Brian Jones's 1962 Letter Inviting Charlie Watts to the Rolling Stones Goes to Auction
A handwritten letter that Brian Jones sent to Charlie Watts in July 1962, asking him to join the Rolling Stones, is going up for sale. Auction house Sotheby's is offering the letter, along with its envelope, in its New York Rock & Pop Sale on December 15.
Sotheby's has estimated that the letter and envelope will sell for between $70,000 and $80,000. An estimate is the auction house's expected price range, not a guaranteed result. The figures are in US dollars.
When Jones wrote, Watts was the drummer for Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated, a London blues group. According to The Guardian, Jones asked Watts to leave that group and join his own band instead. He described his band as "far better."
Jones posted the letter days before the Rolling Stones played their first official gig at the Marquee Club in London. That gig was the start of the band's public life, and the letter came before it.
Watts did not join right away. He became a Rolling Stone in January 1963, six months after the letter arrived. He stayed with the band until his death in 2021.
The letter and envelope are part of a single sale that also includes other rock and pop material. Bidders will decide the final price on the day, and the result will be published by Sotheby's once the sale closes.
For anyone who has heard the origin story of the band, the sale offers something different: the invitation itself, in Jones's own handwriting, sent by post with the stamp and address still attached to the envelope.
