Charlie Watts: 'Mick Jagger Is Like James Brown'

Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts has compared Mick Jagger’s work ethic to that of the late soul singer James Brown.

Despite their punishing world tours, Watts said that Jagger still seeks perfection from every performance.

"My mind doesn't usually wander off to trivial things, even when I'm playing a song I know backwards,” he told Word.

“The minute you (do), a mistake happens. And bloody hell: Mick will turn around and give you a dirty look -- he's got eyes everywhere, even when he's leaping about. He's like James Brown."

Watts went on to explain that he prefers playing live to recording in the studio.

"Playing live has always been the thing we've done best,” he said. “Studio stuff is something I've learned to do over the years.

“For me it's a bit of an interruption between playing live -- a way of getting another lot of songs together that we can choose to play live, or not."