IGGY POP's First Interview About Death Of THE STOOGES Guitarist RON ASHETON; Audio Available

Iggy Pop gave his first interview today (Monday, January 11) about the passing of his longtime friend and THE STOOGES guitarist Ron Asheton who was found dead in his Ann Arbor, Michigan home on January 6. A few excerpts from the chat, which aired on the "Deminski & Doyle" morning show (hosted by Jeff Deminski and Bill Doyle) on 94.7 WCSX in Detroit, follow below.

On what Ron meant to him:

"As long as I don't think about it, I'm OK. And then when I think about it, I'm not OK… He had a beautiful touch as a musician. He developed such a unique sound and approach to his instrument and writing that I don't think that everybody got it at first, but over the years other generations caught on. I think a lot of good musicians were influenced by what Ron pioneered. As far as the personal side of it, for some reason my mind keeps going back to little clubs and bars in Ann Arbor… high school dances, armory dances that we would play, and, of course, the Grand Ballroom."

His first memories of Ron:

"I knew Ron in high school vaguely because we were two of the first guys to let our hair grow over our ears. We used to get hassled for that from time to time. I was a little straighter than him and he knew a crowd of people that I would loosely term the beatniks. They would probably be called the stoners today. We were playing in these little bands around Southern Michigan and even into Central Michigan somewhere between the years '64, '65 and '66. We finally put together a blues band called THE PRIME MOVERS. I was the drummer. I always thought immediately that he would've fit in with one of those dirty, scruffy English rock bands that have been parodied recently by the 'Austin Powers' movie… I'm happy for him that he became well heard and that he was on a high in his career and in his music when he passed away."

On Ron's guitar style and his use of the amp:

"We were the first group, with our little minds, to open up at about the age of 18 or 19. It was the psychedelic era and we were psychedlicized. We were listening to a lot of Eastern music and at the same time we would listen to rock. I had this little ritual when he started our group, I would walk about a mile to the bus stop and take the bus to Asheton's house. I would throw rocks at his window until he came down. He would sit in this rocking chair on the front porch and smoke a little has in this pipe, while I would play him Eastern music, Lebanese music, belly dance music, jazz music, things to temper the influence of the day. The idea was that a lot of bands of the day sounded like cover bands, and weren't going to get anywhere. We looked at popular musicians of the time and I noticed what guys like Bob Dylan were doing was re-writing the lyrics to classic ancient folk songs. When you look at the first ROLLING STONES album and their influences like Buddy Holly, Muddy Waters and Bo Diddley… and so I thought, 'That's been done. How about our band goes further afield for our influences?' As that process took place… instead of hearing just a load of noise, we all started hearing different harmonics and dissonances and three or four chance melodies. He more than just played. He really did just let the amp talk."

On how he found out about Ron's death?

"I woke up and got a cell phone message last Tuesday morning from my U.K. manager for THE STOOGES (Henry McGroggin)… He just said, 'Call me, I really need to talk to you.' From the tone of his voice I knew something really big was up. So I called him in Europe. He said, 'I got some bad news for you.' From the tone of that, I had an immediate interior reaction. He then told me Ron had passed away."

On which bands Ron's influence can be heard in today:

"The most obvious would be SONIC YOUTH…bands that use dissonance and overdrive. I hear a little bit in SMASHING PUMPKINS…also in NIRVANA." (After the interview was completed, Iggy emailed "Deminski & Doyle" and wanted to add THE WHITE STRIPES to that list.)

To hear "Deminski & Doyle"'s entire 24-minute chat with Iggy Pop, go to this location.

THE STOOGES live in New York City (2007):