The Rolling Stones, once and future Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Band in the World, by living to be so old, are testing the age limits of a musical genre originally meant to be played by and for the young. Blues, jazz, and popular music has always had its graybeards (was Ray Charles, for example, ever young?) but there have never been old rock stars before now. During rock’s half century we’ve watched quite a few young axe-wielders wrinkle, jowl up, and drop dead.
Today we learn the Stones’ drummer, Charlie Watts, who’s 63, has been diagnosed with throat cancer and is finishing up a round of radiotherapy and should make a complete recovery. For a jazz drummer, which he is on the side, being 63 and having cancer is to be expected. But for a rock musician it’s shocking. You may laugh at musical dinosaurs, but they were once the Strokes.
