When Charlie Watts Beat Throat Cancer – and the Stones’ Emergency Plan with Steve Jordan

In 2004, Charlie Watts was diagnosed with throat cancer and had to step away from the Rolling Stones for several months while undergoing treatment. The band was already booked for a European tour that summer, so they had to move fast. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards briefly considered a full-time replacement, but instead called in session drummer Steve Jordan – a longtime friend of Richards’ from the X-Pensive Winos – to sit in for the shows.

Jordan learned the entire setlist in days and played the 2004 European tour without missing a beat. Watts recovered fully by early 2005 and returned for the band’s A Bigger Bang tour later that year. The experience also forged a deeper bond between Jordan and Richards, which would become crucial years later when Watts passed away in 2021 and Jordan officially replaced him.