Iggy Pop says drummer Scott Asheton, a stalwart member of the Stooges with Pop, has died. Asheton had been sidelined with medical issues even as the Stooges gathered to record a new album without Pop. He was 64.
“Scott was a great artist,” Pop says. “I have never heard anyone play the drums with more meaning than Scott Asheton. He was like my brother.”
Scott Asheton is the only other band member, besides Pop, to have appeared on every album by Iggy and the Stooges. That includes two studio efforts since their unlikely reformation in 2003 for Coachella. The Stooges toured regularly thereafter, even surviving the death of Scott Asheton’s older brother Ron, who was replaced by Raw Power-era guitarist James Williamson. But Scott wasn’t on stage when Iggy and the Stooges last played together, in September of last year at San Jose, and the drummer reportedly wasn’t taking part in their forthcoming studio project, either.
“He and Ron have left a huge legacy to the world,” Pop added. “The Ashetons have always been and continue to be a second family to me.”
Asheton was a Stooges co-founder in 1967 along with Dave Alexander, his sibling Ron (then on guitar) and Pop. That edition of the group released two albums before the lineup shifted. 1973’s Raw Power, which found Williamson on guitar and Ron switching on bass, became the Stooges’ breakout album. After that, a lengthy hiatus into the new century ensued, though Scott did sit in with Pop during a 1978 tour of Europe.
2007’s The Weirdness followed their reunion five years earlier; the Stooges released Ready to Die last year. By then, however, Ron Asheton had passed and Scott Asheton had reportedly suffered a stroke after an appearance in 2011 at Hellfest in France. Scott was replaced by a member of Pop’s 1990s-era solo band, and hadn’t played with the Stooges on stage since an October 2012 appearance on Austin City Limits.
The Stooges’ just-announced album without Pop, set to feature previously unheard songs from the Raw Power years, will be called Re-Licked. Guest singers were to include Jello Biafra and Mark Lanegan.
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Very sad to hear this.