Tragically, the other Rolling Stones have not started referring to Mick Jagger as the Thirsty Beaver. “At least not yet,” the 78-year-old frontman said the other day from Charlotte, North Carolina, where a couple of evenings before he’d enjoyed a beer at the historic dive bar of that name – then set the internet a flutter when he posted a photo of himself, baseball cap pulled low, surrounded by half a dozen North Carolinians evidently unaware they were drinking next to a rock ’n’ roll legend. “It was a pretty quiet night,” Jagger said. “I don’t think a lot happens on Wednesday in that area. But, you know, when I go to these towns, I don’t want to just stay in. I like to see something.” Indeed, not long before his moment at the Thirsty Beaver went viral, Jagger documented his visit to the Gateway Arch in St Louis with a delightful picture in which he looks like somebody’s grandpa on holiday. These postcards from America are the latest demonstration of Jagger’s lifelong fascination with the country that created the blues. But you can also think of his excursions as his way of making the most of a bittersweet affair: the Stones’ first tour minus their founding drummer, Charlie Watts, who died in August at age 80 (having never missed a gig, it’s said). The No Filter road show – which launched in 2017, then paused due to the Covid-19 pandemic before resuming last month for a final 13 concerts with the band’s long-time associate Steve Jordan filling in for Watts. The drummer’s death from an unspecified cause came as a shock to his bandmates, according to Jagger, who said they’d believed he was on the mend after an earlier medical procedure. Guitarist Ronnie Wood, 74, said he was the last of the group’s members to see Watts, weeks before he died, in a London hospital room – the same room, in fact, where Wood was treated for cancer in 2020. 2021 Clockenflap music festival cancelled, in blow to Hong Kong music fans “We call it the Rolling Stones suite,” Wood said with a laugh. “We watched horse racing on TV and just shot the breeze. I could tell he was pretty tired and fed up with the whole deal. He said, ‘I was really hoping to be out of here by now,’ then after that there was a complication or two and I wasn’t allowed back. No one was.” Added Keith Richards, 77, of Watts’ passing: “I’m still trying to put it together in my head. I don’t think I can be very erudite on Charlie at the moment.” In a sense, the Stones’ choosing to carry on without Watts is in keeping with tradition: They’ve lost other important members – from bassist Bill Wyman and guitarist Mick Taylor, both of whom quit, to the late Brian Jones, who was fired shortly before he drowned in a swimming pool in 1969 – and they’ve rarely allowed anything to get in the way of doing what they love: playing sublime bar-band rock ’n’ roll and pocketing vast sums of money in the process. (In 2019, the Stones’ tour grossed US$177 million, according to Pollstar.) Still, Watts’ absence feels different. Beyond his musical skills, Watts was the band’s soul; for more than half a century, he brought a wit and tastefulness to the gig that crucially offset his bandmates’ bad-boy flamboyance. Steve Jordan, 64, who began playing with Richards in the mid-’80s as part of the guitarist’s X-Pensive Winos side project, is unconcerned with any criticism of his taking over Watts’ role. “Number 1, I’ve known Charlie since I was 19 years old,” he said. “Number 2, I’m just as devastated if not more than any fan out there about the loss. So nobody can tell me anything about that.” Jordan, also known for his work with Eric Clapton and John Mayer, said he thinks of his job as “carrying a legacy” but that he’s “not up there to do a Charlie Watts impersonation.” He’s quoting some of Watts’ iconic fills “because that’s what the music calls for – and because they’re hooks. Charlie had a lot of hooks. But I’m also bringing the way I play to it.” In rehearsals the band worked though 80 songs, Jordan said, including some relatively deep cuts (such as 1971’s Moonlight Mile and ’76’s Memory Motel ) along with the all-time classics ( Honky Tonk Women , Paint it Black , Satisfaction ). According to published set lists, the Stones have been playing Living in a Ghost Town , which they finished recording last year while in Covid-19 quarantine, and Troubles A’ Comin , a Chi-Lites cover that serves as one of nine previously unreleased outtakes featured on an upcoming 40th-anniversary reissue of 1981’s Tattoo You . Travelling dance adviser aside, the Stones’ road operation is leaner than it used to be, thanks to the pandemic. “I’m really stripped down bare,” Richards said. “What I’ve got is a guitar and a mask. That’s it, pal.” The pandemic slowed work on the Stones’ latest studio album, their first of original songs since A Bigger Bang in 2005. “If everything hadn’t got closed down, we might’ve finished the damn thing,” Richards said. Added Jagger: “We have a lot of tracks done, so when the tour’s finished we’ll assess where we are with that and continue.” Both men were reluctant to describe the new music in any detail. Yet they happily confirmed that their late drummer – the steadfast presence they’ll have to get used to not seeing when they turn around onstage – laid down his parts for a number of songs before he died. “Let me put it this way,” Richards said. “You haven’t heard the last of Charlie Watts.”