I get your emails - the pictures of pelicans and sunrises from your kayak … are you going to put a book together?
You get the flow. I call it 'the flow'. Yeah, I could do a book. I've just got all that stuff sitting there on the computer.

The Stooges reunion has taken a long time - what was the biggest hurdle that the Ashetons and Iggy had to get over?
Well, Ronnie and Ig didn't talk for a long time, maybe twenty or more years you know. So, I think that was probably a problem. But, man, I've been around them, okay, when nobody else is - there's a real rapport between those guys. It's not a marriage of convenience. I think Ig really likes to play with the Asheton brothers. I've been around music people, I see how they relate with each other. These guys, you can tell they were playing young and they don't let contempt or disgust or whatever happened, all the stuff that went under the bridge, effect the now. It's really a bonded kind of thing - they care about each other in a lot of ways, it's not really a battle of egos. Everybody knows where they stand and what they've got to do and with that comes respect. All three of those guys they work really well together - I've yet to see a fight or hollering or anything.

Is Ron still into Nazi uniforms?
Well, he's kinda … he likes history (laughs). Yes, some areas of history more than others. That's kind of what it is - he takes care of cats. He's got six or seven kitties. He's not a Nazi. He's interested in some historical things, you know. Obviously I'm a Minuteman, you know where I come from and everyone there knows where I come from. I've never been taken for anything like that. If he likes them then…military history - he knows a lot. He reminds me of D. Boon a lot - he knows a lot about military history. I guess his father was on a plane in the second War and he just has an interest in that. His father didn't fight for the Nazis (laughs). But, yeah, he's worn some outfits and collected some things. He told me he lost a lot of his collection - it got stolen from him in Hollywood. Yeah, I don't think he's a Nazi.

Have you ever talked politics with Ron?
Oh, yeah, you know, just about what's going on in the world and stuff like that. He's basically a guy who's frustrated with the way humans treat each other.

What about Scott?
Scotty, he knows more about nature. He's taught me a lot about Buddah and stuff. He knows about that thing - he's more an inward looking kinda guy. Maybe not know as much history although he does know a lot about stuff. All of those guys are very interesting gentlemen. Iggy knows a lot about culture - all of them have their expertise. Scotty is very much a humanitarian. Lately, the last few gigs, he's been telling me about wanting to get a way where people can get more creative with music and get it out there. He thinks a lot of music is controlled and stifled. He might even start a label he was telling me.

What's a favourite track for you - a song that you always respond well to?
You mean the Stooges? Yeah, man, I like them all. They've all got their own character. Some since I was a boy. I gotta tell you when we first heard Full House we actually thought the first three songs were the same song but done in different ways. This is how inept we were at listening, you know, we thought it was the same song (laughs). 'TV Eye' goes way back with me I've always responded to that tune. But I really like 'Fun House' - I like the lick that Dave laid down there, the groove he laid down there to let those guys dance on top of. It's a great thing and harmonically too it's kinda bluesy. It's really neat. I like 'Not Right'. Something about that song, man - it's like a freight train. It's funny, Ronnie told me it was written just like that and Scotty told me the first time they went through it is what you hear on the record. They didn't even practice that one. I think Iggy likes it a lot too because we play it at the end and he goes, 'okay, now we're going to play some real music - no more showbiz, here's some music'. In a way that song is kinda symphonic. I like them all.

The one song I was impressed with off Iggy's Skull Ring record was 'Little Electric Chair'…
Ah, we've been playing that. In fact Iggy's changed the bass to it. He has it so I play more whole notes so it has more air, not play all the eight notes that Ronnie did on the album. Which, you know, I'm happy to oblige. I have my own bands, I get my way. You can't learn everything always being the boss. Getting to take direction from these guys, it's a dream come true.

Now, I saw you play in Melbourne with J. Mascis & the Fog a couple of years back doing a Stooges tribute off your night off - what struck me at the time was you didn't play anything off the Raw Power record. A statement?
Well, I'm just such a fan of Ron Asheton's guitar. I mean those are great songs and everything on Raw Power - I really like the lick in 'Shake Appeal' - one of the best ever. In fact I got to meet James Williamson - he came to the gig when the Stooges played at the Queen Mary here in Long Beach. But, I kinda drew the line at Fun House. I don't do 'Ann' or 'We Will Fall' either.

Raw Power is good but those first two are the ones…
For me, I think that's the real band. Those are great songs on Raw Power but it's a different thing.

You did play 'I Got a Right'.
I've done that with (Stephen) Perkins and Peter (DiStefano) from Porno for Pyros - usually that's the one that finishes it up.

I got the Fun House Sessions box set a couple of years and was quite taken aback at how focused those outtakes are. The Stooges have a reputation for being ragged but they were anything but…
I got that box set too. There's some differences between takes. The words kinda change. When I was young I thought all that stuff was first take, you know. But then listening to it seemed like 'whoa, yeah, they had to go for take 22 to get there'. But what's really good about that thing is how timeless it sounds, it doesn't sound dated like a lot of records do. They had the guy from the Kingsmen, Don Gallucci that did 'Louie Louie'. They told me how they did it which was they set up for like a gig, Iggy had a P.A. set up in there. I don't think they were looking at it like a studio thing; they tried to capture the live thing. I'm just amazed at how it sounds when you put it against stuff today, it doesn't sound like it's 35 years old.

