R.I.P. Ron Asheton, Rock Influential

Shining lights of the world are leaving us at what feels like an exponential rate. It seems like I’ve been covering a death or burial almost every day.

Today I reported for Wired on the death of influential guitarist Ron Asheton, whose ax noise helped make The Stooges one of the most acclaimed bands of all time. May his riffs hurt eardrums in the everlasting ether.

For more, listen below, rock out, then click here and read.

R.I.P. Ron Asheton, Rock Influential
[Scott Thill, Wired]
Much has been made of Iggy Pop’s legendary influence on punk and rock of all frequencies. But without guitarist Ron Asheton, who was found dead from an apparent heart attack in his Ann Arbor home on Tuesday, The Stooges could have sunk rather than soared.

It was Asheton’s unhinged riffage that propelled Stooges’ classics like “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” “Down On the Street,” “T.V. Eye” and many more into the record books. In the process, the band made a lasting impression on rockers as storied as The Sex Pistols, Black Flag, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Nirvana, Rage Against the Machine and many, many others.

Along with his brother and drummer Scott Asheton and Iggy Pop, Ron founded The Stooges in Ann Arbor in 1967 and never looked back, delivering the type of visceral noise and tasty licks the band needed to survive the dustbin of history. MORE @ WIRED