Without even trying, you’ve already heard the late Charlie Watts play on dozens and dozens of Rolling Stones songs throughout your lifetime, so you might as well read up on the dude a little bit. Besides, books are awesome.

Charlie’s official and authorized biography hits the shelves today. The length of the book’s title is antithetical to Charlie’s own spartan playing style, so that’s amusing already:

Charlie’s Good Tonight: The Life, the Times, and the Rolling Stones: The Authorized Biography of Charlie Watts

The book is penned by Paul Sexton, a very experienced music journalist who has spent three decades covering the Stones, and Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have contributed forwards. Personally, I can’t wait for the audio edition just to (hopefully) hear Richards do his Pirates of the Caribbean voice thing.

Click on over to Billboard to check out an excerpt. We’ve posted a wee excerpt of the excerpt below.

Charlie had immense pride in the Stones’ dedication to their work, but knew that it was somewhat at odds with the unjust idea that their collective hedonism somehow undermined their commitment to their craft. “Unbeknown to a lot of people, the Rolling Stones are theatrical and terribly professional,” he said. “They always have been, about whatever large or small facet of talent they have. The band has only ever not turned up once, and I only ever missed a show because I got the wrong date,” he said, referring to the 1964 diary malfunction we heard about earlier. “Even as young tearaways, which we never really were…a lot of that was bullshit. I know people who were much more…whatever the word is. Newspapers are dreadful things, bless ’em. I can’t read them. I flick through the cricket page, and that’s it.”