I'm obsessed with James Williamson's thigh-high silver boots. Robert Matheu's photo of them is towards the end of this page: http://www.i94bar.com/ints/sonicsrendezvousband.html

And there's another on the 2nd page of the i94 interview with James: http://www.i94bar.com/ints/james2.html

I've always marvelled at the image of these decadent drug punks creating such a lethal sound while looking like Sex Mutants from Mars (can't remember where I stole that descriptor from: Nick Kent? Paul Trynka?). I envy the people on this forum who saw the Raw Power Stooges, because the disjunction between this image and the sound coming from the stage must have blown many, many minds.

So imagine my joy at coming across this recent interview with James, part of a tribute to Ron, where he discusses his magnificent boots!

From the Metro Times:
http://www.metrotimes.com/music/story.asp?id=13608

JAMES WILLIAMSON: "Those were crazy times. I remember we were in L.A., practicing like crazy for our first U.S. gig in Detroit. So we went out and had a bunch of fancy stuff made for us. And I had those [thigh-high] silver boots made by this really famous boot guy in Hollywood. The guy took so long to make them, I didn't really get a chance to try them on and spend time in them. What I didn't realize is that boots that can't bend at the knee mean you can't sit down. And so there I am, the night of the show — and I don't know how I'm going to get there! Because I can't bend my legs to ride in a car. So they finally picked me up and managed to lay me down on my back in a van — and that's how I got to the show. But I was flat. I couldn't even get up when we got there. Scotty and somebody, I think it might have been Ron, had to lift me up so I could walk."

Hilarious. The mind boggles.

In that Metro Times piece, there's also a weird exchange with Kim Fowley. When asked to supply his memories of Ron, he just ends up talking about himself. Really bizarre and really unattractively self-absorbed, and more than a little deranged and unhinged.

It should really be titled 'Kim Fowley's Top 5 Memories of Kim Fowley', or even 'Kim Fowley's Top 5 Memories of Ron Asheton's Memories of Kim Fowley'.

"KIM FOWLEY, PRODUCER, WRITER, HUSTLER, LEGEND

Kim Fowley's Top 5 Memories of Ron Asheton:

1) Ron Asheton and some of the Stooges told me they'd heard "Outrageous" by Kim Fowley before they cut their first album.

2) Ron's singer, Iggy Pop, told me personally that he loved "Secret Police" by the Belfast Gypsies, produced and co-written by Kim Fowley.

3) Ron Asheton called me in Santa Monica, Calif., one morning in the early '70s and asked me if I wanted to be the new singer of the Stooges. I replied "No."

4) Ron Asheton asked me to come to a jam when he and Dennis "Machine Gun" Thompson were forming the New Order. I showed up and ate fast food but didn't sing.

5) Ron Asheton called me on the phone in the late '70s and declared Niagara to be GOD."

BTW, the name of the bootmaker who knocked together James's silver thigh-highs is Fred Slatten. He was the heavyweight bootmaker in Hollywood for years. His shop off Santa Monica Blvd. closed around ten years ago, maybe a bit longer.

Fowley is a maniac, at least according to some former members of the Runaways.

Methinks both he and Rodney Bingenheimer are sitting on tons of cool 73-75 Iggy/Stooges stuff. The video snippet of Iggy hanging at Rodneys in '73 (from 'The Mayor of Sunset Strip' movie) is probably just the tip of the iceberg.