One of the men responsible for inventing punk rock was found dead yesterday. Ron Asheton, who made the curtain of guitar fuzz behind Iggy Pop’s primal howl in The Stooges, was 60.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Asheton in April of 2007, as the reunited Stooges were promoting their first new album in 30 years.
For somebody who helped create such an aggressive style of music, he was generous with information and gracious for the opportunity to talk about his band, all with a sense of dry Midwestern humor. He spoke candidly about all things sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, of which he packed a lot into his short life. Here is the full discussion.
Hi Ron, how’s it going?Pretty good. I’m just getting ready to get out of here. Headed out on the road. Tying up some loose ends. Headed out tomorrow to D.C., and then tomorrow up to see you guys.
How’s it been?Good. We’ve been kicking some butt. We did all of our French TV shows, then we did a gig in Switzerland that was cool, and SXSW and L.A., mostly just promotional stuff, so it’s gonna be good just to get back on the road and do normal jobs.
Yeah, I saw the SXSW show. It was awesome.Oh, you were there?
Yeah, it was great. And I’ve seen some of the stuff on YouTube, and I was impressed by how it’s still just as wild as the shows from the ’60s. But what, if anything, has changed for you?Well, we’ve been at it now for almost four years. We started [up again] in 2003, so it’s been really great. It was fun back then, but it was limited audiences. We played some pop festivals to big people, and we played our little club circuit. … We went to L.A. once and San Francisco, but we were mostly east of the Mississippi. We were mostly a Midwest and East Coast band. But I remember one of my favorite stories in the old days was when we opened for Ten Years After at the Boston Tea Party. So imagine that crowd, the Ten Years After crowd, with that kind of speed-induced boogie beat, you know, that kind of up-tempo stuff. After we did a couple songs, there were four people that applauded. And those four people were our fan club presidents, and their friends from Philadelphia. So now the difference is that we go out to a greater audience that is more accepting. I always say that the world’s finally caught up with us, or something. People really appreciate it and I like when they sing along, when Iggy goes, “Now I wanna…” [and the crowd responds,] “… be your dog!” So I love that. It’s been great playing now, to finally have a good audience, and to be able to travel all over the world and now to be able to play in the United States.
I have a few dumb questions for you now. I figure you’ve been talking about the band so much that it might be nice to talk about some other stuff. This is for a feature we call “Reviews the News,” where each week, we ask somebody whom we admire what they think about the latest news. I promise not to make the questions too insulting.That’s OK.
So you know who P. Diddy is, right?Yeah.
So this week, as an April Fool’s joke one of the girls from the band he put together, Danity Kane, tricked the gossip Web sites that she was carrying Diddy’s baby.[Laughs].
I imagine being in a band called The Stooges, you’ve pulled quite a few April Fool’s jokes.There was a lot of goofy stuff, and funny things, but we weren’t really practical jokers. When Iggy got married, his wife moved in – he was only married for one month, and I told him that was how long it was going to last. So, she moved into the band house, and we were like, “there’s gonna be trouble.” So they had this little room upstairs in the house we lived in, which was called the Fun House. So he lived up in the attic in this really nice space with pine walls and this really great view from the top. So then she tried to set up a little housekeeping and they got a little refrigerator, and my brother knew that it was stocked with lots of good things to eat, so every time they left, we would go in and take the food we wanted. And she would get more and more infuriated, and that was the end of the wedding. … And in a weird way, Iggy thought it was kind of funny.
Do you watch “American Idol” at all?No.
Well, there’s this one contestant, Sanjaya Malakar, who wears his hair in this big, ridiculous fake Mohawk.Oh, I saw him in the paper.
OK, so he was reportedly offered a lifetime supply of Kentucky Fried Chicken if he styled his hair like their buckets. What’s the weirdest opportunity to sell out you’ve received?No one wanted to be commercially associated with The Stooges, but one thing we did enjoy was when we were on our way to a gig one day, and we clicked on the radio station we always listened to and here comes our song out of the blue. It’s “Real Cool Time,” and it’s just that riff looped, and then comes the voice, “Saturday Detroit Dragstrip Funny Car Extravaganza!” And we were just going ballistic because they used that song unbeknownst to us to advertise the Saturday drag races, and that was the coolest thing. Also, I got a big kick out of this, because I love animals. I have dogs and cats. Iggy told me The Westminster Dog Show is gonna use “I Wanna Be Your Dog” as an advertisement for the show. So for me, that was a great thrill. Finally, “I Wanna Be Your Dog” gets a true home, advertising the dog show. I didn’t get to hear it, because I’m not gonna just sit there all day. … They’re putting our songs on video games, and that’s cool.
Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce are releasing songs in Spanish to broaden their markets. Can we expect to hear “Yo Quiero a Estar tu Perro” any time soon?Probably not. But Iggy can actually speak enough French to get by, some Spanish, some Italian, some German, so it’s really cool when we go there. I think France is one of the places where we’re the biggest. They’re gonna make “I Wanna Be Your Dog” the French national anthem, that’s always been my story. When Iggy gets onstage and speaks to the audience in their language, they really appreciate that. … But what I want to do, Iggy still has one record with Virgin that he owes them, so he’s trying to think of things to do, so I’m going, “Christmas record!” So that’s what I wanna do. I’m still serious, Pat.
Well this is interesting. You’ll get a kick out of this. In Boston we have a few bands who have a long-standing tradition of doing holiday shows as the MC5, but it stands for the Merry Christmas 5, and The Scrooges.[Laughter] The Scrooges. I love it! I really do wanna make a Christmas record for fun. It would be seriously doing some of the traditional songs, in our way of playing, and even writing. I know it sounds corny, but I love it when it’s Christmastime and I like hearing the songs on the radio. I’m always into the Christmas songs, the traditional songs, and things like “Feliz Navidad,” and all the comedy songs. And Paul McCartney’s got that sappy Christmas song.
Oh boy. That’s horrible.Yeah, it’s so bad, I like it. [sings] Simply having…
Martin Sheen does an even worse version of it.[Laughs] And then you’ve got John Lennon’s great Christmas dirge. That’s one depressing Christmas song, man. But it would be fun to do “A Stooges Christmas.” But Scrooges already jumped on that one.
And the Merry Christmas 5 too.MC5. That is too cool, man.
So Iggy turns 60 this month, and you’re not too far behind, right?Yeah, a couple years behind.
So what are you guys doing to celebrate his birthday?Well, knowing him, probably nothing. I did get him a gift, but I didn’t bring it on the road because he travels lightly. Literally, he’s going out for three weeks, so he’ll have what I call his pilot’s bag. It’s a duffle bag that’s a little bigger than a doctor’s case. It’s a beautiful old beat up thing. Pilots used to carry it in the ’30s when they were traveling overnight. He puts the bare minimum of stuff in there. He never likes to get stuff on the road, so I got a lot of stuff that he was given, because he didn’t wanna schlep it around or have room for it. I got a gift from the prime minister of Macedonia that was given to him. He didn’t have any room for it, so I got it. So I got some stuff for him, and a guy that lives right here in my neighborhood who is in a couple bands, and his friend made a marionette of Iggy. And he’s always been trying to give it to him for years, even before we were together. So when he comes home, I’ll be able to send him that. Probably, when we’re on the road he keeps to himself. He’ll be in San Francisco, so we’ll try to coax him down for a fine bottle of wine, or something. That’s probably what we’ll do for him. He didn’t wanna be in L.A. on his birthday, so he’s gonna be in San Francisco.
That’s interesting that you mention a bottle of wine. I feel like every time I read about you guys lately, it’s mentioned that a bottle of wine is the strongest drug any of you use.Oh, it’s been years. I was never into heroin. I haven’t even smoked marijuana in so many years. I did that in the past. No, it’s just that I don’t care anymore. I’ve been there, done that, and I’m not really interested. No one does any kind of drugs. And our big deal is, after the show, it’s true, there’s a couple bottles of wine and some beer, and probably our biggest vice is that after the show and enjoying a couple beers. No one is a big-time partier, and it’s not, “let’s really get fucked up and pick up some girls!” No one does that. It’s more like a business we enjoy. Our own company and what guests we might see after the show, and pretty much, we stick around for an hour and after it’s back to the hotel to go to sleep, or read. A lot of reading. I went to the bookstore yesterday to stock up on books for the road.
