In the history of the blues, there has never been anyone quite like the Howlin' Wolf. Six foot three and close to 300 pounds in his salad days, the Wolf was the primal force of the music spun out to its ultimate conclusion. A Robert Johnson may have possessed more lyrical insight, a Muddy Waters more dignity, and a B.B. King certainly more technical expertise, but no one could match him for the singular ability to rock the house down to the foundation while simultaneously scaring its patrons out of its wits.

He was born in West Point, MS, and named after the 21st President of the United States (Chester Arthur). His father was a farmer and Wolf took to it as well until his 18th birthday, when a chance meeting with Delta blues legend Charley Patton changed his life forever. Though he never came close to learning the subtleties of Patton's complex guitar technique, two of the major components of Wolf's style (Patton's inimitable growl of a voice and his propensity for entertaining) were learned first hand from the Delta blues master. The main source of Wolf's hard-driving, rhythmic style on harmonica came when Aleck "Rice" Miller (Sonny Boy Williamson) married his half-sister Mary and taught him the rudiments of the instrument. He first started playing in the early '30s as a strict Patton imitator, while others recall him at decade's end rocking the juke joints with a neck-rack harmonica and one of the first electric guitars anyone had ever seen. After a four-year stretch in the Army, he settled down as a farmer and weekend player in West Memphis, AR, and it was here that Wolf's career in music began in earnest.

By 1948, he had established himself within the community as a radio personality. As a means of advertising his own local appearances, Wolf had a 15-minute radio show on KWEM in West Memphis, interspersing his down-home blues with farm reports and like-minded advertising that he sold himself. But a change in Wolf's sound that would alter everything that came after was soon in coming because when listeners tuned in for Wolf's show, the sound was up-to-the-minute electric. Wolf had put his first band together, featuring the explosive guitar work of Willie Johnson, whose aggressive style not only perfectly suited Wolf's sound but aurally extended and amplified the violence and nastiness of it as well. In any discussion of Wolf's early success both live, over the airwaves, and on record, the importance of Willie Johnson cannot be overestimated.

Wolf finally started recording in 1951, when he caught the ear of Sam Phillips, who first heard him on his morning radio show. The music Wolf made in the Memphis Recording Service studio was full of passion and zest and Phillips simultaneously leased the results to the Bihari Brothers in Los Angeles and Leonard Chess in Chicago. Suddenly, Howlin' Wolf had two hits at the same time on the R&B charts with two record companies claiming to have him exclusively under contract. Chess finally won him over and as Wolf would proudly relate years later, "I had a 4,000 dollar car and 3,900 dollars in my pocket. I'm the onliest one drove out of the South like a gentleman." It was the winter of 1953 and Chicago would be his new home.

When Wolf entered the Chess studios the next year, the violent aggression of the Memphis sides was being replaced with a Chicago backbeat and, with very little fanfare, a new member in the band. Hubert Sumlin proved himself to be the Wolf's longest-running musical associate. He first appears as a rhythm guitarist on a 1954 session, and within a few years' time his style had fully matured to take over the role of lead guitarist in the band by early 1958. In what can only be described as an "angular attack," Sumlin played almost no chords behind Wolf, sometimes soloing right through his vocals, featuring wild skitterings up and down the fingerboard and biting single notes. If Willie Johnson was Wolf's second voice in his early recording career, then Hubert Sumlin would pick up the gauntlet and run with it right to the end of the howler's life.

