Heute in im Sunday Mirror entdeckt:
CHARLIE CHEATS DEATH IN CAR SMASH
Aug 28 2005
I had a seat belt on.. otherwise I'd be dead
By Ben Todd, Showbiz Editor
ROLLING Stones legend Charlie Watts has cheated death in a car smash.
The rocker's limousine smashed head-on into another vehicle after his chauffeur fell asleep at the wheel in Nice on the French Riviera.
Charlie, 64, was left with cracked ribs and a broken sternum - but his seat belt saved his life.
The quiet man of the world's biggest rock band insisted: "But for the seat belt I'd be dead, no question."
He added: "I'm fine, thank God. It's the fourth time in a year I've been in hospital after having never been in one."
He and wife Shirley - who was unhurt - were being driven to their home near Nice in the hired limo when the crash happened.
Charlie was rushed to hospital before spending six weeks recovering. He then rejoined the other Stones last month to finish recording their new album and prepare for their world tour, which kicked off in Boston last week.
Fellow band members Keith Richards and Mick Jagger had to take over drumming duties on one of the tracks on the album while Charlie was still in hospital.
A friend said: "It could have been much worse. He is still very weak - but he was very lucky to survive at all."
Charlie's other hospital stays came as he fought throat cancer last year. He endured six weeks of intensive radiotherapy before being given the all-clear.
Speaking of his ordeal for the first time, Charlie said: "I'd had a lump in my neck for two or three years. It was diagnosed as benign but then the doctor took it out and found it was cancerous - and then they found it in my tonsils. I lay there thinking, 'Well, normally you die...'"
Charlie did not want his Stones pals to visit him in hospital while he was having treatment.
"I didn't even want my family to see me," he said. "The best way for me was to be totally alone, like a dog that's been hurt."
He added: "I've just had my latest three-monthly all-clear. But it's hard because you feel you've got another 12 weeks and then it may be back."
Charlie also reveals in the new issue of Q magazine his worries when he finally rejoined the band.
He confessed: "I was very frightened. Mick and Keith were getting on very well and Mick was mucking about on the drums. What they were doing was very good and I thought, 'Crikey - have I got anything left to give?'"
Charlie is said to have made £80 million during his 41 years with the Stones.
The Stones, whose album A Bigger Bang is released on September 6, are due to be the first act to perform at the new Wembley Stadium next year.
