Charlie Watts wanted to leave The Rolling Stones before anniversary tour

Charlie Watts, The Rolling Stones' longtime drummer, said he almost quit the band before they decided to go on their anniversary tour, "50 and Counting."

According to The Guardian, Watts not only nearly left the band, but is not looking forward to their show at the Glastonbury Festival.

"I don’t want to do it. Everyone else does. I don’t like playing outdoors, and I certainly don’t like festivals … But that’s me, personally," the drummer told the Guardian. "When you’re a band … you do anything and everything. But Glastonbury, it’s old hat really. I never liked the hippy thing to start with. It’s not what I’d like to do for a weekend, I can tell you.”

The drummer's doubts about continuing to play stem mostly from his age. Watts still agreed to participate in the reunion tour before the band got together for an anniversary show in London's O2 arena, but he was ready to “knock it on the head” and leave the group.

"I thought that before the O2, but it was actually very comfortable to do. It was good fun, is what I meant to say. (I had misgivings.) I always do. It’s a young person’s [game]," he explained. "The thing I find difficult is that 50% of it is image, not my side of it, but it is, and as you get a bit older you think, “Oh gawd!” I don’t like looking at the pictures.”

The Rolling Stones "50 and Counting Tour," which will consist of 11 shows, begins in Los Angeles in the coming weeks and wraps up in London on July 6.