By 1956, Wolf was in the R&B charts again, racking up hits with "Evil" and "Smokestack Lightnin'." He remained a top attraction both on the Chicago circuit and on the road. His records, while seldom showing up on the national charts, were still selling in decent numbers down South. But by 1960, Wolf was teamed up with Chess staff writer Willie Dixon, and for the next five years he would record almost nothing but songs written by Dixon. The magic combination of Wolf's voice, Sumlin's guitar, and Dixon's tunes sold a lot of records and brought the 50-year-old bluesman roaring into the next decade with a considerable flourish. The mid-'60s saw him touring Europe regularly with "Smokestack Lightnin'" becoming a hit in England some eight years after its American release. Certainly any list of Wolf's greatest sides would have to include "I Ain't Superstitious," "The Red Rooster," "Shake for Me," "Back Door Man," "Spoonful," and "Wang Dang Doodle," Dixon compositions all. While almost all of them would eventually become Chicago blues standards, their greatest cache occurred when rock bands the world over started mining the Chess catalog for all it was worth. One of these bands was the Rolling Stones, whose cover of "The Red Rooster" became a number-one record in England. At the height of the British Invasion, the Stones came to America in 1965 for an appearance on ABC-TV's rock music show, Shindig. Their main stipulation for appearing on the program was that Howlin' Wolf would be their special guest. With the Stones sitting worshipfully at his feet, the Wolf performed a storming version of "How Many More Years," being seen on his network-TV debut by an audience of a few million. Wolf never forgot the respect the Stones paid him, and he spoke of them highly right up to his final days.

Dixon and Wolf parted company by 1964 and Wolf was back in the studio doing his own songs. One of the classics to emerge from this period was "Killing Floor," featuring a modern backbeat and a incredibly catchy guitar riff from Sumlin. Catchy enough for Led Zeppelin to appropriate it for one of their early albums, cheerfully crediting it to themselves in much the same manner as they had done with numerous other blues standards. By the end of the decade, Wolf's material was being recorded by artists including the Doors, the Electric Flag, the Blues Project, Cream, and Jeff Beck. The result of all these covers brought Wolf the belated acclaim of a young, white audience. Chess' response to this was to bring him into the studio for a "psychedelic" album, truly the most dreadful of his career. His last big payday came when Chess sent him over to England in 1970 to capitalize on the then-current trend of London Session albums, recording with Eric Clapton on lead guitar and other British superstars. Wolf's health was not the best, but the session was miles above the earlier, ill-advised attempt to update Wolf's sound for a younger audience.

As the '70s moved on, the end of the trail started coming closer. By now Wolf was a very sick man; he had survived numerous heart attacks and was suffering kidney damage from an automobile accident that sent him flying through the car's windshield. His bandleader Eddie Shaw firmly rationed Wolf to a meager half-dozen songs per set. Occasionally some of the old fire would come blazing forth from some untapped wellspring, and his final live and studio recordings show that he could still tear the house apart when the spirit moved him. He entered the Veterans Administration Hospital in 1976 to be operated on, but never survived it, finally passing away on January 10th of that year.

But his passing did not go unrecognized. A life-size statue of him was erected shortly after in a Chicago park. Eddie Shaw kept his memory and music alive by keeping his band, the Wolf Gang, together for several years afterward. A child-education center in Chicago was named in his honor and in 1980 he was elected to the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame. In 1991, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. A couple of years later, his face was on a United States postage stamp. Howlin' Wolf is now a permanent part of American history. ~ Cub Koda

At his peak, Eric Clapton was nicknamed "God" by his fans, an indication of how highly regarded the guitarist was during his glory days. This phrase, immortalized in graffiti that spread across London in 1967, originated a few years earlier when Clapton was playing with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers just after leaving the Yardbirds in 1965. Clapton never was comfortable with the nickname -- he embraced "Slowhand," titling his 1977 album after it -- but "Clapton Is God" is a pivotal part of his story and an instrumental moment in the rise of the guitar hero, a rock & roll cliché that didn't exist prior to EC. To be sure, there were flashy players in blues and rock prior to Clapton, but nothing along the lines of Clapton, whose fame quickly eclipsed Mayall's in the Bluesbreakers and whose playing became the centerpiece of Cream, the psychedelic power trio he co-led with bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker between 1966 and 1968. Clapton was venerated for his fast-fingered solos (the "Slowhand" nickname was in jest) and that's what people came to see. Although he sang some Cream songs, it took him a while before he embraced lead vocals, easing into a solo career after a stint with Delaney & Bonnie in 1969 and 1970. Clapton was so reticent to step to the front of the stage that he adopted a pseudonym for what's regarded as his finest album, Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs by Derek & the Dominos, but after a bout with addiction that sidelined him through much of the early '70s, he re-emerged as the pre-eminent guitarist of his generation, a sword-slinger who undercut his bravado with pretty ballads, like "Wonderful Tonight." The '80s may not have treated Clapton kindly -- he teamed with Phil Collins for albums designed to bring him hits that never materialized -- but he reigned in the '90s, benefitting from the acoustic authenticity of 1993's Unplugged, which turned into one of his biggest records. After that LP, he went out of his way to boost his idols -- he cut full albums with J.J. Cale and B.B. King -- while occasionally taking an odd stylistic departure (his odd TDF side project with Simon Climie) but always reconnecting with the blues roots upon which his entire career lay, as evidenced by his relaxed 2021 album The Lady in the Balcony: Lockdown Sessions.

