It’s no secret the rock’n’roll hooligan wrote the majority of the 1973 record Raw Power on his Gibson B-25 Natural acoustic that’s now sitting idol at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. “The Raw Power writing process wasn’t anything out of the norm,” Williamson explained. “We weren’t successful in convincing our management to release any of our stuff after the first two records so I just sat in my bedroom and knocked them out, one by one. I would take them to Jim [Iggy] and he began putting lyrics to them and they slowly evolved from there. It’s nothing contrived, it’s just the natural process.”
Being Williamson’s first record with The Stooges, this was around the same time they began experimenting beyond bud. “I was no stranger to this band when I joined it,” Williamson chuckled. “Hell, we met in middle school and I had done my fair share of things as well. Coming from Detroit, the drug scene had gotten far heavier than it did in Ann Arbor, Michigan. So by the time I joined The Stooges, what they were starting to get into wasn’t really a big deal to me.”
The Raw Power days set the foundation for the Pop/Bowie era. The pair first met in New York when Pop was trying to find a new record deal after The Stooges briefly disbanded in 1971. “Bowie was basically a fan of Iggy. I shouldn’t speak on behalf of everyone, but we thought Bowie was pretty lightweight and a frivolous kind of guy, and that includes Iggy.” It wouldn’t be until Williamson and Pop arrived in England for the production of Raw Power that they started nitpicking Bowie’s character. “By this point, Bowie had already released a number of his own records and he was very hell-bent on an approach. I don’t think the band ever really liked Bowie. I know I never have personally. I think he’s a smart guy and he eventually learnt how to write music pretty well but it’s not so much his music, there are just some people you like and some people you don’t and I don’t like the guy.”
Whilst Iggy And The Stooges continued a heavy touring schedule throughout 1973, they also sustained heavy drug addictions that ultimately led to the band’s demise in early 1974. Williamson then worked with Pop, alongside Bowie to launch his solo career but it wasn’t until Iggy split with Bowie for Berlin when Williamson had to make a jump-ship decision on his career.
“I could have gotten another band together, but I just didn’t have the heart for it anymore and I wanted to know what I was going to be when I grew up. So, I went and got a job as a recording engineer at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles. However, I soon learnt I wasn’t cut out for the job when I realised there is only one thing worse than playing in a band everyday and that’s recording bands you don’t like everyday.”
It was around this time when Williamson found himself in an electronic store when he witnessed a father and son playing with a very peculiar box. “I remember watching them quite vividly and it actually turns out that this box was a very early personal computer. I became fascinated with this technology because it was right at the very beginning of contemporary computers. This is when I decided that I was going to learn how to design these things and it’s been an incredible ride for me. I spent a whole lifetime in that career.”
The ex-electronics engineer admits to entirely retiring the guitar. “Music is a very emotional outlet for me so I can’t just diddle around on the side. It was an either/or thing for me so I just sat the guitar aside and went on with my life. That’s the way it was going to be.” As years went by, Iggy And The Stooges finally reformed in 2003 and Williamson kept plugging away with technology. It wasn’t until the unexpected death of original member, Ron Asheton in 2009, when Williamson stood up with Iggy And The Stooges from an early retirement of the Fortune 500 company, Sony.
They’ve written a brand new record due for release in April titled Ready To Die and whilst there is very little information circulating online, Williamson explains, “The leak in the press was not intentional and unfortunately I can’t tell you much besides we like it and we hope you like it. I will also say that we plan on playing some of the new tunes when we’re down there in Australia.”
BY MATT MARASCO
