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A demonstration of the Charlie Watts method for handling interpersonal conflict on a high-performing team of specialists: "One anecdote relates that in the mid

A demonstration of the Charlie Watts method for handling interpersonal conflict on a high-performing team of specialists: "One anecdote relates that in the mid-1980s, an intoxicated Jagger phoned Watts's hotel room in the middle of the night, asking, "Where's my drummer?" Watts reportedly got up, shaved, dressed in a suit, put on a tie and freshly shined shoes, descended the stairs, and punched Jagger in the face, saying: "Don't ever call me your drummer again. You're my fucking singer!"

lisper 5y ago
> punched Jagger in the face That seems a wee bit excessive to me. [UPDATE, since this has gotten a zillion replies and a zillion downvotes]: The point I was intending to make was not that Watts's response was inappropriate under the circumstances (though I think that is also the case), but rather that "Charlie Watts method for handling interpersonal conflict on a high-performing team of specialists" is not one that ought to be held up as an example to be generally emulated.
- toomuchtodo 5y ago
  It's important to set boundaries and expectations in a long term business relationship, with the approach tailored to like minded practitioners.
- mdp2021 5y ago
  I just finished reading pages from Charlie Munger about the importance of putting disincentives to undesirable behaviour. What one finds excessive is, of course, cultural. The pages ended remembering the tribe of two millennia ago who killed the last warrior to show at the assembly, or the use of George Washington to hang farm-boy deserters forty feet high as an example.
  - choeger 5y ago
    Somehow I doubt that this tribe had a lot of successful wars...
  - technothrasher 5y ago
    Did Munger have any citations for these two claims? There seems to be plenty of discussion around on what executions did or didn't happen during the American revolutionary war, but I couldn't find anything even close to hanging farm-boy deserters "forty feet high". On the 2000 year old tribe, I couldn't find anything at all.
    - yann2 5y ago
      If Native Americans displayed undesirable behavior such as not accepting his "fair price" for their land George did have them "extirpated".
  - AdamN 5y ago
    Watched the most recent Berkshire Hathaway meeting which was really fascinating. However, Munger seems like he doesn't challenge his assumptions very often and also builds anecdotes whole cloth without alot of true historical facts to back up the claims. Which book/essay are you referring to?
    - mdp2021 5y ago
      "The Revised Psychology of Human Misjudgment" Text accessible e.g. at fs.blog/great-talks/psychology-human-misjudgment/ > However He is having fun trying to transmit wisdom of his to the interested. That is the scope.
  - upearly3 5y ago
    > two millennia ago who killed the last warrior to show at the assembly Given Shaka Zulu, you don't have to go back that far.
- brodouevencode 5y ago
  That's rock and roll for ya.
- linksnapzz 5y ago
  I think you ought to reserve judgement until after you've had to manage a drunken Mick Jagger on your team. I won't condone this as a general approach, but I can see it working in certain circumstances, with certain people.
  - bryanrasmussen 5y ago
    if that's what you do with a drunk Mick Jagger what the hell do you do with a drunk Keith Richards? You should grab Jagger by the shirt collar and threaten him, so that you can punch Richards and have somewhere to escalate as need be.
    - dylan604 5y ago
      Show me a sober keith richards to compare to, and we can have a talk. Otherwise, it's just dealing with keith.
      - linksnapzz 5y ago
        I was about to say; please tell me how you plan to establish "drunkeness" in Keith; the heuristics applied, the methodology used, the Keith-related emissions to be analyzed && the make and model of the mass-spec and HPLC used in the process.
        dylan604 5y ago
        what ever that machine is, it would be the most sought after machine by every DUI defense lawyer ever.