By the time Eric Clapton launched his solo career with the release of his self-titled debut album in mid-1970, he was long established as one of the world's major rock stars due to his group affiliations -- the Yardbirds, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Cream, Blind Faith -- all of which had demonstrated his claim to being the best rock guitarist of his generation. The fact that it took Clapton so long to go out on his own, however, was evidence of a degree of reticence unusual for someone of his stature. And his debut album, though it spawned the Top 40 hit "After Midnight," was typical of his self-effacing approach: it was, in effect, an album by the group he had lately been featured in, Delaney & Bonnie & Friends.

Not surprisingly, before his solo debut had even been released, Clapton had retreated from his solo stance, assembling from the D&B&F ranks the personnel for a group, Derek & the Dominos, with whom he played for most of 1970 and recorded the landmark album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. Clapton was largely inactive in 1971 and 1972, due to heroin addiction, but he performed a comeback concert at the Rainbow Theatre in London on January 13, 1973, resulting in the album Eric Clapton's Rainbow Concert (September 1973). He did not launch a sustained solo career until July 1974, though, when he released 461 Ocean Boulevard, which topped the charts and spawned the number one single "I Shot the Sheriff."

The persona Clapton established over the next decade was less that of guitar hero than arena rock star with a weakness for ballads. The follow-ups to 461 Ocean Boulevard -- There's One in Every Crowd (March 1975), the live E.C. Was Here (August 1975), and No Reason to Cry (August 1976) -- were less successful. But Slowhand (November 1977), which featured both the powerful "Cocaine" (written by J.J. Cale, who had also written "After Midnight") and the hit singles "Lay Down Sally" and "Wonderful Tonight," was a million-seller. Its follow-ups, Backless (November 1978), featuring the Top Ten hit "Promises," the live Just One Night (April 1980), and Another Ticket (February 1981), featuring the Top Ten hit "I Can't Stand It," were all big sellers.

Clapton's popularity waned somewhat in the first half of the '80s, as the albums Money and Cigarettes (February 1983), Behind the Sun (March 1985), and August (November 1986) indicated a certain career stasis. However, he was buoyed up by the release of the box set retrospective Crossroads (April 1988), which seemed to remind his fans of how great he was. Journeyman (November 1989) was a return to form. It would be his last new studio album for nearly five years, though in the interim he would suffer greatly and enjoy surprising triumph. On March 20, 1991, Clapton's four-year-old son was killed in a fall. While he mourned, he released a live album, 24 Nights (October 1991), culled from his annual concert series at Royal Albert Hall in London, and prepared a movie soundtrack, Rush (January 1992). The soundtrack featured a song written for his son, "Tears in Heaven," that became a massive hit single.

In March 1992, Clapton recorded a concert for MTV Unplugged that, when released as an album in August, became his biggest-selling record ever. Two years later, he returned with a blues album, From the Cradle, which became one of his most successful releases, both commercially and critically. Crossroads, Vol. 2: Live in the Seventies, a box set chronicling his live work from the '70s, was released to mixed reviews. In early 1997, Clapton, billing himself by the pseudonym "X-Sample," collaborated with keyboardist/producer Simon Climie as the ambient new age and trip-hop duo T.D.F. The duo released Retail Therapy to mixed reviews in early 1997.

