Iggy Pop says he and the Stooges will be doing “some real touring” in 2010. In an interview with London’s BBC, the punk icon also said the spirit of late Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton – who died after suffering a heart attack earlier this year – “still lives on” with the band.
“We’re all very sorry about Ron,” Pop said. “His spirit within the group remains with the rest of us and he is still a presence within the group without being on the physical plain.”
The tour will reunite the Stooges with guitarist James Williamson, who assumed lead guitar duties in 1973 for the group’s seminal Raw Power album. (Asheton played bass on the album.) The current Stooges lineup also features original drummer Scott Asheton and Minuteman bassist Mike Watt.
“The band have been rehearsing more without me than with me because I’ve been doing other things this year,” Pop said. “”But we have been rehearsing all together more recently. We’re going to be doing a one-off show in Brazil in a few weeks ….”
The Stooges will reportedly play Raw Power in its entirety at next year’s All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival in London. Pop, who turned 62 in April, says that from the start he was in rock and roll for the long haul.
“Once I set out not to go to school and go into music instead I always thought this is what I’m doing with my life now,” he told the BBC. “I never thought, ‘Hey, this is a youth market so by the time I’m 24 I’d better have my first three million dollars’ … I knew it was going to be tough.”