Gimme Danger Page #7

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Sometimes it was eventful,

sometimes it was, listen..

I-I-I was a guy,

very young, in a rock band

and having beautiful summers

in the Midwest.

So, so-sometimes I'd just

go down there, and, you know

see some chick and go,

"Hey, what's your number?"

You will come to me

whenever I call you...

...and I will enjoy that very much.

(Iggy)

I had seen a lot of pictures

of the, the Pharaohs and, um

and some of their

a-atttendants.

Egyptian iconography

I guess you'd call it.

And it impressed me that the Pharaohs

seldom wore shirts.

Here in a minute

end of all these announcements

we're gonna...

...we're gonna have a big ceremony

and we're gonna plant the seeds

and then we're gonna

light the joint and celebrate.

[instrumental music]

Hey hey mama tell you now

I was gonna die..

That particular festival

came along at a time

when all the different

free-love

free-wheeling, free-roaming

social groups in Detroit

were all starting to sizzle up

in the frying pan of drugs.

We all got so stoned.

[indistinct chatter]

I was in a tent with some wild people

and I took so much of

what I thought was coke

before the thing that I had amnesia

accompanied by

a vertical malfunction with my vision.

Like the sort of thing

that used to happen

with televisions of that era

when the picture

would keep flipping over and over.

Couldn't remember who I was

and then finally I remembered

there was something

I had to do.

[rock music]

Out of my mind on Saturday night

1970 rollin' in sight

Dave, he just went

all the way out that night.

(Scott) He got extremely

drunk before the show

and he couldn't play the songs.

One of the road crew went out

and turned his volume

all the way off on his amp

and he kept playing

he didn't even realize

that his amp wasn't on.

(Iggy)

We had a good billing

Danny had brought important people

from New York to see us.

We were on the same bill with,

uh, Rod Stewart and the "Faces"

we wanted to do well, we got out there

there's no bass.

So, I was extra aggressive.

I did try to get to the fence.

Um, I was prevented.

There was an actual trench dug

and there were horse police.

And so I started calling, "Come on!

[chuckles]

Tear that fence."

I think I mentioned

"Tear the fence down."

[indistinct chatters]

(male #3)

Lead Stooge is freaked out.

(Iggy) I think the fence

took a couple of hits.

(male #3)

He jumped over the fence

and we've lost power on the amp.

(Iggy) I don't remember being arrested.

I remember just sitting

after the gig, really like

still whacked out,

and watching Ronnie Wood

and Rod Stewart drinking Mateus

to get ready for their show.

That was their, uh,

intoxicant of choice.

[rock music]

(Scott)

Iggy fired him, but not really

cause Dave wanted to be let go.

Yeah, I felt bad but, um...

...I also felt there's no sense

in having someone in the band

that's not serious, who doesn't

really want to be in the band.

We remained friends after.

Damn

[vocalizing]

His parents called me up,

said he was in the hospital.

What it was was an inflamed pancreas

which he could have survived

but they had an IV in him...

...and he wanted it out,

and he wanted to go home

and he wanted a beer.

So they sedated him to a point

to where he was unconscious

and when he was unconscious,

he got pneumonia

and the pneumonia killed him.

He'd recorded two albums

he, um, became to be in a

famous rock and roll band.

He had accomplished

what he wanted to do.

He was ready to go.

...do you feel it?

Said do you feel it

when you touch me?

And do you feel it

when you touch me?

There's a fire

There's a fire

Oh it's just a dreaming

I just wanna be dreaming

(Iggy)

I'd been using psychedelics.

[yelping]

They were probably

cut with a lot of speed.

[screams]

God, no! No! No! No!

I began to have problems

controlling my nerves.

Get me out of this terrible place!

(Iggy) That was about

the time that one guy

who lived in our house,

a guy named John Adams

didn't have much to do in his life..

Here. Lookey here.

(Iggy)

Decided he wanted to take up

an old heroin addiction.

- What's H?

- Shh! Not so loud.

And uh... I fell into that.

As did other members of the group.

Everything just decayed.

And to see those guys

just to see everyone hit rock bottom

to see your whole world crumble

when it's not really your fault.

And I never did it, and never wanted to.

Aside from us just being

flat out unreliable

uh, we, we had Scotty Asheton

was driving the equipment truck one day.

It's like a-a bridge

with whatever, ten feet or

eleven feet clearance, and

truck's twelve feet, you know?

(Danny) That's the metaphor of

the early Stooges, that's it.

The van's destroyed

the instruments that

they rented are destroyed.

The bridge is destroyed.

[rock music]

They were victims of their own, um...

...lack of professionalism.

Down on the street

where the faces shine

But they were also

the victims of other forces

that we could call anti-art.

[music continues]

"The Stooges" record Fun House

so we're at the point

where Elektra has to decide

whether or not to pick up

the option for a third album.

William S. Harvey and I

went out to Ann Arbor

went to Stooge Hall, and they played

what were the songs

that were going to be their new songs

and I just thought "Yes.

"The music is what I loved

and there's more of it."

They were accelerating

from where they started

they were better, but

that made no difference to him.

And we got into our rental car

went back to the hotel,

we got in the elevator and..

"So, Bill, what'd you think?"

And he said

"I didn't hear a thing."

Got out of the elevator,

the elevator door closed

I called them up, and I said

"You're being dropped."

"I didn't hear a thing."

That says it all.

[music continues]

They didn't hear a thing from day one.

They had the world's

greatest band sitting there

they didn't hear a thing.

And that's kind of what the world said.

I don't think they formally

dropped me, but they said

"Look here's a, here's a

Nikon camera, as a gift.

[chuckles]

Go away for awhile."

And so I scurried off to clean up

and shut down the band for a while.

My parents were very friendly

with a pharmacist

who completely illegally,

without a prescription

ordered, uh, a bottle

of liquid methadone

for my exclusive daily use.

This was a few miles,

couple of miles from our trailer

on the edge-edge of Ann Arbor.

And I would usually walk

in the morning over there

to take a small dose

that he would personally give me

from this family pharmacist.

I got to the point,

I could go a few days

without anything.

[siren blaring]

And that was

when I... went to New York.

Iggy and I were sitting on my bed

we'd fallen asleep to some

black and white Western

and Lisa called me and she said

"Oh, is-is Iggy with you?"

I said, "Oh yeah."

She said "Well, I'm with

David Bowie, we're at Max's

he really wants to meet Iggy."

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