Clapton retained Climie as his collaborator for Pilgrim, his first album of new material since 1989's Journeyman. Pilgrim was greeted with decidedly mixed reviews upon its spring 1998 release, but the album debuted at number four and stayed in the Top Ten for several weeks on the success of the single "My Father's Eyes." In 2000, Clapton teamed up with old friend B.B. King on Riding with the King, a set of blues standards and material from contemporary singer/songwriters. Another solo outing, entitled Reptile, followed in early 2001. Three years later, Clapton issued Me and Mr. Johnson, a collection of tunes honoring the Mississippi-born bluesman Robert Johnson. Released in 2005, Back Home, Clapton's 14th album of original material, reflected his ease with fatherhood. Also in 2005, he unexpectedly teamed with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker for a Cream reunion that included May concerts at London's Royal Albert Hall and shows at New York's Madison Square Garden in October, with the former being compiled for a live release that fall.

This turned out to be the first of many reunions and looks back for Clapton. In 2006, he elevated the profile of his latter-day idol J.J. Cale by recording an album-long duet, The Road to Escondido. The following year he released his autobiography -- accompanied by a new career compilation called The Complete Clapton -- which focused more on his trials with addiction and subsequent recovery than his musical career. In 2008, Clapton began playing regular shows with his old Blind Faith partner Steve Winwood, gigs that were captured on the 2009 double-live set Live from Madison Square Garden. In addition, Winwood appeared on Clapton's next studio album, 2010's Clapton, which was a collaboration-heavy affair also featuring Cale, Sheryl Crow, Allen Toussaint, and Wynton Marsalis. In 2011, Clapton returned the favor to Marsalis by collaborating on the live concert album Play the Blues: Live from Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Clapton parted ways with Warner after Clapton, and he chose to set up his own Bushbranch imprint on independent label Surfdog. His first album for the label was Old Sock, largely a collection of old songs the guitarist loved. It reached the Top Ten in the U.S. and Great Britain. In the fall of 2013, Warner Bros. released Crossroads Guitar Festival 2013, and his Unplugged album was expanded and remastered by Rhino. Early the following year, Clapton announced that a new album, The Breeze: An Appreciation of J.J. Cale, would be issued in July, one year on from the passing of his key inspiration. The tribute album included contributions from artists such as Willie Nelson, John Mayer, Tom Petty, and Mark Knopfler. A collection of his Warner recordings called Forever Man saw a spring 2015 release. Clapton returned in May 2016 with I Still Do, his third album for Surfdog. It found him reuniting with Slowhand producer Glyn Johns; the set debuted at six on the Billboard Top 200. Later that year, Clapton issued Live in San Diego, a double-disc album featuring a 2007 concert with J.J. Cale. In 2018, he released his first holiday album, Happy Xmas.

Clapton next appeared playing and singing on 2020's "Stand and Deliver," an anti-COVID-19 lockdown protest song written by Van Morrison. The pair reunited for "This Has Gotta Stop," another anti-lockdown single, in August 2021. At the end of the year, he released The Lady in the Balcony: Lockdown Sessions, a live-in-the-studio collection of blues standards and old Clapton hits. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

As a solo artist, Steve Winwood is primarily associated with the highly polished blue-eyed soul-pop that made him a star in the '80s. Yet his turn as a slick, upscale mainstay of adult contemporary radio was simply the latest phase of a long and varied career, one that's seen the former teenage R&B shouter move through jazz, psychedelia, blues-rock, and progressive rock. Possessed of a powerful, utterly distinctive voice, Winwood was also an excellent keyboardist who remained an in-demand session musician for most of his career, even while busy with high-profile projects. That background wasn't necessarily apparent on his solo records, which established a viable commercial formula that was tremendously effective as long as it was executed with commitment.

