Unseen Letter From Brian Jones Inviting Charlie Watts to Join The Rolling Stones Up for Auction: ‘Our

A carta, escrita em junho de 1962, foi enviada apenas semanas antes da primeira apresentação ao vivo da banda.

A previously unseen handwritten letter from late Rolling Stones guitarist and co-founder Brian Jones inviting drummer Charlie Watts to join the legendary group is up for auction.

Addressed to “Mr. C. Watts” at his childhood home in Wembley, England, the letter was written in June 1962 and sent before the band formally adopted their name, just weeks before their first performance that July.

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The letter provided by Watt’s sister was in the family’s possession for more than 60 years and it, along with the original envelope, will make their auction debut at Sotheby’s New York’s Rock & Pop sale on Dec.

The friendly, cheeky missive from Jones — who was initially a creative engine of the band before drug and alcohol issues caused his firing in 1969 — opens with the friendly greeting, “Dear Charlie, if you consider this letter rather impertinent, please excuse me…” According to Sotheby’s, Jones then asks about Watts’s work with Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated band, which was one of the leading R&B acts on the London scene at the time.

He then makes his pitch. “We are looking for a good drummer. Already we consider our band far better than Alex’s – we are getting a very tightly-knit sound,” he wrote of the budding group, which at that point consisted of two guitars, harmonica, piano and drums, with plans to add a bassist, as well as a clear-eyed measure of their then-current timekeeper.

Inicialmente, a carta não parecia fazer efeito, pois levou mais sete meses antes que Watts se juntasse oficialmente ao grupo em janeiro de 1963. A carta estará em exibição pública na Sotheby’s New York a partir de Dec.

The Stones are gearing up to release an expanded edition of this year’s Foreign Tongues album, renamed Foreign Tongues, Loose Lips. The set featuring five new songs from the sessions for the group’s 25th studio album is due out on Nov.

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