The Vinyl Guide - Artist Interviews for Record Collectors and Music Nerds · The Vinyl Guide

Ep527: Tales from the Stooges with Mike Watt

November 28, 2025·1 hr 12 min·4 clips

Watt says the Stooges were “not just some punch-the-clock” gig and compares the sound to “a tsunami.”

1. The Vinyl Guide episode 527 centers on Mike Watt and the Stooges, with a Record Store Day link to Org Music’s We Will Fall tribute. 2. Nate Goyer hosts Mike Watt, and Watt matters here because he played bass with Iggy and the Stooges for “10 and a half years.” 3. The episode asks what the Stooges mean to Watt and why he treats the band as a debt he still tries to repay. 4. Watt says his first Stooges album was Fun House, and he recalls that nobody he knew liked that record when it came out in 1970 or 1971. 5. He contrasts the Stooges with arena rock and says their music came from clubs, not from “a little circus act.” 6. Watt describes hearing the band as a teenager in 1970, even though he was only 13 and the Stooges were about 11 years older. 7. He links his interest in the band to Cream magazine, Richard Meltzer, Cat, and Captain Beefheart as part of a broader minority scene. 8. Watt says he got the Stooges call while touring, and Iggy told him, “Roddy says, you’re the man.” 9. He remembers Iggy asking him to wear a T-shirt instead of a flannel and to use Levi’s and Converse. 10. Watt says the first Coachella gig turned into “126 months,” which is how the Stooges run extended far beyond one show. 11. He describes playing with Ron Asheton, Scott Asheton, and Iggy as a learning process where he had a “million questions” and tried to bring his best notes. 12. Watt says Scott Asheton often made the three-way dynamic work because Iggy deferred to him as the tiebreaker. 13. He talks about the rhythm section as a dance between low frequencies, the kick drum, and the bass part rather than a pile of chord changes. 14. Watt says Stooges songs such as Down on the Street, No Fun, and TV Eye work because of swing, feel, and physical motion. 15. He mentions that Iggy would practice before shows with a mirror and an unplugged mic stand, which Watt compares to discipline and concentration. 16. Watt describes each Stooges gig as a “tsunami” of energy and says the shows felt short even though they were the hardest things he had ever worked. 17. The conversation stays loose and humorous, with Watt using numbers like four, five, six, and eight to talk about release ideas and the sequence of tribute records. 18. The interview style is conversational and story-heavy, with Nate pushing for details and Watt answering with digressions, memories, and song-by-song reflection. 19. People who like Stooges history, bass parts, and rock oral history will get a lot from this episode. 20. People looking for concise answers or no deep music nerdery may skip it.

As heard by us

A loose, lived-in Stooges conversation that treats memory, noise, and swing as part of the same story.

Mike Watt makes the Stooges feel like a living band, not a memory exercise. Nate Goyer gives him room to move between the years with Iggy and the Stooges and the small details that make the songs stick, like titles, licks, and the way a tune can still land hard.

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Why you'd press play

For when you want Stooges lore from someone who spent 10 years with the band.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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