Playing Bass In The Stooges
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Artist:
One thing about this gig is you think school is gonna be over, but you're always having to get in front of the class and read your paper. The whole idea of school being a part of your life — I don't think you ever can quit. I read this thing Buddha said: "When you stop learning, you stop living." And that's the truth. I'm not always the boss. I found you can't learn everything when you're the boss, so I've done things where I'm helping other cats. I did it with Perry Farrell. I did it with J. Mascis [on his 2000 solo release More Light] and now I'm doing it with The Stooges. There, I'm the little brother, I'm the helper, I'm the deckhand, which is more like life, I think.
Stooges' classic, Funhouse.In life you play a lot of roles. Though I don't know if the costume changes that much, but you do play different roles. Like when you inhale and exhale — you don't do them at the same time. So always having a band, always being the boss, always getting your way — that's not the way to learn anything.Being in that situation, and especially with those gentlemen, they're very interesting. I've learned a lot from The Stooges.How many things are fifth-, sixth-, seventh-hand in here? I can go right to the source, they wrote the blueprint. You listen to Funhouse and it sounds like it could have been recorded last week. It's bizarre, and they were only 19, 20 at the time, way into Coltrane and Motown. They were into lots of different things; you can see it in the music. Maybe that's why it's still so vibrant and so alive and not in a museum. So, me, I'm really a student in their school. I'm also one of the kids watching, but I have a bass on and I'm playing along, it's a trip.Iggy's quite a conductor; he runs the stage, he works the stage, and he's aware and totally abandoned. Fifty-seven years old and stage-diving face first, but at the same time he's hearing every note and all the syncopation and the big picture and conducting us. It's quite amazing for me to be part of something like that.In a way, it was Stooges music that helped me from the sickness, because I had tubes in me and shit and couldn't play. And I hadn't stopped playing since 13 and when I went back to play I couldn't play, and it scared the shit out of me, so I started doing Stooges songs to get strong and develop rhythm again. There's not a lot of chord changes, and one thing led to another, and then, yeah, The Stooges — finally the youngest guy in the band.
Stooges' classic, Funhouse.In life you play a lot of roles. Though I don't know if the costume changes that much, but you do play different roles. Like when you inhale and exhale — you don't do them at the same time. So always having a band, always being the boss, always getting your way — that's not the way to learn anything.Being in that situation, and especially with those gentlemen, they're very interesting. I've learned a lot from The Stooges.How many things are fifth-, sixth-, seventh-hand in here? I can go right to the source, they wrote the blueprint. You listen to Funhouse and it sounds like it could have been recorded last week. It's bizarre, and they were only 19, 20 at the time, way into Coltrane and Motown. They were into lots of different things; you can see it in the music. Maybe that's why it's still so vibrant and so alive and not in a museum. So, me, I'm really a student in their school. I'm also one of the kids watching, but I have a bass on and I'm playing along, it's a trip.Iggy's quite a conductor; he runs the stage, he works the stage, and he's aware and totally abandoned. Fifty-seven years old and stage-diving face first, but at the same time he's hearing every note and all the syncopation and the big picture and conducting us. It's quite amazing for me to be part of something like that.In a way, it was Stooges music that helped me from the sickness, because I had tubes in me and shit and couldn't play. And I hadn't stopped playing since 13 and when I went back to play I couldn't play, and it scared the shit out of me, so I started doing Stooges songs to get strong and develop rhythm again. There's not a lot of chord changes, and one thing led to another, and then, yeah, The Stooges — finally the youngest guy in the band.
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