Real name is James Jewell Osterberg, Jr. In high school, he was the drummer for a band called The Iguanas, so when he was a member of the band The Prime Movers, his bandmates gave him the name "Iggy." His first stage name was Iggy Stooge, which became the basis for his band, The Stooges. With The Stooges and as a solo act, he became one of the most influential and authentic Punk performers.
Pop is famous for bleeding on stage. The first time he cut himself was by accident when he fell on a drink glass. The crowd went nuts, so he made the blood part of his show. He was also one of the first to incorporate stage dives and crowd surfing into his shows.
He was raised in a trailer park in Ypsilanti, Michigan, which taught him to live with the bare essentials and sharpened his focus on music and art. His band The Stooges was formed in nearby Ann Arbor.
The tour rider of Iggy Pop and his band The Stooges is named the single most entertaining concert rider by The Smoking Gun. Every line is accompanied by funny, witty comments. Some examples:
Floor fans on stage "So that I can wear a scarf and pretend to be in a Bon Jovi video."
A monitor man that "is not afraid of death."
The sidefill equipment should consist of "two great big enormous things, of a type that might be venerated as gods by the inhabitants of Easter Island."
Smoke effects on stage are to be saved "for sending messages to indigenous North American tribes people."
If the lighting guy happens to sneak the spotlights on halfway through the show, Jos Grain is determined to "find the LD after the show, and eat his entire family."
The food they requested shouldn't be "full of pesticides and mad cow disease," no Subway-type sandwiches "with beef and alfalfa sprouts sticking out like a Florida retiree's bikini bottoms." Food should also include "endangered species... snake, whale, or nurse shark [with the nurse on the side, just in case]."
Iggy Pop's preference for dressing room is to "look less like a typical rock&roll dressing room."
The rider also hints that "someone loose with a little bit of artistic flair" could do the job and adds "Er, do you know any homosexuals?" Other eccentric requests in the rider include a copy of USA Today "that's got a story about morbidly obese people in it," somebody dressed as Bob Hope, doing Bob Hope impersonations, playing cards, which are to be used for card tricks or "in case one of the band's girlfriends fancies a quick game of strip poker while the band are on stage."
He was addicted to heroin for much of the '70s, which influenced songs like "
Raw Power" and "
Lust For Life." He went through a cycle of detox and relapse that lasted from about 1975-1983, when he finally kicked the drug.
David Bowie produced his albums Raw Power, The Idiot, and Lust For Life. He toured with Bowie in 1976-1977, and helped him write "China Girl" in 1983.
He got the name "Pop" because he once shaved his eyebrows for a show, making him look like a friend with the last name Popp who had recently undergone chemotherapy and was eyebrowless himself.
When Jim Morrison died, Iggy was considered as his replacement in The Doors. The remaining Doors decided to continue on as a trio, so this never materialized.
Also, AC/DC once approached Pop to be their lead singer, but he turned them down because he didn't think he was the right man for the job. "I listened to their record. I thought, I can't fit that bill," he told the
New York Times. "I wasn't, like, 'Ugh, I don't like them.' It was quite well made. They do careful work, but I'm not what they needed."
It's unclear if the offer came after the death of Bon Scott in February 1980 or some other time.
Iggy Pop appeared in "The Magnificent Ferengi" episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He played the part of Yelgrun, a Voltan overseer from the planet Kurill Prime.
Pop is the godfather of the stage dive. He pioneered the move when he played gigs with The Stooges at The Grande Ballroom in Detroit. At this venue, the audience was up against the stage, which allowed Iggy to fall into it easily.
When other musicians tried it, they learned the hard way that audiences didn't always catch you - Mitch Ryder remembers hitting the floor on his attempt.
Iggy Pop enjoys looking at other people's paintings. He told Q magazine: "I can spend more time looking at art and have better feelings than I'd do from TV, DVDs and all that crap."
Iggy Pop was an only child. Asked by Mojo how this affected his subsequent journey, he replied: "It made me lonesome and selfish, and both are potentially good for a writer and a performer, respectively. Lonesome for the writer, selfish for the performer. It's a shame being so selfish, and it's a shame being so lonesome sometimes."
Iggy Pop has a pet cockatoo named Biggy Pop.
Iggy Pop has famously performed topless onstage for decades. Asked what prompted him to stop wearing shirts, during an interview at Red Bull Music Academy in Montreal, Pop replied:
"When I dropped out of college to start the band, I kept my library card. I've always had a student mentality, so I would go to the library, and take books. Cult books about culture and religion, and think about how I could apply those, and I kept seeing these pictures of the Pharaoh. He never wore a shirt. That just looks about right, you know? I don't know why. I feel lost in a shirt. I just get lost."
Considering his years of drug abuse, Pop has held up surprisingly well. He attributes much of this to genetics (hearty Danish-Norwegian ancestry) but he also meditates, does Tai Chi, and eats a macrobiotic diet.
