Bill Wyman explains why Stones continued after Watts’ death

The bassist Bill Wyman was a member of the Rolling Stones from 1962 until he decided to retire in 1993. Since then he focused on his solo career, worked on other projects and played a few times with the Stones, including on their latest album “Hackney Diamonds” in 2023. He was invited to play bass in the song “Live By The Sword”, which also had the drum parts recorded by Charlie Watts before he passed away in 2021.

In an interview with Classic Rock, the musician talked about that and also explained why the Stones continued after Watts’ death.

Bill Wyman explains why Stones continued after Watts’ death

“When Charlie left, I thought they would close. I really did. They could replace the bass, but I didn’t think they could replace Charlie, and his charisma, and what a great guy he was, but they went on, which surprised me. I wouldn’t say it disappointed me, but it surprised me. I think it would’ve been a good time for them to… But I don’t think they’ve got anything else to do, otherwise they’d do it, wouldn’t they?”

“I’ve got six different things I’m doing all the time. I’m so happy doing them, but I don’t think they… Well, Ronnie’s got art, as a second thing. And Mick’s tried to do movies and things but hasn’t really succeeded, and he’s done solo stuff which really didn’t work as well as it should’ve done either. And so they just… It’s just the Stones all the time,” Bill Wyman said.

Watts and Wyman used to see each other every week

In the same interview the musician said that they were close and would meet every week. Charlie would go to his house and have a cup of tea and they would chat for hours. Wyman said that he was quite happy when the Stones invited him to recorfd the song on their latest album but he wasn’t crazy about the track.

“I wasn’t crazy about the song, and I wasn’t crazy about the way they’d done it. It was just full of guitars, and there was no air in it. No spaces, no gaps. There are probably eight guitars on there, instead of two. It could have been done so much simpler. But that’s the way they do it, bless ’em. It was hard for me to put a bass in because there wasn’t a lot of room.”

“Anyway, after I’d finished my part, and was happy with it, I said: ‘Have you got any other songs that I could do while I’m here?’ And they said: ‘Yeah, there’s another one.’ So they set it up, and I played bass on it. They said: ‘We’ll save that for the next album.’ So I might be on the next album as well,” Bill Wyman said.

In 2024, at the age of 88, the original Wyman released his ninth solo studio album, which is called “Drive My Car”. It is his first album in nine years, since the most recent one “Back to Basics” was released back in 2015.