I’ve interviewed Jim McLaughlin, who was the singer and fellow-founder of The Iguanas, a couple of times before, at one point via a mini-reunion of The Iguanas, with guitarist Nick Kolokithas and bassist Don Swickerath. McLaughlin was once of Osterberg’s closest friends for a time. But, it appeared when I reinterviewed him this week, perhaps not that close.

 

They were real adversaries. They used to try to wind up each other with put downs and it was really uncomfortable to watch. His mom tried to mediate and keep everybody happy. She was so sweet. I couldn’t believe that was his mother. I could believe that was his father because he was like a chip off the old block. They were so much alike, that’s why they were at it all the time and she was like from another planet; she was so sweet and so normal. He was such a different kind of person. She was real nice and always would offer you something to eat or drink and really happy to have you over there whenever I wanted. Jim kind of made fun of her and I didn’t like that. He’d make fun of how gracious she was. She was really good to him and all the stuff he’d do and not do. She was so good to him, but not much of a disciplinarian and his dad made up for that. I think he didn’t appreciate her until later. When he was really down and out in a hostel I think he appreciated her more.

 

(Iggy) was really quick witted and him and his dad used to just go at it with the one liners and the put downs. They played golf together and they were very competitive. They used to go on golf trips and I can only imagine how that went.

 

I think he might have tried, but I was so different from his pursuits and his desires of political science and music and doing dangerous things. I was not going to go there so he just probably left me behind. I only saw certain parts of his personality because the other parts unnerved me – and he probably realised that and gave up trying to include me. We were close for a little while, we wrote a couple of songs and he’d spring stuff on the band and say, ‘What do you think of this?’ Nick was really easily led by Jim because Jim’s a really powerful personality when he wants to be. [Sax-player] Sam [Swisher] could dismiss him and he hated that. So his power didn’t work on Sam because Sam was his own man, but Nick didn’t have a lot of foundation in his life so Jim influenced him a lot in the music sense sometimes. He would sometimes take Jim’s side, but when it came to recognition, though Nick wasn’t going to take a back seat for anybody. So that’s why [there was an argument about] the song on the A side [of The Iguanas’ single]. But there was a time when they were real close and used to hang out after school and stuff.

 

I think in some ways he was. I think he grew up having to really defend himself and depend on himself for so many things. I think he was taught to not let people in and to not trust maybe because his dad was so hard on him. Even though his mother counteracted that, I think he was so much like his dad that he’s got this false bravado that he’s always had that it’s hard to get close to him. He’s kind of an enigma. I would think that it was pretty hard to get close to him. Not many people got through that, but there was the girl in Germany. She got through that. He showed the world one side and then there’s another side that very few people…he’d never ever want to show vulnerability because his dad taught him not to do that, because he’d pounce on him if he ever saw it. He always acted so tough and quick witted with his dad [that]  I think he learned to do that with everybody, like a shield. He always felt that he was underprivileged and that gives you even more of a shield.

 

The header photo, of Ann Arbor High’s Executive board, shows both Jim McLaughlin (second from left, back row) and Jim Osterberg (fourth left, third row). Ann McArtor, mentioned earlier, is second from right in the front row.