Iggy Pop

Biography

James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor who was the lead vocalist of the proto-punk band the Stooges. Regarded as the "Godfather of Punk", he is noted for his outrageous and unpredictable stage antics, poetic lyrics, and unique voice. He was named one of the 50 Great Voices by NPR, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Stooges in 2010, and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020 for his solo career.
He had a long collaborative relationship and friendship with David Bowie over the course of his career, beginning with the Stooges' album Raw Power in 1973. Both musicians went to West Berlin to wean themselves off their respective drug addictions and Pop began his solo career by collaborating with Bowie on the 1977 albums The Idiot×The Idiot18 March 1977 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 8 tracksA1Sister Midnight4:20A2Nightclubbing4:15A3Funtime2:55A4Baby3:25A5China Girl5:08B1Dum Dum Boys7:12B2Tiny Girls3:00B3Mass Production8:24 and Lust for Life×Lust for Life29 August 1977 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 9 tracksA1Lust for Life5:14A2Sixteen2:26A3Some Weird Sin3:42A4The Passenger4:44A5Tonight3:40B1Success4:26B2Turn Blue6:57B3Neighborhood Threat3:26B4Fall in Love With Me6:31, Pop usually contributing the lyrics.
Initially playing a raw, primitive style of rock and roll (progressing later towards more experimental and aggressive rock), the Stooges sold few records in their original incarnation and gained a reputation for their confrontational performances, which sometimes involved acts of self-mutilation by Pop. He was one of the first performers to do a stage-dive and popularized the activity. Pop, who typically performs bare-chested, also performed such stage theatrics as rolling around in broken glass and exposing himself to the crowd.
Though his popularity has fluctuated, many of Pop's songs have become well known, including "Search and Destroy" and "I Wanna Be Your Dog×I Wanna Be Your Dog2006 · EPSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 6 tracks1I Wanna Be Your Dog (Barcelona solo acoustic Sputnik TV show 1993)2I Wanna Be Your Dog (San Diego November 17, 1977)3I Wanna Be Your Dog (Tokyo, March 24th, 2004)4I Wanna Be Your Dog (Switzerland, July 15 2000)5I Wanna Be Your Dog (Tokyo, March 24th, 2004)6I Wanna Be Your Dog (Detroit, October 6th 1973)" by the Stooges, and his solo hits "Lust for Life", "The Passenger×The Passenger23 February 1998 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 3 tracks1The Passenger4:462Lust for Life5:143Nightclubbing4:14" and "Real Wild Child (Wild One)×Real Wild Child (Wild One)1986 · EPSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 3 tracksAReal Wild Child (Wild One) (extended version)8:28B1Fire Girl3:31B2Hideaway3:51". In 1990, he recorded his only Top 40 U.S. hit, "Candy×Candy1990 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 3 tracks1Candy4:162The Undefeated (acoustic demo version)3:373Butt Town (acoustic demo version)2:33", a duet with the B-52s' singer Kate Pierson. Pop's song "China Girl×China Girl1977 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksAChina Girl3:26BBaby3:20" became more widely known when it was re-recorded by co-writer Bowie, who released it as the second single from his most commercially successful album, Let's Dance (1983). Bowie re-recorded and performed many of Pop's songs throughout his career.
Although Pop has had limited commercial success, he has remained a cultural icon and a significant influence on a wide range of musicians in numerous genres. His music has encompassed a number of styles over the course of his career, including garage rock, punk rock, hard rock, heavy metal, art rock, new wave, grunge, jazz, blues and electronic. His vocal stylings ranged from "baritone croons [to] unhinged shrieks". The Stooges' album Raw Power has proved an influence on artists such as Sex Pistols, the Smiths, and Nirvana. His solo album The Idiot has been cited as a major influence on a number of post-punk, electronic and industrial artists including Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails and Joy Division, and was described by Siouxsie Sioux as a "re-affirmation that our suspicions were true: the man is a genius."

