The Stooges Guitarist Ron Asheton Found Dead

Ron Asheton, the guitarist and bassist with The Stooges, has been found dead at his home today (January 6), he was 60.

Asheton, 60, is thought to have suffered a heart attack, although the official cause of death has yet to been confirmed.

Asheton (picture third from left) was a founder member of The Stooges, along with his brother (and drummer) Scott Asheton, Dave Alexander (bass) and frontman Iggy Pop.
Ranked as Number 29 on Rolling Stone's '100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time', Asheton played the seminal riffs on Stooges' classics including 'No Fun', 'Down On The Street', and 'I Wanna Be Your Dog'. He switched to the bass guitar for The Stooges third album, 'Raw Power' (1973).

After the commercial failure of 'Raw Power', Asheton left The Stooges and played in a series of bands including The New Order (not to be confused with the UK band of the same name), and Destroy All Monsters.

He later recorded a number of tracks for 1998's cinematic paean to glam rock, 'Velvet Goldmine', along with Mudhoney's Mark Arm, The Minutemen's Mike Watt, Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Steve Shelley.

In 2000, Asheton, along with his brother Scott and the aforementioned Mike Watt, began playing shows together. The band were dubbed 'The New Stooges' by fans, and after Iggy Pop saw them perform, the four decided to reform The Stooges properly.

The Stooges played their first reunited show in 2003, and went on to release an album of new material ('The Weirdness') in 2007, with Asheton restored to lead guitar duties.