What kind of stuff?I got some good stuff. A Beatles story “Shout!” [by Phillip Norman]. I got a book about D-Day. They had a great sale on big, coffee table stuff. I can’t bring that, but I’ve also got, I love sea battles, so I got the story of the battle for the Philippines from the view of three of the destroyers that were with Taffy 3, which is how the Japanese tricked the American fleet and Admiral Halsey to go north and then they attacked this little escort carrier fleet and started wiping everyone out, and how these three or four destroyers stood up against Japanese battle ships. So I like that kind of stuff. Biographies about music or actors or anything historical or World War II. I got a couple paperbacks I’m gonna stick in my carry-on about long range patrols, the guys who go deep in the jungle and sabotage and assassinate, so I’m getting stocked up on that. And that’s what we do. Iggy doesn’t smoke. He’s quit smoking, probably over 10 years ago. That’s one vice though. Everyone does still enjoy cigarettes after the show. It’s so funny, because before and after, everyone’s a little nervous, and I don’t smoke as much as the others. Usually at home I’ll just have cigarettes when I have a drink. Drinking and cigarettes go together. Otherwise I won’t have cigarettes for a couple days, because I didn’t have a drink for a couple days. So iggy sticks his head in our dressing room and you don’t realize when you’re in there that it’s a blue haze, that it’s a blue cloud. So he looks in, and he’s just like, “oh man!”
Sounds pretty mellow. Tell me a little about what it was like back in the day.Probably in those days it was the peace deal. Everyone was non-violent. Probably one of the weirdest after-the-show stories is we played this little town in upper Michigan in the thumb. Maybe it was Caseville. So we would do our show, and Iggy has someone make him a pair of brown vinyl pants, and he wore those brown vinyl pants until that night, when they split. So I didn’t notice what had happened, so I’m like, “He’s not onstage.” So then he comes back out with a towel on, and he finishes the set with a towel. So we’re leaving the show, and we leave the stage, and the security guard was a retired policeman. He was probably in his late 60s or early 70s. He was the grandfather type guy, and he stops me and he goes, “you know, I really like you guys.” And I’m like, “Well, wow, that’s cool.” And he says, “I wanna warn you that a girl here came to me. Her father’s a state trooper, and the state trooper post is right on the corner. She went to get her father, because that Iggy, he exposed his penis.” And I never noticed anything, but I imagine it probably happened if his pants split, or whatever, because you know he didn’t wear any underwear under his pants. At that time no one wore underwear. So I go, “Oh, cool.” And I went and told Iggy. I told the management. So they’re getting him out of there, and I’m like, “That’s so cool that guy did that.” So we’re sitting in the dressing room, relaxing, and the next thing you know the door bursts open, and there’s six big state troopers. A couple guys actually got their guns out. They’re not pointing their guns at us, but they’ve got their guns in hand, and we’re “Wooooahhh!” and the big seargent, who must have been the father says, “Where’s that Iggy guy?” and what we really wanted to do, if we weren’t so frightened, was start laughing. “That Iggy guy!” and everyone’s mouth was opened, and we couldn’t talk, but someone says, “He’s not here, sir.” And he goes, “You are all under arrest until we catch that Iggy.” And we’re like, “ohhhh no. He made his escape and we’re going to jail.” So the next thing I know our manager comes in and goes, “Well, they got him.” … What happened was he was hiding in the trunk of a car while another car that was headed back here to Ann Arbor was gonna take him and give him a ride home. And they caught him just as he was coming out of the trunk. So he spent the night in jail. The weirdest part was having to call his father at like 3:30 in the morning by the time we got home, “Well, your son’s in jail.” So he had to go and bail him out, which is already a couple hours away. And Iggy told me how he was thrown in the drunk tank wearing his skin-tight Levis, and whatever shirt he was wearing, and just all the hassle he got from these super redneck dudes in the three hours he was there before he was bailed out by his dad. So I was lucky that day. I never got arrested.
That reminds me of that scene in “Velvet Goldmine” where Curt Wild flashes the crowd. I always wondered what you guys thought of that movie. I mean, you might be a little biased since you played on the soundtrack, but…Well, I was invited to play and I wrote some songs. They did “TV Eye,” and I wrote “My Unclean,” which is used in that one piece where the Iggy guy just goes ballistic in the control room and busting things up when he got fired. That little piece with Mark Arm singing. But they didn’t even use Mark Arm. They just used my little snippet of the tune. So it was fun to be able to do something. So, while I was doing it, I went out and did some interviews with Todd Haynes, the director. And they asked me about the movie, and I’m going, “well, you know, I didn’t see it.” And everyone’s like, “What?!!!” So Todd Haynes set it up and we got to go to the Tribeca Theatre, which is Scorsese and De Niro’s little private screening room. It’s an awesome little theater, right there in Little Italy. … So I watched the picture, and I liked it. Everything went on the screen. They didn’t have much of a budget. I think they had $5 million or $7 million. But he was offered by Miramax, if he took the heavy-handed homosexual overtones, they would be really willing to go the whole nine yards for him. But being that the director is gay, that was his thing. You don’t ask Iggy to cut swearing out of his songs. But I did enjoy the picture, and it was kind of ponderous, and I went with Thurston Moore, and he had seen it before and he goes, “you know, I liked it the second time around.” And visually, it’s attractive. But Iggy never saw it, and he’ll never see it, he says. If you bring it up, he bristles like Sergeant Carter or Gomer Pyle, with the teeth clenched.
