Mike Watt (Minutemen, dos, fIREHOSE, the Stooges) shared a special musical connection with fellow bass player, the recently deceased Derf Scratch, formerly of FEAR.
Watt, one of the hardest working musicians we know, may be currently on tour with Iggy and the Stooges in St. Petersburg, Russia, but he took the time to send in some thoughts on Scratch…
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“I bought my first fender bass from Derf–I recorded Minutemen “What
Makes a Man Start Fires” with that precision bass and probably more but
that one for sure–he let it go for tiny monies! He was very kind man
to me. He told me to not buy new bass strings but to boil old ones to
make them new–econo! I have nothing but good thoughts about him cuz
he always showed me respect so respect back. It broke my heart when I
heard the sad news yesterday cuz I felt we lost another brother. We
must be more intense before we lose more!”
Watt, before signing off his e-mail with “on bass, watt,” was sure to include an image taken in 1981 of him with the bass he purchased from Scratch:
Watt also sent along a link to an interesting 2004 interview with MarkPrindle.com, where Scratch gives his side to what really happened with FEAR–talking freely on Lee Ving (including something about Mein Kampf…), Fear's origins, not liking punk rock and those rumors on whether or not Scratch was actually just a rich kid and junkie.
Find out more about Mike Watt and what he's up to at his official site, hootpage.com.