Stephen Lawrence Winwood was born May 12, 1948, in the Handsworth area of Birmingham, England. First interested in swing and Dixieland jazz, he began playing drums, guitar, and piano as a child, and first performed with his father and older brother Muff in the Ron Atkinson Band at the age of eight. During the early '60s, Muff led a locally popular group called the Muff Woody Jazz Band, and allowed young Steve to join; eventually they began to add R&B numbers to their repertoire, and in 1963 the brothers chose to pursue that music full-time, joining guitarist Spencer Davis to form the Spencer Davis Group. Although he was only 15, Steve's vocals were astoundingly soulful and mature, and his skills at the piano were also advanced beyond his years. Within a year, he'd played with numerous American blues legends both in concert and in the studio; in 1965, he also recorded the solo single "Incense" as the Anglos, crediting himself as Stevie Anglo. Meanwhile, the Spencer Davis Group released a handful of classic R&B-styled singles, including "Keep on Running," "I'm a Man," and the monumental "Gimme Some Lovin'," which stood with any of the gritty hardcore soul music coming out of the American South.

Winwood eventually tired of the tight pop single format; by the mid-'60s, the cutting edge of rock & roll often involved stretching out instrumentally, and with his roots in jazz, Winwood wanted the same opportunity. Accordingly, he left the Spencer Davis Group in 1967 to form Traffic with guitarist Dave Mason, horn player Chris Wood, and drummer Jim Capaldi, all of whom had played on "Gimme Some Lovin'." The quartet retired to a small cottage in the Berkshire countryside, where they could work out their sound -- a unique blend of R&B, Beatlesque pop, psychedelia, jazz, and British folk -- and jam long into the night without angering neighbors. Traffic debuted in the U.K. with the single "Paper Sun" in May 1967, and soon issued their debut album, Mr. Fantasy (retitled Heaven Is in Your Mind in the U.S.); it was followed by the jazzy psychedelic classic Traffic in 1968. However, conflicts had arisen between Winwood and Mason over the latter's tightly constructed folk-pop songs, which didn't fit into Winwood's expansive, jam-oriented conception of the band. Mason left, returned, and was fired again, and Winwood broke up the band at the beginning of 1969. Even so, by that time, he had become the unofficial in-house keyboardist for Traffic's label Island, playing at numerous recording sessions.

Winwood subsequently hooked up with old friend Eric Clapton, who'd recently parted ways with Cream. The two began jamming and found that they enjoyed working together, and rumors of their collaboration spread like wildfire; the enormous anticipation only grew when ex-Cream drummer Ginger Baker signed on, despite Clapton's misgivings over the expectations that would create. Concert promoters rushed to book the band before any material had been completed (hence the band's eventual name, Blind Faith), and offered too much money for them to refuse, despite their lack of rehearsal time. Their self-titled debut, released in the summer of 1969, was a hit, but the extreme pressure on the group led to their breakup even before the end of the year. Winwood joined Baker in a large, eclectic new supergroup called Ginger Baker's Air Force, but Winwood still had contractual obligations to Island, and he left not long after Air Force's debut performance at the Royal Albert Hall in early 1970.

Winwood began work on what was slated to be his first solo LP, but he gradually brought in more ex-Traffic members to help him out, to the point where the album simply became a band reunion. John Barleycorn Must Die was released later in 1970, showcasing the sort of jam-happy jazz-rock sound that Winwood had in mind for the group from the start. Several more albums in that vein followed, including 1971's The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys, which brought Traffic to the peak of their commercial popularity in America. The run was briefly interrupted by Winwood's bout with peritonitis around 1972, but he'd recovered enough to play a major role in Eric Clapton's early 1973 comeback concerts at the Rainbow Theatre. Traffic broke up in 1974, but instead of going solo right away, an exhausted Winwood spent the next few years as a session musician, relaxing on his Gloucestershire farm during his spare time. He also featured prominently as a collaborator with Japanese percussionist Stomu Yamash'ta, appearing on his hit jazz fusion LP Go in 1976.

