Ron Asheton, whose scorching and energetic guitar work behind singer Iggy Pop in the Michigan punk band the Stooges established a new model of raw emotion for a succeeding generation of punk, grunge and alternative rockers.
Iggy Pop, center with Ron Asheton, left, and Scott Asheton.
Asheton's body was discovered Tuesday at his home in Ann Arbor, Mich., after his personal assistant had been unable to reach him. Ann Arbor Police Sgt. Brad Hill said that there were no signs of foul play and that Asheton appeared to have died of natural causes. Police said it appeared that he had been dead for several days. Autopsy results are pending.
Hill says officers discovered Asheton early today after they were called to his home around midnight by an associate who hadn't heard from him in several days.
Asheton was an original member of The Stooges, the influential protopunk band founded in Ann Arbor in 1967. Asheton's brother, Scott, was the band's drummer.
Asheton's distorted guitar was a hallmark of the Iggy Pop-led group's late-1960s and early-1970s sound. He was named the 29th greatest guitarist of all time in 2003 by Rolling Stone. His work and that of the band established a new model of raw emotion for a succeeding generation of punk, grunge and alternative rockers.
“That first Stooges album and the second one had a big influence on me," Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones said Tuesday. “The Stooges' and the New York Dolls' albums were my blueprint for how to play guitar."
“In many ways Ron was the heart of the Stooges, and the Stooges were the creators of punk rock," Paul Trynka, author of the 2007 biography “Iggy Pop: Open Up and Bleed," said Tuesday. “If you don't understand Ron, you don't understand the Stooges, and if you don't understand the Stooges, you don't understand punk rock."
