The Stooges' Ron Asheton Remembered : Rolling Stone

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Critical reaction to the debut was, at best, mixed. "The instrumentalists sound like they've been playing their axes for two months and playing together for one month at most," Rolling Stone wrote. "They are a reductio ad absurdam of rock & roll that might have been thought up by a mad D.A.R. general in a wet dream. They suck, and they know it, so they throw the fact back in your face and say 'So what? We're just havin' fun.' " Their second album, 1970's Fun House, met a similar commercial and critical fate. The strain of endless touring and Iggy's growing heroin habit lead to the band taking an indefinite hiatus in 1971 that lasted until superfan David Bowie befriended Pop and convinced him to cut a third record under his guidance.

Iggy decided to recruit new Stooges for what would become Raw Power. "It was like somebody punched me in the stomach with a sledgehammer," Asheton said. Three months later Iggy called Asheton from London and told him he wanted him to play bass on the album. Mortified at the demotion, but desperate for work, Asheton got on the next plane. Under Bowie's eye, Raw Power became their third consecutive masterpiece, though (once again) the album bombed and the band dissolved after a typically debauched and disastrous tour.

Asheton went on to play guitar in little-known groups such as the New Order, Destroy All Monsters and Dark Carnival. "I wasn't very successful in my endeavors," Asheton said in 2007. "But I kept on playing. I never got a regular job. If I made $50 a night I was happy. That was big bread. And just getting along with being able to pay the rent and cat food — they were the most important things. Then comes alcohol and cigarettes."

After the breakup Asheton didn't see Pop for more than 25 years. In 1998 he was recruited for the movie Velvet Goldmine to provide "Stooges-esque guitar playing." The gig lead to a friendship with former Minutemen bassist Mike Watt and Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis. They hit the road and began playing old Stooges songs, which caught the attention of Iggy Pop, who invited the Asheton Brothers (Dave Alexander died in 1975) to play on his 2003 solo album Skull Ring. The tracks led to an offer for the Stooges to reunite at Coachella that year. The gig resulted in a whole tour, where they (finally) played to huge, rapturous audiences.

In 2007 the Stooges cut their fourth album, The Weirdness, and continued to tour as recently as this past summer. "It's great playing to an appreciative audience," Asheton said in 2007. "We feel like old bluesman, because we had to wait 30-some years to get accepted by everybody. It took some time for the world to catch up to us. But it was worth the wait, because this is the most fun I've had playing onstage all my life."

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