Charlie Watts' daughter compared him to Ozzy Osbourne
Charlie Watts was "horrified" when his daughter compared him to Ozzy Osbourne.
The Rolling Stones drummer - who died in August 2021 aged 80 - and his wife Shirley were left unimpressed when their only child, Seraphina, insisted their home life was very similar to that depicted in 'The Osbournes', a reality TV show from the early 2000s which followed the lives of the Black Sabbath rocker, his manager spouse Sharon, and their youngest children Jack and Kelly.
Seraphina said: “My parents were a bit Sharon and Ozzy of Devon. When I saw that show I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ He walked around the house going ‘Shirleyyy’.
“I said to them, ‘This is you two.’” And I was like stroppy Kelly. All the dogs and everything. They were horrified.”
Seraphina's godfather, Tony King, remembered Charlie as a "thoroughly domesticated" man who was "kept in line" by his beloved wife.
In an extract from Paul Sexton's new book 'Charlie’s Good Tonight: the Authorised Biography of Charlie Watts' - which is being serialised by The Times newspaper - he said: “If you went down to his house, he was always doing the washing up.
"Always making cups of tea, always swearing at the dogs, always cleaning up the s*** and the p*** if they did that in the house, always doing all the menial tasks. He was thoroughly domesticated.
“Shirley always kept him in line. He was never allowed to get too big for his boots if she was around. I remember she wrote me this brilliant letter in the early days when they were touring America, around Altamont time.
"She said, 'Charlie came home at the weekend, full of conceit about being a member of the Rolling Stones. So I made him clean the oven.' "
Seraphina had a "totally normal" childhood in rural France and was unaware of her father's fame until they returned to England in 1976, when she was eight years old.
She recalled: “That’s when I was made aware, by other children.
"That’s when I heard the word ‘rich’ in a negative way. I really don’t remember anything being that different. I got to meet Olivia Newton-John as a birthday present. [But] my father wasn’t interested in a celebrity lifestyle.”