Early life

James Newell Osterberg Jr. was born in Muskegon, Michigan, on April 21, 1947, the son of Louella (née Christensen; 1917–1996) and James Newell Osterberg (1921–2007), an English teacher and baseball coach at Fordson High School in Dearborn, Michigan. He is of English, German, and Irish descent on his father's side, and Danish and Norwegian ancestry on his mother's side. His father was adopted by a Swedish-American nurse surnamed Osterberg. The family lived in a trailer park in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
As a child, Osterberg was interested in the industrial noises emanating from Michigan's manufacturing plants; he cites a visit to Ford's River Rouge Plant when he was nine as a particular inspiration for his musical development. Osterberg began to play drums in the fifth grade, first starting with rubber pads glued to plywood, before his parents bought him a drum set. In a 2007 Rolling Stone interview, he explained his relationship with his parents and their contribution to his music:

Once I hit junior high in Ann Arbor, I began going to school with the son of the president of Ford Motor Company, with kids of wealth and distinction. But I had a wealth that beat them all. I had the tremendous investment my parents made in me. I got a lot of care. They helped me explore anything I was interested in. This culminated in their evacuation from the master bedroom in the trailer, because that was the only room big enough for my drum kit. They gave me their bedroom.
He attended Tappan Junior High School, now Tappan Middle School. Ron Asheton later described him as having been a conventional teenager: "He hung out with the popular kids that wore chinos, cashmere sweaters, and penny loafers. Iggy didn't smoke cigarettes, didn't get high, didn't drink."

1960s

Osterberg began his music career as a drummer in various high school bands in Ann Arbor, Michigan, including the Iguanas, who covered several records such as Bo Diddley's "Mona" in 1965. He then began exploring local blues-style bands such as the Prime Movers (with brothers Dan and Michael Erlewine), which he joined at 18 years old. The Prime Movers gave him the nickname "Iggy" for having played in the Iguanas. According to biographer Jim Ambrose, the two years he spent in the band made him aware of "art, politics, and experimentation".
Osterberg eventually dropped out of the University of Michigan and moved to Chicago to learn more about blues. While in Chicago, he played drums in blues clubs, helped by Sam Lay (formerly of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band) who shared his connections with Pop. Inspired by Chicago blues as well as bands like the Sonics, MC5 and the Doors, he formed the Psychedelic Stooges. The band was composed of Osterberg on vocals, Ron Asheton on guitar, Asheton's brother Scott on drums, and Dave Alexander on bass. Their first show was played at a Halloween party at a house in Detroit, Michigan. Members of the MC5 were also in attendance. Osterberg became interested in Ron Asheton after seeing him perform in the Chosen Few (a covers band), believing "I've never met a convincing musician that didn't look kind of ill and kind of dirty, and Ron had those two things covered!" The three nicknamed Osterberg "Pop" after a local character named Jim Popp, who he was said to have resembled after shaving his eyebrows.
The seeds of Pop's stage persona were sown when he saw the Doors perform in 1967 at the University of Michigan and was amazed by the stage antics and antagonism displayed by singer Jim Morrison. Morrison's extreme behavior, while performing in a popular band, inspired the young Pop to push the boundaries of stage performance. Other influences on Pop's vocals and persona were Mick Jagger and James Brown:

I attended two concerts by the Doors. The first one I attended was early on and they had not gotten their shit together yet. That show was a big, big, big influence on me. They had just had their big hit, "Light My Fire" and the album had taken off. ... So, here's this guy, out of his head on acid, dressed in leather with his hair all oiled and curled. The stage was tiny and it was really low. It got confrontational. I found it really interesting. I loved the performance ... Part of me was like, "Wow, this is great. He's really pissing people off and he's lurching around making these guys angry." People were rushing the stage and Morrison's going "Fuck you. You blank, blank, blank." You can fill in your sexual comments yourself. The other half of it was that I thought, "If they've got a hit record out and they can get away with this, then I have no fucking excuse not to get out on stage with my band." It was sort of the case of, "Hey, I can do that." There really was some of that in there.
In addition to Jim Morrison and the Doors' influence on the band, Pop also attributes the Stooges getting jump-started after seeing an all-girl rock band from Princeton, New Jersey, called the Untouchable. In a 1995 interview with Bust, he relates:

