Brian Jones’s 1962 handwritten letter to Charlie Watts, urging him to leave his R&B group and join what would become the Rolling Stones, is being auctioned. Multiple outlets say the letter is linked to Sotheby’s and will be shown publicly for the first time, with the correspondence tracing back through Watts’s family.
The coverage emphasises different details about the letter’s contents and the recruitment attempt. Rolling Stone reports Jones’s comment that the band’s “present drummer is atrocious,” alongside an estimated auction value of $70,000 to $80,000. The Guardian describes Jones’s pitch as “far better” and notes the letter comes via Watts’s sister and has stayed in the family for more than six decades.
The Independent focuses on the letter’s language and the context of Jones’s early bid to recruit Watts, including the date it was sent. Belfast Telegraph and The Independent titles both highlight the auction aspect as the main takeaway, while Rolling Stone foregrounds the “historic” nature of the letter surfacing.