The original bassist Dave Alexander died in 1975 - have you asked the guys much about him?
I asked them right at the beginning cos I really liked his playing and bass lines and wanted to get to know him a little bit since I was replacing him. Obviously I'm trying to help these guys in the present but in another way it's a tribute to Dave Alexander. So he's always on my mind when I'm playing Stooges songs period but especially when I'm playing with Ronnie and Scott. When we did the first gig at Coachella Scotty brought me a Dave Alexander T-shirt and that's what I wore on stage.

He's the forgotten man of the Stooges.
Yeah, which is a shame. But I don't know if it's Dave Alexander the person it might be more the role of the bass. We've had to fight. Thank God for punk rock because that helped us out a lot because it was weird - there was a weird hierarchy in the old days especially. Bass was where you put the retarded friend or something. I've even heard Ronnie talk about the Raw Power days and him getting demoted to the bass which is hard for me to hear, you know, because for one thing he's a great bass player and has great lines but it's not such a demotion to be put on bass. But I think that's why people overlook Dave a little bit. Also, he hasn't been able to speak for himself and maybe that's why. I always try to acknowledge him with people.

He came up with things like 'Dirt' and 'Fun House'…
Right, 'Little Doll'. I heard he even came up with the chant for 'We Will Fall'.

Even though you've drawn the line on that song.
It's kinda hard to do, that's why. They told me about it too - Dave came up with that chant as a way to get you high because there was no hash, there were no chemical substances and so they had to use other means like that chant.

From what I read it was a tragic end - he became an alcoholic and died of pneumonia in '75.
Yeah. He was such a young man. They told me he wasn't strong in a way, he was born with a weak constitution. His body, not him. His body was kind of frail. He was such a young man when you think about it. Ronnie told me about the trip he and Dave did to England in about '67. That was a real important trip in the way the Stooges came together. They left high school to go to England because they wanted to be where the Beatles were from. By venturing out like that it gave them quite an experience to really go for music. I think what Dave was a big part of Ron and Scotty and the Stooges period. I did ask Iggy about him when I was first was practicing for that Coachella gig and Iggy said he didn't know him as well because he was from Ypsilanti and those guys were from Ann Arbor. Iggy's not from Ann Arbor proper, it's close but you know when you're younger a little bit of distance can be a big thing - just like a couple of years can be a big thing. He didn't really know a lot about him, he told me 'Ron knew him better than me'.

Of course you've got a completely different style of playing to Dave Alexander.
Oh, yeah … but in a lot of ways I take a lot from his kind of thing. I just have some pollution from Jack Bruce and John Entwistle. It was hard for me when I was young to hear bass guitar so I gravitated toward the more outrageous guys. Like I couldn't tell you what a Creedence Clearwater Revival bass line was - I couldn't hear it. In fact, Dave was one of the more simple bass players where I actually could hear the bass lines. I couldn't really hear it in a lot of songs. Me and D. Boon (fellow Minuteman) didn't have any older brother's and stuff to show us along the way so we were just listening and in those days at gigs the bass wasn't as good to hear, we just had a tiny little stereo thing - it was just a hard deal with bass. We didn't even really know what it was - we knew every band would have one except for maybe the Doors because it would be listed on the album cover and we could see in the pictures it looked like a guitar but there were only four tuners. But, you know, with Arena Rock you were like a mile away from the guy, there was no club situation for us until punk. We never got to come up close so it was hard for me to hear bass, what was the role of the bass. With Geezer (Butler) and (Tony) Iommi (from Black Sabbath) I use to always to confuse the lines - couldn't tell the bass from the guitar and stuff. So, Entwistle and Bruce I could kinda hear them because they use to mix them up loud. And then the Motown guy - James Jamerson - I picked up a lot of bass from him and Larry Graham in Sly's band because I could actually hear it. Dave was a lot about feel and groove and not so much bluster and to me that's a really essential thing and that's something I'm trying to work towards more and more. I look at Dave Alexander's playing as more of a goal than a fusionesque type thing. The other thing as I've gotten older I've got into John Coltrane and sometimes I feel like doing that and I know that's totally irresponsible. Sometimes it's like I'm trying to put saxophone through it. It's funny too 'cos I got an interview with Coltrane and they ask him 'what do you listen to when you're soloing?' and he's says 'the bass' so that gives you some perspective on the whole thing.

I love 'Ole'.
Oh, yeah - 'Ole's great. Early on with his own band. I like the Ecstatic stuff too. Its weird, his whole work is a life - it moves through all this territory. Those guys told me when they were young they were listening to this - in fact the 'Little Doll' line came from 'Upper Egypt, Lower Egypt' from Pharoah Sanders. They were listening to these things, Ron talks about John Coltrane all the time; so does Iggy.

When was the last time you were proud to be American?
Oh, I hardly ever think in those terms. I guess whenever we didn't do something shameful - whenever that was. I don't try to look at life in such terms like that. I try to be one of more humbler people in the US.

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