When Winwood finally returned with his self-titled solo debut in 1977, Britain was in the midst of the punk revolution, and the music itself was somewhat disappointing even to Winwood himself. Dismayed, he returned to Gloucestershire and all but disappeared from music. He returned in late 1980 with the little-heralded Arc of a Diver, a much stronger effort on which he played every instrument himself. Modernizing Winwood's sound with more synthesizers and electronic percussion, Arc of a Diver was a platinum-selling hit in the U.S., helped by the hit single "While You See a Chance"; it received highly positive reviews as well, most hailing the freshness of Winwood's newly contemporary sound. The extremely similar 1982 follow-up Talking Back to the Night sounded rushed to some reviewers, and it wasn't nearly as big a hit, with none of its singles reaching the Top 40. Unhappy with the record, Winwood even considered retiring to become a producer (though his brother talked him out of it).

Taking more time to craft his next album, Winwood didn't return until 1986, with an album of slickly crafted, sophisticated pop called Back in the High Life, which was his first '80s album to feature outside session musicians. It was a smash hit, selling over three-million copies and producing Winwood's first number one single in "Higher Love," which also won a Grammy for Record of the Year. In 1987, Virgin offered Winwood a substantial sum of money and successfully pried him away from Island; a remixed version of Talking Back to the Night's "Valerie," featured on the Island greatest-hits compilation Chronicles, became a Top Ten hit later that year. Winwood's hot streak continued with his first album for Virgin, 1988's Roll with It. The title track became his second number one and his biggest hit ever, and the album topped the charts as well; plus, the smoky ballad "Don't You Know What the Night Can Do?" was featured in a prominent TV ad campaign. Winwood had by now established a large, mostly adult fan base, but that support began to slip with his next album, 1990's Refugees of the Heart. Refugees repeated the slick blue-eyed soul updates of its predecessor, but according to most reviewers, it simply wasn't performed with the same passion, save for the lead single "One and Only Man," a collaboration with Traffic mate Jim Capaldi.

Afterward, Winwood continued his pattern of following disappointments with periods of inactivity; he next resurfaced in 1994 as part of a Traffic reunion with Capaldi. Together they released the new album Far from Home, and toured the world. Winwood subsequently returned to his solo career and spent two years working on Junction Seven, which finally appeared in 1997 and was co-produced by Narada Michael Walden. However, his momentum had stalled, and the album -- which received mixed reviews -- failed to sell well. The following year, Winwood toured with his new project Latin Crossings, a jazz group that also featured Tito Puente and Arturo Sandoval (though they never recorded). He subsequently parted ways with Virgin. About Time appeared in 2003, followed in 2008 by Nine Lives.

Winwood reunited with Eric Clapton for a trio of concerts in New York City's Madison Square Garden in February 2008. Highlights from these shows were released as the 2009 album Live from Madison Square Garden. Over the next decade, Winwood played the occasional studio session -- he appears on Miranda Lambert's 2011 album Four the Record and Gov't Mule's 2013 LP Shout! -- while also gigging fairly steadily. In September 2017, he released Greatest Hits Live, his first solo live album. ~ Steve Huey

As a member of the Rolling Stones for three decades, Bill Wyman established himself among the greatest bassists in rock & roll history; in tandem with drummer Charlie Watts, he belonged to one of the most stalwart rhythm sections in popular music, perfectly complementing the theatrics of Mick Jagger and the gritty guitar leads of Keith Richards. Born William Perks in London on October 24, 1936, Wyman was playing in a group called the Cliftons when he was asked to join the Stones in mid-1962, replacing bassist (and future Pretty Things member) Dick Taylor. Reportedly asked to join the group mainly because he had his own amplifier, he was, at age 25, by several years the oldest member of the group. Regardless, his chemistry with the other bandmembers was immediate, and with the subsequent arrival of Watts, the classic Rolling Stones lineup was soon cemented.

The rest, of course, is history, and before too long the Stones were widely recognized as the World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band. In 1974, Wyman became the first from their ranks to record a solo LP, the all-star Monkey Grip; two years later, he repeated the trick with Stone Alone. In 1981, Wyman scored a solo hit single with the witty dance tune "(Si Si) Je Suis un Rock Star," a song Wyman had originally written for Ian Dury; the song also appeared on his self-titled third solo album, released in 1982. Wyman's next major side project was the 1985 cover band Willie and the Poor Boys; specializing in vintage rock & roll and rhythm & blues, the combo also included Watts, Ron Wood, Jimmy Page, and Paul Rodgers. The project only spawned one studio album, but a live album from the group appeared in 1994. While rarely the recipient of the kind of media attention given his more notorious bandmates, Wyman found himself at the center of scandal in 1989 when he married 19-year-old model Mandy Smith, whom he'd begun dating when she was just 13 years old; they divorced in 1991. In the wake of the scandal, Wyman released a solo album in 1992, Stuff, which was only distributed in Japan and Argentina.

