Texas Musicians Recall Rolling Stones Drummer Charlie Watts

DALLAS, TX —Musician Jesse Dayton is most at home in one of two places: the stage or the studio.

Today, Dayton is in Austin, putting the finishing touches on an audio book called "Beaumonster," a project that will eventually include his own soundtrack as well.

A longtime guitarist who toured with both Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash, Dayton took some time away from recording to talk about the chance encounter he had with the late Rolling Stones' drummer Charlie Watts, who died Tuesday in London at 80.

"I met all of them, actually," says Dayton outside the studio. "I met them while they were working on "Bridges to Babylon" in the mid-'90s at Oceanway Studios in Hollywood."

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Dayton was recording guitar parts for a track on a Waylon Jennings album, and decided to peek next door during a break in the sessions when he caught a glimpse of producer Don Was.

"I opened the door, and the first thing I saw was Mick Jagger on one of those big block cellphones with the antenna. But across the room, Charlie was just staring at me. Finally he said, 'Hey mate, what are you doing?'"

Dayton explained he was laying down guitar overdubs in the next studio. "You know," Watts told him, "Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys recorded 'Pet Sounds' in this room."

"And then he turns to the band and more or less announces to everyone, 'This bloke's playing guitar on a Waylon record!'"

Dayton remembers being impressed by how friendly and unassuming Watts was, and returned to the studio. "But a while later," the guitarist recalls, "Charlie comes over to our room, and now he looks like he's just walked off Saville Row, with this custom three-piece suit and tie slightly undone. And we just sat for an hour, talking about music and life. He was just a charming and lovely guy."

Sharon Ely, costumer and wife of legendary Texas road rocker Joe Ely, had a similar encounter years ago. Probably, she believes, at the end of the '80s when the Stones returned from a long hiatus with their "Steel Wheels" album.

For years, the Joe Ely band and The Rolling Stones shared the same sax player, "the ruby-lipped essence of Lubbock, Texas," as he's referred to on Joe Cocker's "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" LP of the early '70s. His name was Bobby Keys, and he's the one you can hear wailing into the stratosphere on "Brown Sugar."

Since Keys was touring with the Stones, he invited Joe and Sharon to see the band in Houston. At the venue, they were escorted backstage to a lavish buffet of food and drink, and while Joe went to find Bobby, Sharon was left alone in the hospitality suite with a gent she thought was a band valet.

There, a nice fellow crisply dressed in white asked her if she'd like tea, and she said she would. When her husband returned with Keys, Bobby said (and we're paraphrasing here), "I see you've already met Charlie."

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