Rock n’ Roll Royalty: When a Rolling Stones Drummer Stepped into Seattle’s Screwdriver Bar

It was a slow night at Screwdriver Bar, a midsummer Tuesday that was about to conclude like any other ordinary evening at the Belltown rock den. With less than an hour to go before last call, no one expected that it would become what’s arguably the most memorable night in the bar’s history.

It was the night before The Rolling Stones were set to play CenturyLink Field in 2019, a colossal stadium show during which the enduring rock giants made the football field feel like a sweaty, unbridled gig at Belltown Yacht Club, the subterranean rock club adjacent to Screwdriver. Apparently, Mick and the boys were staying at the Four Seasons seven blocks down the street.

Shortly after 1 a.m., in walks Charlie Watts, the famously understated drummer of a band featuring some of rock ‘n’ roll’s largest personas. Watts and a couple crew members pulled up a few seats in the basement bar that co-owner Chris Jones turned into a rock ‘n’ roll clubhouse, plastering the walls with rock memorabilia, including more than a few Stones pieces.

A die-hard Rolling Stones fan, Jones plans to see the formative rock legends for the eighth or ninth time when they play Lumen Field on May 15 — the band’s first Seattle concert since Watts died at 80 in 2021. The night Watts ducked into Screwdriver was a tragic missed connection, as Jones happened to be off that evening, one of his biggest regrets.

“[It was] a lesson learned that if Charlie Watts ever comes down, you call me. You call me a thousand times,” Jones said. “I was like, ‘Did you tell him that basically the bar wouldn’t exist without him?!’”

Although Jones didn’t find out one of his musical heroes had patronized his rock shrine bar until the next day, he dutifully interrogated everyone who was there about what was a perfectly “nondescript sort of interaction.”

Whereas feather-boaed guitarist Keith Richards or hip-swiveling frontman Mick Jagger might have caused more of a commotion popping up in a Seattle bar, the Stones’ jazz-informed drummer was able to enjoy beers (“a local pilsner or something”) with the crew without getting mobbed by selfie hounds.

“Just class,” Jones said of Watts’ presence. “The guy exudes English cool. He’s just well put together and super polite, laid back and was just a really cool guy.”

After hanging out for about 45 minutes, Watts paid for their beers in cash and slipped off into the night. But not before scoping some of the rock ‘n’ roll swag adorning the walls and making “some offhand comments about how the place felt authentic and real.”

“It was an absolute honor to have him come down,” Jones said proudly. “It felt like we had this Rolling Stones fairy dust sprinkled over us since he graced our presence.”

To commemorate the unforgettably casual occasion, the Screwdriver crew printed up T-shirts with the Stones’ iconographic tongue logo (don’t tell their lawyers) dotted with little screwdrivers. The back read “Charlie Watts was here” with the date.

Jones has been a rock ‘n’ roll obsessive since he was a kid and to him (and a lot of people), the English rock greats who came up emulating Black American bluesmen are the archetype.

“When I first heard the Stones, it was like ‘Oh man, this is it,’” Jones said. “It’s the bluesy rock ‘n’ roll boogie-woogie that you can dance to. … The music they made was sexy and sinister, and funny and cutting all at once. But at the end of the day, it was just rock ‘n’ roll that made you want to dance.

Over the years, The Rolling Stones have “been a constant inspiration” to Jones. So much so that he may never have opened his rock-themed bar and music venue without them.

“I always say that I like the Stones so much that I basically built a bar around them,” Jones said. “It could be interpreted as a shrine to the Stones and all their peers and all their derivatives. But all roads always go back to the Stones.”

As for Watts, the cool-handed jazz drummer behind the world’s biggest rock band, was considered a steadying force, anchoring the Stones both on and off stage. Whereas Jagger and Richards were the more outspoken members and principal songwriters who famously quarreled in their heyday, the more even-keeled Watts could rock a stadium, seemingly without breaking a sweat.

“He was the backbone,” Jones said. “Keith has always been kind of like the engine that runs the Stones and he — for decades, on the record — has always said he follows Charlie and Charlie was the guy that held it together.”

Despite Watts’ absence, Richards, Jagger and longtime guitarist Ronnie Wood are riding high on last year’s “Hackney Diamonds,” the Stones’ first album of original material since 2005’s “A Bigger Bang.” Watts recorded drums for two songs before he died, with Steve Jordan — a longtime Richards collaborator who’s stepped in behind the kit — playing on the rest. Recorded with producer Andrew Watt, who also helmed Pearl Jam’s new album, the reinvigorating “Hackney Diamonds” has been widely hailed as some of the band’s best work in decades.

The fact that the Stones are still operating at a high level and “playing like teenagers” at their age (Jagger and Richards are both 80, Wood’s not far behind them) is “a testament to passion and doing what you love,” Jones said. After attending the Stones’ last Seattle concert in 2019 — their first local date in 13 years — Jones was so inspired that he wanted more. He recruited a friend for a Phoenix rendezvous to catch another show. It wasn’t the first time he traveled for an out-of-town Rolling Stones show and likely won’t be the last.

“It’s the Stones. It’s an absolute event,” he said. “Huge stadium shows are really cool with the right band. It’s this collective experience that transcends generations of families.”

“Music is such a great equalizer in terms of bringing people together and speaking the common language,” he said. “You’ll have all walks of life singing along to ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash.’ There’s just nothing better.”

If you go

The Rolling Stones: Hackney Diamonds Tour 2024
8 p.m., May 15, Lumen Field; tickets still available as of May 7; rollingstones.com/tour