And the other thing was we went to New York. We had gone to New York a couple of months before that just to check out the scene, and we had never been to a place like New York ... we went down around Eighth Street there where all the young tourists hang out, and we met these girls from New Jersey, from Princeton, they had a band called The Untouchable, and we're like, "Oh, you've got a band, sure, ha ha ha," and they said "Well, come to our house and see us play." And we didn't have anywhere to crash, and they played for us, and they completely rocked, and we were really ashamed.
In 1968, one year after their live debut and now dubbed the Psychedelic Stooges, the band signed with Elektra Records, again following in the footsteps of the Doors, who were Elektra's biggest act at the time. In the 2016 Jim Jarmusch documentary film about the Stooges, Gimme Danger, Pop tells of guitarist Ron Asheton calling Moe Howard to see if it was all right to call the band "The Stooges", to which Howard responded by merely saying "I don't care what they call themselves, as long as they're not The Three Stooges!" and hung up the phone.
The Stooges' first album The Stooges (on which Pop was credited as "Iggy Stooge") was produced by John Cale in New York in 1969.

1970s

The Stooges and the follow-up, Fun House, produced by Don Gallucci in Los Angeles in 1970, sold poorly. Though the release of Fun House did not receive the recognition expected, it was later ranked No. 191 in Rolling Stone's '500 Greatest Albums of All Time' in 2003. Shortly after the release of Fun House, the group disbanded because of Pop's worsening heroin addiction.

In 1971, without a record deal, the Stooges kept performing in small clubs with a five-piece lineup that included both Ron Asheton and James Williamson on guitars and Jimmy Recca on bass, Pop having fired Dave Alexander the previous year when he turned up for a gig unable to play because of his chronic alcoholism. That year Pop and David Bowie met at Max's Kansas City, a nightclub and restaurant in New York City. Pop's career received a boost from his relationship with Bowie when Bowie decided in 1972 to produce an album with him in England. With Williamson signed on as guitarist, the search began for a rhythm section. However, since neither Pop nor Williamson were satisfied with any players in England, they decided to re-unite the Stooges. Ron Asheton grudgingly moved from guitar to bass. The recording sessions produced the rock landmark Raw Power. After its release, Scott Thurston was added to the band on keyboards/electric piano and Bowie continued his support, but Pop's drug problem persisted. The Stooges' last show in 1974 ended in a fight between the band and a group of bikers, documented on the album Metallic K.O. Drug abuse stalled Pop's career again for several years.
After the Stooges' second breakup, Pop made recordings with James Williamson, but these were not released until 1977 (as Kill City, credited jointly to Pop and Williamson). Pop was unable to control his drug use and checked himself into a mental institution, the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute, to try to clean up. Bowie was one of his few visitors, continuing to support his friend and collaborator. In 1976, Bowie took Pop as his companion on the Station to Station tour. This was Pop's first exposure to large-scale professional touring, and he was impressed, particularly with Bowie's work ethic. Following a March 21, 1976, show, Bowie and Pop were arrested together for marijuana possession in Rochester, New York, although charges were later dropped.
Bowie and Pop relocated to West Berlin to wean themselves off their respective drug addictions. "Living in a Berlin apartment with Bowie and his friends was interesting…" Pop recalled. "The big event of the week was Thursday night. Anyone who was still alive and able to crawl to the sofa would watch Starsky & Hutch."

In 1977, Pop signed with RCA Records. Bowie helped write and produce The Idiot and Lust for Life, Pop's two most acclaimed albums as a solo artist, the latter featuring one of his best-known songs, "The Passenger×The Passenger23 February 1998 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 3 tracks1The Passenger4:462Lust for Life5:143Nightclubbing4:14". Lust for Life featured another team of brothers, Hunt and Tony Fox Sales, sons of comedian Soupy Sales. Among the songs Bowie and Pop wrote together were "China Girl×China Girl1977 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksAChina Girl3:26BBaby3:20", "Tonight", and "Sister Midnight", all of which Bowie performed on his own albums later (the last being recorded with different lyrics as "Red Money" on Lodger). Bowie also played keyboards in Pop's live performances, some of which are featured on the album TV Eye Live in 1978. In return, Pop contributed backing vocals on Bowie's Low.

