Rockers pay tribute to Ron Asheton

Washington, Jan 08: Sex Pistols guitarist Glen Matlock and Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie have paid tribute to The Stooges star Ron Asheton, who died on January 6, 2009.

Asheton, who was 60 when he passed away, died of a suspected heart attack. Asheton’s body was discovered by police in the living room of his Michigan home after his personal assistant raised the alarm about his whereabouts when she couldn`t reach the star. Gillespie branded the rocker ‘one of the greats’. "I just loved The Stooges. Ron`s was a totally original style: really f**king sexy and wild and reckless and free,” Contactmusic quoted Gillespie, as telling NME.com. "He was a free rock `n` roll guitarist. He made up his own style - there`s nobody else who sounded like Ron Asheton. As soon as you hear the first chords of any Stooges song you knew it was him playing. "He had killer riffs. `No Fun`, `Down On The Street`, `I Wanna Be Your Dog` - all those songs you identify with a guitar riff even before Iggy (Pop) starts singing. He`s one of the greats, I think," Gillespie added. Matlock insists Asheton is deserving of icon status, due to his groundbreaking musical roots. "He`s certainly a punk forerunner, but he`s also part of a tradition of people like Dave Davies from The Kinks, and John Lee Hooker, Link Wray, all those people. The Stooges were a continuation of that line,” Matlock said. "Ron`s worthy of his status because of his simplicity. He just knew what was right for those songs," Matlock added. Asheton`s bandmates also paid tribute to him, with frontman Iggy Pop describing the late guitarist as ‘my best friend’. ANI