RIP Ron Asheton

Guitarist Ron Asheton was found dead today in his Ann Arbor, Michigan home. Ron and his brother were founding members of The Stooges. He was 60.

Here is a video of Ron performing with The Stooges just last year.



After their first two records, the stooges took a hiatus. Frontman Iggy Pop got a record deal and told the rest of the band that he was going off to England to make a record with David Bowie. Iggy eventually hired the brothers back into their own band when no suitable replacements were found, but this time Ron had to play bass. He was just excited to be apart of it. Ron avoided most of the drug problems that plagued his bandmates and went on to play in bands such as The New Order and Destroy All Monsters. In his own words, Ron discusses his life-changing experience of seeing The Who in England:

"I was afraid. For me it wasn't fun, but it was mesmerizing. It was like, 'the plane's burning, the ship's sinking, so let's crush each other.' Never had I seen people driven so nuts - that music could drive people to such dangerous extremes. That's when I realized, this is definitely what I wanna do."

-Please Kill Me, Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain, 41-42