"Artistically, I really like those two records, The Idiot and Lust for Life," Pop said. "But I was personally just miserable… David was a really good friend to me in many ways, but… he had his whole thing going on and a whole apparatus of people around him, and problems that he had to face. For more than a year, I lived in the room next door, and I had a good friendship, but it wasn't the same as being in a band."
Pop had grown dissatisfied with RCA, later admitting that he had made TV Eye Live as a quick way of fulfilling his three-album RCA contract. He moved to Arista Records, under whose banner he released New Values in 1979. This album was something of a Stooges reunion, with James Williamson producing and latter-day Stooge Scott Thurston playing guitar and keyboards. Not surprisingly, the album's style harkened back to the guitar sound of the Stooges. New Values was not a commercial success in the U.S. but has since been highly regarded by critics.
The album was moderately successful in Australia and New Zealand, however, and this led to Pop's first visit there to promote it. While in Melbourne, he made a memorable appearance on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's nationwide show Countdown. During his anarchic performance of "I'm Bored", Pop made no attempt to conceal the fact that he was lip-synching (shoving the microphone down his pants at one point), and he even tried to grab the teenage girls in the audience. He was also interviewed by host Molly Meldrum, an exchange which was frequently punctuated by the singer jumping up and down on his chair and making loud exclamations of "G'day mate" in a mock Australian accent. His Countdown appearance is generally considered one of the highlights of the show's history and it cemented his popularity with Australian punk fans, since then he has often toured there. While visiting New Zealand, Pop recorded a music video for "I'm Bored" and attended a record company function where he appeared to slap a woman and throw wine over a photographer. While in Australia, Pop was also the guest on a live late-night commercial TV interview show on the Ten Network. The Countdown appearance has often been re-screened in Australia.

