Interview: Raw Power - Iggy Pop and The Stooges Bass Player Mike Watt Gets Floored
"That's the righteous thing about music, it doesn't care about age. Because reality is, it's one of the things that brings us together--all the arts. It really transcends age... if we got our minds open."
~ Mike Watt (Bass Player, Iggy Pop and The Stooges)
I recently had a chance to talk to Iggy Pop and The Stooges bass player Mike Watt while the band was between gigs. Watt's own band, Manhattan Project, released their debut album, Floored By Four, September 28th on Chimera Records. Watt, along with Iggy Pop and fellow Manhattan Project members Yuka Honda (Plastic Ono Band) and Nels Cline (Wilco), will perform tonight at Yoko Ono's tribute concert at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles. Manhattan Project also includes Dougie Bowne (John Cale, Iggy Pop) on drums.
Mike Watt has been the bass player for Iggy and The Stooges for seven years. He got his start in music in 1980 as a founding member of Minutemen. The death of his best friend, and band mate, D. Boon, in a 1985 van accident, devastated Mike to the point that he had found himself unable to play anymore.
"When D. Boon got killed in that van wreck, I didn't really wanna play anymore. I didn't think people wanted to see me play without him.
Audio Interview: Mike Watt - Iggy Pop and The Stooges
I was reluctant to bring up D. Boon's death, it's a subject that even to this day makes Mike sad. It was even difficult to listen to him talk about it in the audio recording afterward. But it is impossible to understand the depth of Mike Watt, and to discuss all that came afterward, without mentioning that time. Every single project that Mike Watt has undertaken, every note that he has played, he has dedicated to his best friend, D. Boon.
Mike Watt has been involved in multiple music projects over the years, including dos, fIREHOSE, Porno For Pyros and several solo albums supported by artists like Eddie Vedder, Dave Grohl and Henry Rollins. Flea did the presenting when Mike Watt was awarded the Bass Player Magazine lifetime achievement award, in 2008.
I asked Mike how things have been going on the tour, "Have you guys been having fun? Have there been any bloody brawls?"
"No, no... and finally I'm the youngest guy in the band! I don't even think there'd be a punk scene without The Stooges, they wrote the book on the music scene I'm part of, you know?
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