So how about other ways people have portrayed your experiences? Have you read the Paul Trynka book “Iggy: Open Up and Bleed”?No, I’ve just seen the excerpts on the Internet.
What do you think?Well, I’m surprised at a lot of the pictures. I’ve known Paul for a long time. He’s actually come to this house three times from England and spoken from me for articles. I didn’t know he was actually working on a book. But it’s gotta be cool. He quit his job as the editor of MOJO magazine to write this book, so I’ll try to get him to send me one. But I’d even buy it to look at the pictures.
What are your favorite Stooges cover versions?There were so many of them. Well, of course I like Sex Pistols’ “No Fun.” That was probably my favorite. And Joan Jett’s “Now I Wanna Be Your Dog” is good. I never did get to hear Depeche Mode’s “Down on the Street” or “Dirt.”
Did you ever hear Uncle Tupelo’s countrified version of “Now I Wanna Be Your Dog”?No. There’s so many. I’m just finding out stuff from Iggy as we do these interviews where we’re all sitting together, and things are brought up and I’m like, “I didn’t know that.” People always send them to him, so he pretty much has everything that he knows of and he says, “When I get some time I’m gonna have my assistant put them all together.” So that’ll be cool.
It sounds like you guys don’t hang the way you did when you all lived in the Fun House.Well, we’re so far apart now. But it’s still that feeling, and that’s a great thing. In those days it was our decision and that was kinda the way it went back then. Bands that wanna be really serious and be real bands, they live together. They get a house. They get their equipment and go and get a bunch of egg cartons and staple them to the wall, and that’s your deadening effect, so it won’t be so ringy. We did the same thing. We found an old farm house for 200 bucks a month, got those egg crates in the living room, and it was a beautiful living room. We were like, “It sure is a shame to cover up that beautiful field stone fireplace.” But it got covered. And we did everything together. We got up at the same time, went to bed at the same time. So we pretty much still have that vibe. When it was the “Raw Power” era, that’s when we started going out on our own. I had a certain bunch of friends. I liked to go to the museums. Iggy had other things he liked to do. Scotty, James Williamson and I would get together, sit around, shoot the shit and drink some wine, smoke some cigarettes. …But everything comes easy because of all that time we spent together. We’ve got that bond.
Forgive me, I have to go back to the ridiculous Reviews the News thing. There’s one question I notice I didn’t ask. With all of these news items of questionable paternity, like Mel B insisting her baby daddy is Eddie Murphy and all of the Anna Nicole Smith stuff, are there a lot of illegitimate Stooges running around?I know a lot of Stooges that were vacuumed out. Iggy has his child though. Well, he’s not a kid anymore. He’s probably 35 or something. I’ve heard rumors for myself that there’s someone. I know this guy that introduced me to this woman and he said she had my kid, and got married and never told her husband.
In those days with all the free love, those were great and interesting times. I feel bad about it now, but back then I didn’t think about it but there were a lot of vacuumed-out Stooges. I’m sorry, God!
Woah. OK. After all of these years, what is your favorite song to play?I like them all. I enjoyed playing the set Iggy came up with that we had been doing for four years, and I’m kinda sad it’s going away now because we’re doing six of seven new songs. I enjoy playing the new stuff, but I never get sick of the old ones. And people go, “Don’t you get tired of ‘Now I Wanna Be Your Dog,’ and I’m like, “Hell, no, man!” It’s fun to play and the audience response is there, so I’ve gotta say if my life depended on picking one song I would have to pick “Now I Wanna Be Your Dog.”
Link:
http://www.metrobostonnews.com/us/article/2009/01/06/23/1738-66/index.xml
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N.S.C - Stooges Ron Asheton found dead (Read 2,625 times)
