The Rolling Stones are working on a new album featuring late drummer Charlie Watts

The Rolling Stones’ next album will feature drumming by their late sticksman Charlie Watts.

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According to The Sun, guitarist Ronnie Wood said that the band’s new album will be released next summer. The record will have some of Watts’ drumming work included alongside that of touring drummer Steve Jordan’s.

Watts died last year at the age of 80. He had been drumming with the iconic rock’n’roll band since their formation in the early ’60s.

Wood told The Sun in an exclusive chat: “We are recording the new album now and we are going to LA in a few weeks to carry it on and finish it off.

“Charlie is on some of the tracks and drummer Steve Jordan.”

The Rolling Stones’ next album is set to be their first studio record of original material released for almost two decades (since 2005’s A Bigger Bang).

In August, the Stones’ singer Mick Jagger paid a fresh tribute to Watts on the first anniversary of the drummer’s death.

The surviving members of the legendary group have opened up about the loss of Watts on numerous occasions onstage and during interviews. In May, Jagger said: “I miss him as a player and as a friend.”

On August 24, Jagger shared a montage of images of Watts from over the years. Soundtracked by the Stones’ Till The Next Goodbye (1974), the moving clip also included a voiceover from Jagger.

“I miss Charlie because he had a great sense of humour,” Jagger began. “And we also were, outside of the band… we used to hang out quite a lot and have interesting times. We loved sports: we’d go to football, we’d go to cricket games, and we had other interests apart from music. But of course I really miss Charlie so much.”

Meanwhile, earlier this year fellow Stones guitarist Keith Richards shared that he “hopes” that the band will have some new material recorded by the end of 2022.

Richards told The Daily Star in March that he’d been “playing a lot of bass” on the upcoming Stones music.

Asked how many new tracks emerged from recent sessions, Richards replied: “More than I can count – it was a very productive week.”

Richards went on to say that he and Jagger “got a very good sound going”, adding: “Jamaica is good for sound.”