The Stooges are recording an album of material without Iggy Pop.
The line-up of James Williamson, Mike Watt, Steve Mackay and Toby Dammit are working on an album, Re-Licked, with a series of guest vocalists including Mark Lanegan and Jello Biafra.
Re-Licked consists of previously unreleased songs written around the time of the Iggy And The Stooges’ 1973 album Raw Power. Pop announced last September that he wouldn’t be working with The Stooges in 2014, but Williamson told Rolling Stone: “Iggy gave me his blessing and wished me success with the album. But it’s a hard pill to swallow when someone is doing all your songs with your band and you’re not on it.”
Pop said in a statement: “I don’t have a problem with anything. This statement about ‘hard pill’ sounds kind of passive aggressive to me…T hese guys are my friends and we’ve all worked together many years. They’re working musicians and they need to play.” Pop’s spokesman additionally claimed the singer wasn’t given the chance to appear on Re-Licked and only learned of the album in December 2013 when a record label rejected the chance to release it.
Since reforming in 2003, the band have released two albums: The Weirdness in 2007 and Ready To Die in 2013.