      - bryanrasmussen 5y ago
        ok so if you punch Jagger, what do you do with Keith?
        crispyambulance 5y ago
        > what do you do with Keith? Probably just tip him over with a slight push of your palm.
- meepmorp 5y ago
  Obviously you’ve never encountered Lead Singer’s Disease; a punch in the face is the only way.
  - Corrado 5y ago
    Have been lead singer; can confirm.
  - redis_mlc 5y ago
    In relationship psychology it's called solipsism, which means the person has constructed their own reality as being above and separate those around them. It's impervious to outside reality and logic. You could interpret Watts action as either him being unable to control himself, or that he recognized Jagger was unreachable to correct his behavior without getting physical.
- fridif 5y ago
  This is why you aren't on a team of high performing individuals
- MichaelMoser123 5y ago
  It's Rock & Roll, they had to take it rough, sometimes.
  - earleybird 5y ago
    +1 for the Tina Turner reference
- crispyambulance 5y ago
  > That seems a wee bit excessive to me. It was a very different, more flamboyant and volatile, era. Recently watched "Gimme Shelter" a documentary about the free concert at Altamont in 1970 that ended with someone in the Hells Angels (which had been hired for security!) stabbing a concert-goer to death. This film, according to some, documents "the end of the 60's" and marked the beginning of a much meaner era. (https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidchiu/2019/12/03/altamont-at-50-the-disastrous-concert-that-brought-the-60s-to-a-crashing-halt/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidchiu/2019/12/03/altamont-a...). "Gimme Shelter" (the film) captures the band personalities in a really preceptive way. Watts is pensive and brooding, Jagger is mercurial and far-removed from Earthy reality.
  - grawprog 5y ago
    Not the song that was actually playing during the stabbing, as the urban legend goes, but, I still think the Altamont show has one of the best versions of Sympathy for the Devil. So raw sounding and you can hear the crowd starting to get riled up and stuff.
pjmorris 5y ago
I'm pretty sure that this is my favorite Rolling Stones story, ever. In 'Life', Keith Richards talked about it really being Charlie's band, he was just in it.
Schiphol 5y ago
This comes from [Keith Richards' autobiography](https://www.keithrichards.com/life https://www.keithrichards.com/life), apparently. Here's the full passage: "Mick and I weren’t on great terms at the time, but I said, c’mon, let’s go out. And I lent him the jacket I got married in. We got back to the hotel about five in the morning and Mick called up Charlie. I said, don’t call him, not at this hour. But he did, and said, ‘Where’s my drummer?’ No answer. He puts the phone down. Mick and I were still sitting there, pretty pissed – give Mick a couple of glasses, he’s gone – when, about twenty minutes later, there was a knock at the door. There was Charlie Watts, Savile Row suit, perfectly dressed, tie, shaved, the whole fucking bit. I could smell the cologne! I opened the door and he didn’t even look at me, he walked straight past me, got hold of Mick and said, ‘Never call me your drummer again.’ Then he hauled him up by the lapels of my jacket and gave him a right hook."
- 8bitsrule 5y ago
  Well. That answers the question, who breaks a butterfly on a wheel, then.
- the-dude 5y ago
  For non native speakers ( like myself ), pissed probably means (very) drunk in this context.
  - ch4s3 5y ago
    In British and Australian English, yes. We don't say it in the US.
    - wyclif 5y ago
      We do say it, but it doesn't mean drunk, it means angry as in "pissed off."
    - bregma 5y ago
      That's interesting. Where I grew up in Canada, "being pissed" could mean either very drunk (piss drunk) or very angry (pissed off) and you need to rely on context to disambiguate. On the other hand, the British phrase "taking the piss" would mean obtaining a urine sample and it's just downright confusing.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

