Iggy Pop Speaks Out About “Raw Power” Gigs, New Stooges Music

December 15th, 2009 by Rolling Stone Leave a reply »

Photo: Martingdale/WireImage
When Rolling Stone’s Andy Greene jumped on the phone with Iggy Pop to chat about the Stooges’ induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010, the singer opened up about the current Stooges lineup — with James Williamson back on guitar — and the status of new Stooges tunes. Read Pop’s thoughts on the RRHOF here.

Five Decades of Raw Power: The Stooges in photos.


How are things going with James Williamson back on guitar?


When Ron [Asheton] passed away, we had six shows committed for the summer following. And I had built up such a sort of a mission muscle you could call it, around this group, that I just couldn’t think about quitting or not showing up. It was a “nothing will stop us” mentality that I’d adopted that served us well. So I called James, who had accidentally coincidentally called me that year anyway, and asked if he’d do the fill-in. He turned me down for that but we started talking and he said, “Look I’m about to retire next year… rather than buy a Winnebago, I thought I might go out and do some rock & roll.” So it started like that.

It’s been real interesting. He still working for Sony electronics and he belongs to an honorific society, the I.I.E.E, Institute of International Electronic Engineers, who published a very unintentionally funny front-page story in their most recent newsletter saying, “I.I.E.E. member joins Iggy and the Stooges.” Every couple of days, I get calls from him, “I’m in Tel Aviv, I’m in Berlin, I’m in Tokyo…” I sometimes think he’s actually working for the CIA.

For many years I played Stooges songs with every sort of backup musician and they all had to try to pee on [Ron]. Everybody had to put their mark on the thing. James i...

Article Source: Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily

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