Stooges and Spirituality

It's amazing how so many of those guys survived the 70's. Iggy, Lou Reed, Bowie...hell, Johnny Thunders lasted until '91.

So many drugs getting pushed into veins...how are these guys still alive?! Thank god they aren't like Ozzy...a stuttering, mind-scrambled mess.

I am not sure about Ig, but Lou has used Tai Chi Chuan as a source of stability and inner strength for quite a long time. It helped him overcome all of his addictions. I wonder if Iggy meditates at all...

yeh, he does Qi Qong i think its called, plus iggys a strong guy anyway

yeah, mg196 - it's a shame what's happened to poor old Ozzy!

Its his own fault, i hate ozzy, he's probly fine, just does it for the money, i loved sabbath, like my favourite band at a time, but since he sold out to MTV n all, it dunno totally diminished wat sabbath did, i cant even listen to em nemore, i esp hate him tho, just shows how weak he is, if ppl like iggy and keef were into it worse than him and still jumpin around, and at least ozzy n keith had the money to buy the top of the range suff (keiths rule) iggy musta shoved some bad shit into his body

maybe you could sum it up like this, I'm not being judgemental on any of those guys, it's just that I 've got too much time to think about it right now,
Iggy and Ron are 'strong' characters, in different ways, they've survived in different ways
Scott got thru his heroin period too of course, and he's been attending to family responsibilities and job for long enough
but Dave was more of a 'weak' character, more or less from the start?
if you're born with those types of genes, or whatever, that basically means you're fucked from day one!!
but then there's all this business of nature versus nurture, the effect of your environement etc
and then there's also the question of good or bad luck, do you make your own, and so on
so many factors to consider!

Nadja wrote:

yeah, mg196 - it's a shame what's happened to poor old Ozzy!

The Stooges never had enough money to spend on loads of drugs but Black Sabbath were succesful during their original run so they made loads of money when they were young. Money which they were able to spend on drugs. Sharon was Ozzy's Bowie, if it wasn't for he'd be dead.

And yes Iggy has strong will power and so does Lou Reed but if it wasn't for (in James Williamson's words) that "ginger prick Bowie" Iggy and Lou would probably be pennyless or dead.

I admire Ron, Scott and James more as James got off drugs and has had a great career, Scott got off drugs with NO help and Ron seperated himself from his best friends and his brother to stay clear of heroin.

I love Iggy but after the Berlin period (which wasn't drug free anyway) he sunk back into hard drugs then into booze. It's been less than a decade since he completly gave up drugs and Ron...he still snorts and puffs occasionaly but not strong stuff

Dave's parents were pretty well off and he was spoilt and shy. He was basically allowed to drink since he was very small and slowly became an alcoholic then he invested a lot of money VERY wisely and spent most of it on booze.

An addict with money is an addict who can fund his addiction. Which means there's little hope of him getting rid of that addiction.

Quote :

and Ron...he still snorts and puffs occasionaly but not strong stuff

So does Ron still take drugs?

That stuff about Dave investing money, G,F#,E - that was from a family inheritance or something?
it always intrigues me, because it's almost the only thing I ever heard of him doing after leaving the band
shame if he ended up making so much money and didn't do anything productive with it
he's supposed to have had a daughter...always wonder about that too...

so few details...always leaves me soooooooo frustrated!

homesickjameswilliamson wrote:

Quote :

and Ron...he still snorts and puffs occasionaly but not strong stuff

So does Ron still take drugs?

In a Paul Trynka interveiw (it could be in Open Up and Bleed) he says while visiting Ron's house before The Stooges reunion there was a smell of pot in the air and that Ron dished out generous helpings of pot and cocaine. Though I'm guessing he still does it though I don't believe he was ever addicted.

Nadja wrote:

That stuff about Dave investing money, G,F#,E - that was from a family inheritance or something?
it always intrigues me, because it's almost the only thing I ever heard of him doing after leaving the band
shame if he ended up making so much money and didn't do anything productive with it
he's supposed to have had a daughter...always wonder about that too...

Yeah it was inheritence of somekind also I'd never heard anything about a daughter, it would be worth tracking down more information about him. In a post Open Up And Bleed thing Paul got a letter from someone who knew Dave saying they wished there was more about him in it.

Personally I would love a Stooges biography which covered what happened to each of the member afterwards. Stuff about Dave's life, Iggy's solo career, Scott in Sonic's Rendevous Band, Ron in Destroy All Monsters, Jame's buisness career, Thurston's and Mackay's post Stooges work and the ever mysterious Jimmy Recca and Zeke Zettner. I think that would be great.

Any budding Stooges authors reading this?

that's a good idea about the book G,F#,E
just need all the information to hand, that's all!
maybe you could make it up as you went along, in some cases...SPECULATIVE biographies...
just read that about Dave having a daughter a coupele of times online...principally one of those 'people-statistics' websites
and yes, from all accounts Dave was very much indulged by his parents...only child and all that
Iggy was too, of course, an only child I mean, not spoiled but I guess ultimately his parents let him do what he wanted, otherwise he couldn't've done everything he did without causing a family rupture and all. Which never happened, far as I know

Quote :

iggy was too, of course, an only child I mean, not spoiled but I guess ultimately his parents let him do what he wanted,

Iggys parents didnt let him do anything he wanted, they made him cut his hair and stay in school and all, they let him have the drums but only on the condition he put his heart and soul into it

once he left school and was in the stooges n everything he went crazy (dying his haiar platinum), but i think he felt he was 'away' enough from his parents to be his own man, and iggys is really independant - though he still leaned on his parents, like having his dad spring him from jail


HJW

Yeah I agree with that HJW though Iggy said in many 1977 that his parents meant a lot to him. His mum was supposed to by a very nice person and his dad was also nice but strict.

Iggy was allowed to play with other kids but looked down on the other kids at the trailer park only to realise when he met the Ashetons that he didn't want to be aposh president. He wanted to be a thug instead.

hjw, just to make it clear, the operative word in my post was 'ultimately', I'm perfectly aware that, at first, they 'made' him do things, but they 'ultimately' let him do what he wanted, once he'd made some choices., which of course they couldn't've agreed with, but they didn't disown him or anything even remotely like that, Iggy has said something at least on one occasion about how his dad recognized that, finally, and yes his dad was 'nice but strict' - BOTH of these things. He was certainly more authoritarian than the others' parents seem to have been, but he wasn't draconian.

oh yeh, of course, i mean they didnt have him on a leash or nothing, but his dad seemed i was guna say very, but i think it more 'justifably' strict, i guess, i dunno, i suppose iggy wasnt that bad a kid or nething just his dad wanted the ebst for him, but i think thats why iggy flipped out after school, he left school and joined the stooges, smoked dope etc because of the fathers strictness, and other things like boredom of school and a socalledlife after it of and office job or something

Iggy always wanted to fit in. That's why he acted snobby in high school and that's why he took drugs in The Stooges. For a long time I don't think Iggy was comfortable in his own skin. It's only recently I think that he's accepted himself for who he is.