In January 1993, Wyman confirmed long-simmering rumors when he publicly announced his departure from the Stones, and revealed plans to publish an autobiography, Stone Alone, which arrived in book shops in in 1997. Also in 1997, Wyman formed a new band, the Rhythm Kings, a project similar to Willie and the Poor Boys devoted to classic R&B, which featured guitarists Peter Frampton and Albert Lee as well former Procol Harum keyboardist Gary Brooker. The group debuted with the LP Struttin' Our Stuff, followed in 1999 by Anyway the Wind Blows. Wyman greeted the new century with a string of albums including Groovin' (2000), Double Bill (2001), Just for a Thrill (2005), and numerous live recordings and compilations. In 2007, Wyman and the Rhythm Kings were the opening act for Led Zeppelin's wildly anticipated reunion concert at London's O2 Arena. In 2015, Wyman announced he was releasing a new studio album, Back to Basics, his first collection of original songs in over two decades, in June 2015. Two years later, Wyman and the Rhythm Kings released Rocking the Roots, their first studio album in 13 years. ~ Jason Ankeny & Mark Deming

Charlie Watts was world famous as the drummer with the Rolling Stones, a position he held for nearly 60 years, and the subtle yet strong swing of his backbeat and his deceptively simple grooves would become one of the band's audible trademarks. When not busy with the Stones, Watts also enjoyed a celebrated sideline playing jazz, his first love, with a variety of British combos, both large and small. As with the Stones, Watts' jazz work didn't trade in flash, instead displaying a peerless instinct as to where to put the notes to best serve the music. The consistent strength of Watts' performances with the Rolling Stones are borne out on their career-spanning 2002 collection Forty Licks, while among his jazz recordings, 1992's A Tribute to Charlie Parker with Strings is a loving tribute to one of his favorite artists, 2004's Watts at Scott's captures him on-stage at London's premiere jazz venue, and 2017's Charlie Watts Meets the Danish Radio Big Band found him sitting in with a celebrated European ensemble.

Charles Robert Watts was born on June 2, 1941 in London, England. His father drove a lorry, while his mother worked in a factory. Watts grew up in Wembley, Middlesex, and as a youngster he developed a love of music, especially jazz, collecting 78s with his friend Dave Green ranging from Charlie Parker to Jelly Roll Morton. Watts was eager to learn to play an instrument, and in his early teens, he bought a banjo. He soon found he didn't enjoy working out the fingerings for songs, so he removed the neck from the banjo, put the head on a stand, and played it like a snare drum with brushes, following the style of Gerry Mulligan drummer Chico Hamilton. His folks thought he showed promise as a drummer, so they bought him a cheap drum kit in 1955, and his savings were spent on jazz records and upgrading his drum set. After completing secondary school, Watts enrolled at Harrow Art School, and he went on to land a job as a graphic designer and illustrator for an advertising agency. In his spare time, Watts played with a jazz group, but rhythm and blues was becoming the hot new sound in London, and Alexis Korner invited him to join his group Blues Incorporated. Watts took the gig and played out with Korner as his schedule permitted. Watts' tight, tasteful playing and powerful groove caught the attention of another British blues act, who needed a drummer and felt Charlie was the right man for the job. Watts initially opted to stay with Blues Incorporated, but when the Rolling Stones offered to pay him five pounds a week to play with them, he joined the group, playing his first show with them in February 1963. By the end of the year, they had developed a powerful reputation as a live act, and they signed with the British Decca label, with London Records distributing their recordings in North America. Their first single, "Come On," was a moderate hit, and the Stones were on their way. In April 1964, the Rolling Stones released their debut album, and following the success of the Beatles in the United States, they sought to conquer America. "Time Is on My Side" became their first Top Ten hit in the U.S. "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," issued in June 1965, became a massive international smash, and the Rolling Stones would spend the next several decades billing themselves as the Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the World.

