Free Detroit Rock City by Steve Miller

you to hang around.” I go, “Who are you?” He says, “I’m Jim Osterberg.” And I shook his hand. So he goes, “I’m a drummer.” I go, “Oh cool. Which band?” “The Prime Movers.” So Jeep doesn’t show and Jeep doesn’t show. Iggy picks up the phone and calls Ron Asheton and says, “Hey man, you better get down here. There’s this really cool guy here.” So twenty minutes later in walks Ron Asheton, Scott Asheton, and Dave Alexander. The three homeboys. They were never without each other. Iggy introduced us. Jeep never showed up and Ron Richardson calls Discount Records and says, “Is Scott there?” and Iggy says, “Yeah,” and he says, “Well, tell him to come over to my place.” So me and Ron Asheton and Scotty and Dave Alexander—Iggy was going to come over later—we all left and walked across the plaza to University Towers. A week later Iggy and I became roommates. Then he decided he wanted to become a lead singer. I got in a whole bunch of trouble because Iggy was a really good drummer. He was a fine percussionist, okay? The guys in his band, the Erlewine brothers, had big plans for him. They sent him over to Chicago to study drumming with Sam Lay of the Butterfield Blues band. I got held up in an alley and had a knife put up against my throat in Ann Arbor and was told to stop inviting Iggy to my gigs because he was going to quit playing drums and he wanted to become a front man after hanging around with the Chosen Few. I said, “It’s not my fault.” They said, “Ever since he met you he doesn’t want to play anymore. He wants to dance around on stage.”
    Ron Asheton ( Iggy and the Stooges, Chosen Few, guitarist, bassist ): I ended up playing in the Chosen Few with Scott Richardson, and that was our high school band. Those guys were in Birmingham, Michigan, and I was in Ann Arbor, and they’d come here and we’d do all the TGIF parties, frat parties on Friday night, then on Saturday we’d either do a frat or go do a teen set at a club. The Chosen Few played the very first night of the Grande Ballroom opening for the MC5. That was Scott Richardson on vocals, Richard Simpson on guitar, Al Clark on guitar, Stan Sulewski on drums, and I was playing the bass. We did that Stones EP where they ran together “Everybody Needs Somebody,” “Pain in My Heart,” and “Route66.” That was a nice little EP that came out in England, and they had Bill Wyman playing that do-do-do doot-do doot-doot doot doot; they had the bass starting out “Everybody Needs Somebody” rather than guitar, so I am proud to say that I played the first notes at the Grande Ballroom.
    Iggy Pop: Finally we had the Stooges and needed a manager. At one point it was going to be Russ Gibb. There were two people that needed to help us for us to get on stage where the right audience could see us. One was Russ Gibb and the other was John Sinclair. I remember going out of my way to communicate with each of those guys personally. I went to Russ’s home one day, sorta being kind of summoned, “Well we’re kinda interested in you guys.” I think we already played once at the Grande. “Why don’t you come over and talk about where it’s going?”
    Jimmy Recca ( Iggy and the Stooges, New Order, bassist ): Russ Gibb had every intention of becoming the band’s manager. Russ was wanting to take the band to England and play.
    Russ Gibb: At that time John Sinclair was hyping that band too. He was hyping Iggy because that was an Ann Arbor thing that he had going with the White Panthers, or whatever he had going along with the MC5.
    John Sinclair: The Stooges had no social aspect or facet whatsoever. Iggy was a genius, and the other guys were his stooges. They weren’t called the Stooges for nothing. Literally, he gave each one of them a part.
    Iggy Pop: Russ certainly