and played all the songs Bobby had recorded. Not just Stones songs, but John Lennon songs, too. His discography is unbelievable. He played with everybody. So we just were like the world’s greatest cover band because we were playing with the guy that played all the saxophone parts. And so Bobby and Keith were very close. I mean, they were honestly just best friends for 40 years. And so the night before the Stones played Nashville, we had this big Bobby Keys night. And they all came out too. It was set up ahead of time. They were there.

They didn’t get on stage and play at all, but they were all in the club all night. And I got up and played a couple of tunes with the house band. And then I walked in the dressing room, and Charlie just popped right up and came over. And he goes, “Hey, Steve, we met back in the – ” I’m like, “Yeah, I know, bud. I know exactly when we met. I can tell you the dates and the cities, and I can tell you what you were wearing. But yes, okay.” And he said, “Oh, it sounds great up there.” And I said, “Well, I’ve been ripping you off for so long. I figure I might as well do it in front of you and just get it over with.” And he laughed. And he’s like, “Oh, no, it’s really good. So what’s going on?” And at the time, I was doing a – I had a national sports talk radio show on Fox Sports Radio for five years. And he said, “What is this show?” And Chuck Leavell, their piano player, had come in and done the show that day. He goes, “Chuck told me he was on your radio show. What is it? What kind of music do you play?” And I said, “Actually, it’s a sports talk show.” And he had the funniest look on his face. And he goes, “You know about sport?” And I said, “No, but they haven’t figured that out yet.” And he thought that was hilarious. Then we had a good laugh.

Were you really ripping him off? When Shake Your Money Maker came out, there were a lot of comparisons to the Stones.
I kind of talked myself into a band before I knew what I was doing. We were getting ready to make [our second] record. Our producer, George Drakoulias, he’s the first person who ever said, “You play like Charlie and you don’t even know it.” And I was like, “You think?” Ringo and Bonham are like my two favorites, you know, at the time, that’s what I would’ve told you. Like, those are the kings of swing. Like those were my two favorite, most musical, drummers. And he’s like, “Dude, when you hit this backbeat, sometimes you just got a total Charlie vibe.” And from the moment he said that, I’m digging into Stones records again, going, “Oh, yeah, I do. I do like playing like that. I do feel natural trying to get behind Rich’s guitar a little bit.” And on the first record, we didn’t get a lot of that. The first record’s very straight. It’s to a click track. It’s not nearly as musical. But after that, every record after that was a band playing live in a studio together. And Rich and I were able to develop our styles together. I’m not trying to be Keith and Charlie at all, but certainly taking a big page from their playbook and applying it to what we did.

Why is Charlie Watts so important and beloved?
I think anybody that does anything for 60 years, you got to start there and say, “Oh, hey, good job, dude,” (laughs) no matter what. But when you’re the eye of a hurricane, like the Rolling Stones, I mean – and it’s not just Mick and Keith. I mean, I really – if you just look at the inner workings of how bands operate, every band is a clown car at the end of the day. You’ve got a bunch of really strong, really headstrong, super opinionated, and ultimately really talented people trying to get to the same place and everybody thinks they’re smarter than everybody else. I mean, it’s standard stuff and The Rolling Stones, not just Mick and Keith who are, I mean, arguably the two greatest rock stars that we’ve ever had, but then you’ve got Brian Jones was completely out of his mind. Ronnie Wood has spent years out of his mind. Bill Wyman was a complete party animal under the – he kept it quiet but those guys were all living these extraordinary lives. And Charlie was just through the whole thing. He was just the most reliable, the most accountable, the steadiest member of not just the Stones but probably you could say he’s the steadiest musician in rock and roll history. I mean, when you consider all that he had to keep afloat or keep moving down the tracks, that band could have only gone as far as it went – could have only reached those heights with him on the drum kit.

And when everybody else was falling apart, he’s the guy dragging them across the finish line night after night for years and years. And so, I mean, all of that is something to me that’s just mind-blowing. I mean, I was in a band for years that was incredibly chaotic and I certainly know what it’s like to feel like, “Well, I’ve got to keep this together because if I let go, the whole thing falls apart.” And I did experience that for years but nothing at the level of the Stones where you really are talking about one of the greatest bands of all time, certainly the biggest and the most riding on every little decision at certain times in their career.

I mean, they were just in such a pressure cooker, and through it all, there’s just this dude wearing a suit not saying a fucking word but just sitting there. And the confidence that every member of that band has knowing Charlie’s back there, you can’t quantify that. I mean, live music is confidence.

Recording, it’s all about confidence and their greatness is a testament to that. The fact that they were built on the most solid foundation.

It’s just like, “If Charlie’s good, then we’re good” and they understood that, to their credit.