Jeff Gold - Total Chaos: The Story of the Stooges / As Told by Iggy Pop

TOTAL CHAOS

THE STORY OF THE STOOGES / AS TOLD BY IGGY POP

JEFF GOLD

EDITED BY JON S AV AGE

TAB LE OF CONTENTS

Tot al Ch aos is the ti tle of this b ook and a perfe ct descri ption of the r st Sto oges s how I sa w It was J une at the Wh isky -A-G o-Go in Holl yw ood I kn ew alm ost not hing ab out Th e Stoo ges, bu t was a hu ge Davi d Bowi e fan So, when I h eard Bow ie was i nvolved with themh e foun d The S tooge s manage ment, a record deal, and mi xed their album Raw Po wer that wa s good e nough fo r me

I remembe r it bein g very short Iggy was the f ocus of the au dienc e' s a tte ntion Bare exc ept for a pair of bl ue bikini panti es, he seemed ver y s paced-o ut, and eventu ally thr eaded th e mic rophone s tand in side hi s under we ar , humpi ng it whi le sing ing a song I d idn 't recognize about butt fuck ers in Ho llyw ood He bega n fall ing dow n and the guit arist h elped him osta ge Th at half hour me smeri zed me

The ne xt tim e I saw Th e Stoo ges coul d not h ave been m ore di erent It was Apri l 2003 , at th e Coac hella V al ley Music an d Ar ts Fe stival The ban d hadn 't played t ogeth er in 29 years, and inst ead of the 400 people a t the Whis ky , they were headl iner s at th e most im port ant roc k festi val in t he Un ite d Stat es, p layi ng to a cr owd of 30,0 00 A s Ja y Babcock wr ote in an L.A. W eekl y review titl ed Mir acle in the Dese rt, in fr ont of an audi ence of what seem ed like ever y r ecord-c ollecti n' geek wit hin 7 ,0 00 mile s plus thousa nds of cu riou s youngli ngs, [I ggy] did som ethi ng absolu tely m iracul ous: He di dn' t just tur n back the hand s of time he c ut the m clean o, pissed on them an d then dan ced on th e fuc kers in an ele mental , primo rdial, i mposs ible per for manc e of pure sham anic w ill It was unfat homab le Iggy Po p, Ron As heton, and Scot t Ash eton (w ith Mike W att on bass ) the cor e of The Stooge s back on s tage toge ther A band th at spli t up n earl y 30 years earlie r to al most to tal ind ier ence, le ft di sillu sioned, drug ad dicte d, and brok e An d here th ey were, th anks t o the power of an ever- grow ing my th, reinca rnat ed as conqueri ng heroe s An d they were fant astic

Of course, a lot had transpi red bet ween my tw o Stoog es gig s: the Ashet on broth ers had played in nume rous groups, Jam es Will iamson had left the mu sic busine ss for a career i n high te ch, and Ig gy h ad enjo yed a succe ssful solo car eer (I had the good f ort une t o hav e seen him perfo rm man y time s) Sti ll, it wa s almost surre al when Iggy s igned to the lab el I wor ked for , A&M Rec ords, in 1 6 I oversa w the market ing and creativ e serv ices depart ments , and soon , I was worki ng wit h Iggy on the la unch of his sol o alb um Blah Blah Blah

Though many ar tists aren' t invol ved in the market ing of t heir records, it was imme diate ly clea r Iggy had a lot to contr ibut e In a ddit ion to being ver y to geth er, he had an excel lent unders tandin g of what worked for him career- wise So, I asked him to wr ite his own ads fo r the al bum, whi ch we pri nte d in his ow n handwr itin g He had very strong id eas fo r the reco rd's vide os I'll a lways re member o ur only testy moment, which ha ppened duri ng the editi ng of his Cry Fo r Love vi deo I s ugges ted tha t he di dn' t look g ood in a partic ular sho t and that w e shoul d take it ou t He quic kl y shot d own that s ugges tion it ha d been a long night s aying someth ing to the e ect that I was just a recor d execu tive, n ot real ly a fan of his I to ld him in 1 I had paid $250 t o see hi m sing ab out but tfuc kers fo r half a n hour unti l he n ally fe ll dow n He immedi ately turne d to th e edit or an d said , take out the sho t!

We contin ued work ing t ogeth er and he cont inue d to surp rise me Fo r the C old Me tal vide o from his ne xt alb um Instinc t , Iggy had me tr ack down the larg ely un kno wn Sa m Raimi , directo r of an ul tra-l ow budg et hor ror lm I'd never hea rd of ca lled The Evil D ead Of course Raimi went on t o dir ect the r st three Spider- Man mov ies, which grossed ne arly 2 5 billi on doll ars Iggy always had his n ger on the pul se Ev entua lly Iggy left A&M fo r Virgin and I for Wa rne r Bros A nd while he conti nued p erfo rming througho ut the years, I left the recor d busines s for life as a music histor ian/m usic me morabil ia colle ctor/ deal er But I alwa ys remai ned a fan

A few days before that am azing Coa chell a show I ha d lun ch wi th my o ld fri end and Iggy 's l ongt ime man ager , the lat e grea t Ar t Col lins I' d amassed a la rge S tooge s colle ction, an d brought some of the hi ghlight s to show him Many of t he mos t inte resting things came fr om Danny Fields , who sign ed the band to Elektr a and later m anage d them A rt was part icular ly int ereste d in ge tting copies of the Ele ktra and Col umbia Records contr acts, an d of cours e I oblig ed

I went to the sho w wit h my fr iend Johan Kuge lberg He, to o, had a larg e Sto oges co llecti on, some of which you' ll see in the pages that f ollow Backs tage afte r the ban d's triu mph, I said he llo t o Iggy for th e rs t time in year s (I reme mber Ja ck Wh ite and coun tles s othe rs congrat ulati ng the band ) We kne w afte r a show li ke that , The Stooge s would receive many oers to play mo re shows They did The Stoog es ha d been rebo rn bet ter th an ever

INTRODUCTION

In 20 I did my r st book, 101 Essent ial Rock R ecords: The Golde n Age of Vin yl (whi ch inc luded Fun House and Raw Po wer ) Iggy contr ibute d a great ess ay on tw o album s that we re inu entia l to hi m, The Moth ers of Invent ion' s Freak Ou t and The m's The Ang ry Y ou ng Them The book did wel l, and Jo han and I began d iscussing doing a pi ctori al book of our merg ed Sto oges ar chives One ni ght th e idea came t o me Pick 1 artif acts fro m our coll ection s that t old th e stor y o f The Stooge s, show them t o Iggy , and record h is recoll ection s, creati ng a visual and oral histo ry of the b and fro m Iggy 's pe rspecti ve Joha n liked the id ea, so we pi tched it to Iggy , who quick ly said ye s An d so in Mar ch of 20 14, Johan and I trav eled to Miami to in terv iew I ggy We had 1 large print outs o f the th ings we 'd chosen , and I' d put to geth er 21 pages of ques tions

Like the Stoog es reun ion, we weren' t prepared fo r what we got Iggy met us a t his un pretent ious, n orma l look ing house at le ast from th e outsid ewi th a lar ge yard that ba cked up to a cree k He gave u s a tour , showi ng us the ext remely eclecti c int erio rju st what yo u'd expect from himinc ludi ng a self -port rait he' d paint ed on an old door , photos and post ers fr om throu ghout his care er, Haiti an stee l art wor ks mad e from recy cled oil drums , and a li fe-s ized stu ed cl oth sc ulpt ure of a wo man sit ting on a couch