Ron Asheton, the guitarist for rock legends The Stooges, was found dead this morning at his home in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He was 60.
The Ann Arbor News reported that Asheton's personal assistant contacted police late last night after being unable to reach the guitarist for days. When officers went to Asheton's house in the city's west side they found his body on a couch in the living room. A police spokesman told the paper he appeared to have been dead for "at least several days."
Autopsy and toxicology results are pending and will likely reveal the cause of Asheton's death. Police do not suspect foul play.
Click "more" for comments from his ex-bandmates and Alice Cooper and to watch the late guitarist in action.
"We are shocked and shaken by the news of Ron's death," said Iggy Pop, Ron Asheton, saxophonist Steve Mackay and bassist Mike Watt in a joint statement. "He was a great friend, brother, musician, trooper. Irreplaceable. He will be missed. For all that knew him behind the facade of Mr Cool & Quirky, he was a kind-hearted, genuine, warm person who always believed that people meant well even if they did not. As a musician, Ron was The Guitar God, idol to follow and inspire others. That is how he will be remembered by people who had a great pleasure to work with him, learn from him and share good and bad times with him."
Added Iggy, "I am in shock. He was my best friend."
"He was the music of the Stooges," says veteran rocker Alice Cooper. "I remember them in their prime and they were just so alive. It's like the Ramones. You can't picture them not being here."
Asheton was born July 17, 1948 in Washington, D.C. and played as a teenager in the Dirty Shames before meeting Iggy Pop and forming the Stooges in 1967. The band, which also featured Asheton's brother Scott on drums and the late Dave Alexander, debuted on Halloween of that year and shocked crowds with their primal aggression and minimalist arrangements, which many credit as laying the foundation for punk rock. Like their Detroit brethren the MC5, The Stooges created music for youthful revolution. Their songs were rooted in the blues, but tinted with psychedelia and charged with the energy, drunken sexuality and rage of a decadent world in turmoil. Asheton's raw, abrasive guitar riffs, pumping wah-wah surges and freewheeling solos were a major component of the band's sound.
The Stooges debuted in 1969 with the John Cale-produced The Stooges, which featured such timeless tracks as "1969," "No Fun" and "I Wanna Be Your Dog," and the band followed a year later with Funhouse, one of the greatest rock albums of all time. Produced by Don Gallucci, Funhouse perfectly captured the band's no-frills, balls-out, confrontational spirit, and songs like "T.V. Eye," "Dirt" and the title track exemplified The Stooges at their peak.
For their 1973 offering Raw Power, (engineered by David Bowie) The Stooges replaced Asheton on guitar with James Williamson and Asheton moved over to bass, where he capably anchored the rhythms alongside his brother's flailing beats. But the album failed to capture the band's incendiary vibe as effectively as its predecessor, despite containing such gems as "Search And Destroy," "Penetration" and the telling "Death Trip."
After the failure of Raw Power to ignite the record buying public, The Stooges broke up in a blaze of interpersonal conflict and rampant drug abuse. Asheton joined his brother in the New Order (not the British band), which released their eponymous disc in 1978 before going their separate ways. In 1981 Asheton joined New Race, a one-off project that featured members of Radio Birdman and MC5 drummer Dennis Thompson. The guitarist's next venture, the anti-rock band Destroy All Monsters, released several albums between 1987 and 2001.
In 2002, the Asheton brothers joined Dinosaur Jr's J Mascis + the Fog on tour and played several Stooges songs, which inspired Stooges frontman Iggy Pop to invite the Ashetons to back him on four tracks for his 2003 solo album Skull Ring. A live Stooges reunion followed at the Coachella festival on April 27, 2003, with bassist Mike Watt (ex-Minutemen, Firehose) on bass. The band's first show in 30 years was a resounding success and the Stooges toured on and off for the next three years before entered the studio with producer Steve Albini in 2006 to record group's last album The Weirdness, which came out in March 2007.
Click here to read an MTVnews.com live review of Iggy and the Stooges from 2003.
Iggy and the Stooges - Now I Wanna Be Your Dog (Live)
Iggy And The Stooges - Live 1970
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