While debauchery and wild living would be the order of the day for most of his bandmates, Watts was one Stone who was unimpressed with the trappings of fame. He wed his art school girlfriend, Shirley Ann Shepherd, in 1964, and they would stay together for 57 years. Watts rarely partied after a show, preferring to get a good night's sleep and draw pictures of his hotel rooms in his sketchbook. He used his fortune to indulge his taste in vintage suits, thoroughbred horses, and classic automobiles (despite the fact that he couldn't drive). And through the sometimes bumpy road of the Rolling Stones career, Watts would be a beacon of stability, remaining a steady force behind the kit. Watts was also a moderate drinker who avoided drugs until a combination of a midlife crisis and family problems led to him experimenting with hard drugs in 1983, resulting in a dark period that lasted two years. Tellingly, Watts would clean up when he realized his habit was ruining his marriage, and he gave up drugs and alcohol for life.

Despite his busy schedule with the Rolling Stones, Watts never lost his interest in jazz, and in 1964, he wrote and illustrated a children's book inspired by the life of Charlie Parker, Ode to a High Flying Bird. In the late 1970s, during downtime from the Stones, he began performing with Rocket 88, a group specializing in classic boogie-woogie led by Ian Stewart, the Stones' original pianist and longtime road manager. The group put out an eponymous album recorded during a show in Germany in 1979, in March 1981. After kicking his drug habit in the mid-1980s, Watts began indulging his love for jazz in a bigger way, and he formed the Charlie Watts Orchestra. A 33-piece ensemble featuring a number of notable British jazz artists, it toured the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States. A March 1986 performance by the Orchestra was recorded and then released later the same year as Live at Fulham Town Hall. 1991 saw the release of From One Charlie, with Watts anchoring a band playing favorites from the Charlie Parker catalog; the package included a version of his Ode to a High Flying Bird book. Watts paid further homage to Parker with his next album, 1992's A Tribute to Charlie Parker with Strings, featuring Peter King on sax and credited to the Charlie Watts Quintet. Watts recruited Bernard Fowler, a vocalist who had become part of the Stones' touring ensemble, for 1993's Warm & Tender, a low-key collection of classic standards. Fowler rejoined the Charlie Watts Quintet, with the London Metropolitan Orchestra lending support, for 1996's Long Ago & Far Away, another set of familiar standards. Watts and well-respected studio drummer Jim Keltner created an unusual effort with 2000's Charlie Watts Jim Keltner Project, which featured nine percussion-based pieces laced with electronics that paid tribute to some of their favorite drummers. Watts was in more traditional form on 2004's Watts at Scott's, with Charlie's new ensemble the Tentet recorded live at Ronnie Scott's, long regarded as London's finest jazz club. With Axel Zwingenberger, Ben Waters, and Dave Green, Charlie became 25% of the ABC & D of Boogie Woogie, an ad hoc quartet devoted exclusively to playing vintage boogie-woogie numbers, and they issued an album, Live in Paris, in 2012. Watts sat in with the Danish Radio Big Band for the 2017 LP Charlie Watts Meets the Danish Radio Big Band, which included jazz arrangements of three Rolling Stones classics as well as several more traditional jazz pieces.

Watts's various jazz projects were, of course, created when the Rolling Stones weren't occupied with touring and recording, and the group kept up a busy schedule in the 21st Century. On August 19, 2019, the Stones played a show in Miami, Florida, the last concert before a touring break, performing the final song as rain poured down. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the band to cancel a number of scheduled dates in 2020, and on August 3, 2021, they issued a press release revealing that Watts would be sitting out the make-up shows set to begin in September, due to health issues, with Steve Jordan (a friend of the band who had played on Keith Richards' solo project) as his temporary replacement. On August 24, 2021, Charlie Watts died at a London hospital, surrounded by family, at the age of 80. ~ Mark Deming