lisper 5y ago

> punched Jagger in the face That seems a wee bit excessive to me. [UPDATE, since this has gotten a zillion replies and a zillion downvotes]: The point I was intending to make was not that Watts's response was inappropriate under the circumstances (though I think that is also the case), but rather that "Charlie Watts method for handling interpersonal conflict on a high-performing team of specialists" is not one that ought to be held up as an example to be generally emulated.

toomuchtodo 5y ago
It's important to set boundaries and expectations in a long term business relationship, with the approach tailored to like minded practitioners.
mdp2021 5y ago
I just finished reading pages from Charlie Munger about the importance of putting disincentives to undesirable behaviour. What one finds excessive is, of course, cultural. The pages ended remembering the tribe of two millennia ago who killed the last warrior to show at the assembly, or the use of George Washington to hang farm-boy deserters forty feet high as an example.
- choeger 5y ago
  Somehow I doubt that this tribe had a lot of successful wars...
- technothrasher 5y ago
  Did Munger have any citations for these two claims? There seems to be plenty of discussion around on what executions did or didn't happen during the American revolutionary war, but I couldn't find anything even close to hanging farm-boy deserters "forty feet high". On the 2000 year old tribe, I couldn't find anything at all.
  - yann2 5y ago
    If Native Americans displayed undesirable behavior such as not accepting his "fair price" for their land George did have them "extirpated".
- AdamN 5y ago
  Watched the most recent Berkshire Hathaway meeting which was really fascinating. However, Munger seems like he doesn't challenge his assumptions very often and also builds anecdotes whole cloth without alot of true historical facts to back up the claims. Which book/essay are you referring to?
  - mdp2021 5y ago
    "The Revised Psychology of Human Misjudgment" Text accessible e.g. at fs.blog/great-talks/psychology-human-misjudgment/ > However He is having fun trying to transmit wisdom of his to the interested. That is the scope.
- upearly3 5y ago
  > two millennia ago who killed the last warrior to show at the assembly Given Shaka Zulu, you don't have to go back that far.
brodouevencode 5y ago
That's rock and roll for ya.
linksnapzz 5y ago
I think you ought to reserve judgement until after you've had to manage a drunken Mick Jagger on your team. I won't condone this as a general approach, but I can see it working in certain circumstances, with certain people.
- bryanrasmussen 5y ago
  if that's what you do with a drunk Mick Jagger what the hell do you do with a drunk Keith Richards? You should grab Jagger by the shirt collar and threaten him, so that you can punch Richards and have somewhere to escalate as need be.
  - dylan604 5y ago
    Show me a sober keith richards to compare to, and we can have a talk. Otherwise, it's just dealing with keith.
    - linksnapzz 5y ago
      I was about to say; please tell me how you plan to establish "drunkeness" in Keith; the heuristics applied, the methodology used, the Keith-related emissions to be analyzed && the make and model of the mass-spec and HPLC used in the process.
      - dylan604 5y ago
        what ever that machine is, it would be the most sought after machine by every DUI defense lawyer ever.
    - bryanrasmussen 5y ago
      ok so if you punch Jagger, what do you do with Keith?
      - crispyambulance 5y ago
        > what do you do with Keith? Probably just tip him over with a slight push of your palm.
meepmorp 5y ago
Obviously you’ve never encountered Lead Singer’s Disease; a punch in the face is the only way.
- Corrado 5y ago
  Have been lead singer; can confirm.
- redis_mlc 5y ago
  In relationship psychology it's called solipsism, which means the person has constructed their own reality as being above and separate those around them. It's impervious to outside reality and logic. You could interpret Watts action as either him being unable to control himself, or that he recognized Jagger was unreachable to correct his behavior without getting physical.
fridif 5y ago
This is why you aren't on a team of high performing individuals
MichaelMoser123 5y ago
It's Rock & Roll, they had to take it rough, sometimes.
- earleybird 5y ago
  +1 for the Tina Turner reference
crispyambulance 5y ago
> That seems a wee bit excessive to me. It was a very different, more flamboyant and volatile, era. Recently watched "Gimme Shelter" a documentary about the free concert at Altamont in 1970 that ended with someone in the Hells Angels (which had been hired for security!) stabbing a concert-goer to death. This film, according to some, documents "the end of the 60's" and marked the beginning of a much meaner era. (https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidchiu/2019/12/03/altamont-at-50-the-disastrous-concert-that-brought-the-60s-to-a-crashing-halt/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidchiu/2019/12/03/altamont-a...). "Gimme Shelter" (the film) captures the band personalities in a really preceptive way. Watts is pensive and brooding, Jagger is mercurial and far-removed from Earthy reality.
- grawprog 5y ago
  Not the song that was actually playing during the stabbing, as the urban legend goes, but, I still think the Altamont show has one of the best versions of Sympathy for the Devil. So raw sounding and you can hear the crowd starting to get riled up and stuff.

pjmorris 5y ago

I'm pretty sure that this is my favorite Rolling Stones story, ever. In 'Life', Keith Richards talked about it really being Charlie's band, he was just in it.

Schiphol 5y ago

This comes from [Keith Richards' autobiography](https://www.keithrichards.com/life https://www.keithrichards.com/life), apparently. Here's the full passage: "Mick and I weren’t on great terms at the time, but I said, c’mon, let’s go out. And I lent him the jacket I got married in. We got back to the hotel about five in the morning and Mick called up Charlie. I said, don’t call him, not at this hour. But he did, and said, ‘Where’s my drummer?’ No answer. He puts the phone down. Mick and I were still sitting there, pretty pissed – give Mick a couple of glasses, he’s gone – when, about twenty minutes later, there was a knock at the door. There was Charlie Watts, Savile Row suit, perfectly dressed, tie, shaved, the whole fucking bit. I could smell the cologne! I opened the door and he didn’t even look at me, he walked straight past me, got hold of Mick and said, ‘Never call me your drummer again.’ Then he hauled him up by the lapels of my jacket and gave him a right hook."

8bitsrule 5y ago
Well. That answers the question, who breaks a butterfly on a wheel, then.
the-dude 5y ago
For non native speakers ( like myself ), pissed probably means (very) drunk in this context.
- ch4s3 5y ago
  In British and Australian English, yes. We don't say it in the US.
  - wyclif 5y ago
    We do say it, but it doesn't mean drunk, it means angry as in "pissed off."
  - bregma 5y ago
    That's interesting. Where I grew up in Canada, "being pissed" could mean either very drunk (piss drunk) or very angry (pissed off) and you need to rely on context to disambiguate. On the other hand, the British phrase "taking the piss" would mean obtaining a urine sample and it's just downright confusing.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]