1980s

During the recording of Soldier (1980), Pop and Bowie argued with Williamson over various aspects of the project. Williamson recalled, "I was not at all happy with a number of aspects of that record including the band, the material and the recording facilities. So I was unhappy in general and vice versa". Williamson left the project. Bowie appeared on the song "Play it Safe", performing backing vocals with the group Simple Minds. During a live performance in Brooklyn in 1981, Pop smashed a microphone into his own face, knocking out a front tooth.
Both Soldier and its follow-up Party (1981) were commercial failures, and Pop was dropped from Arista.
The 1982 album Zombie Birdhouse×Zombie BirdhouseSeptember 1982 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracksA1Run Like a Villain3:01A2The Villagers3:48A3Angry Hills2:56A4Life of Work3:49A5The Ballad of Cookie McBride2:58A6Ordinary Bummer2:43B1Eat or Be Eaten3:14B2Bulldozer2:17B3Platonic2:40B4The Horse Song2:58B5Watching the News4:11B6Street Crazies3:55 on Chris Stein's Animal label, with Stein himself producing, was no more commercially successful than his Arista works. The same year, Pop published his autobiography I Need More, co-written with Anne Wehrer, an Ann Arbor performance artist. The book, which includes a selection of black and white photographs, featured a foreword by Andy Warhol. Warhol wrote that he met Pop when he was Jim Osterberg, at the Ann Arbor Film Festival in 1966. "I don't know why he hasn't made it really big," Warhol wrote. "He is so good." In 1983, Pop's fortunes changed when David Bowie recorded a cover of the song "China Girl×China Girl1977 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksAChina Girl3:26BBaby3:20". The song had originally appeared on The Idiot and was a major hit on Bowie's blockbuster Let's Dance album. As co-writer of the song, Pop received substantial royalties.
On Tonight in 1984, Bowie recorded five more of their co-written songs, two from Lust for Life, one from New Values, and two new songs), assuring Pop financial security, at least for the short term. The support from Bowie enabled Pop to take a three-year break, during which he overcame his resurgent heroin addiction and took acting classes.
Additionally, Pop contributed the title song to the 1984 film Repo Man (with Steve Jones, previously of the Sex Pistols, on guitar, and Nigel Harrison and Clem Burke, both of Blondie on bass and drums) as well as an instrumental called "Repo Man Theme" that was played during the opening credits.
In 1985, Pop recorded some demos with Jones. He played these demos for Bowie, who was sufficiently impressed to offer to produce an album for Pop: 1986's new wave-influenced Blah-Blah-Blah, featuring the single "Real Wild Child×Real Wild Child1991 · Album · LiveSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 20 tracks · 2 discsDisc 11I Got a Right3:272Gimme Danger3:273Some Weird Sin3:334Real Wild Child3:315Sister Midnight4:506Blah‐Blah‐Blah4:537Nightclubbing4:178Fire Girl3:1195 Foot 13:5510Shades6:1411Loose3:18Disc 21T.V. Eye5:012Down on the Street4:063China Girl5:224The Passenger5:065Winners & Losers6:326Lust for Life5:227Raw Power3:408Cry for Love5:049Search and Destroy3:50", a cover of "The Wild One×The Wild One19 July 2008 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 4 tracks1The Wild One (A Tribute to Johnny O’Keefe)1:412The Wild One (Real Wild Child)2:143The Wild One (Andre le Gerche Gogo remix)5:044The Wild One (Tick Tick Boom Boom remix)3:20", originally written and recorded by Australian rock 'n' roll musician Johnny O'Keefe in 1958. The single was a Top 10 hit in the UK and was successful around the world, especially in Australia, where it has been used since 1987 as the theme music for the ABC's late-night music video show Rage. Blah-Blah-Blah was Pop's highest-charting album in the U.S. since The Idiot in 1977, peaking at No. 75 on the Billboard 200 chart.
Also in 1985, Pop and Lou Reed contributed their singing voices to the animated film Rock & Rule. Pop performed the song "Pain & Suffering" in the final sequence of the film. Pop's music appeared on the soundtrack to the 1986 film Dogs in Space.

In 1987, Pop appeared (along with Bootsy Collins) on a mostly instrumental album, Neo Geo, by Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. The music video for "Risky×Risky1987 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksARisky3:47BAfter All3:08", written and directed by Meiert Avis, won the first MTV Breakthrough Video Award. The groundbreaking video explores transhumanist philosopher FM-2030's ideas of Nostalgia for the Future in the form of an imagined love affair between a robot and one of Man Ray's models in Paris in the late 1930s. Additional inspiration was drawn from Jean Baudrillard, Edvard Munch's 1894 painting Puberty, and Roland Barthes Death of the Author. The surrealist black-and-white video uses stop motion, light painting, and other retro in-camera effects techniques. Meiert Avis recorded Sakamoto while at work on the score for The Last Emperor in London. Sakamoto also appears in the video painting words and messages to an open shutter camera. Pop, who performs the vocals on "Risky", chose not to appear in the video, allowing his performance space to be occupied by the surrealist era robot.
Pop's follow-up to Blah Blah Blah, Instinct (1988), was a turnaround in musical direction. Its stripped-back, guitar-based sound leaned further towards the sound of the Stooges than any of his solo albums to date. His record label dropped him, but the King Biscuit Flower Hour radio show recorded the Instinct tour (featuring guitarist Andy McCoy and Alvin Gibbs on bass) in Boston on July 19, 1988. Working with rock attorney Stann Findelle, Pop scored more movie soundtrack inclusions in 1989: "Living on the Edge of the Night" in the Ridley Scott thriller Black Rain; and "Love Transfusion", a song originally written by Alice Cooper (who does backing vocals) and Desmond Child, in Wes Craven's Shocker. Also, at the same time, Pop, dissatisfied from RCA's decisions, revoked copyrights of his RCA releases, assigned it to his company Thousand Mile, and signed a contract with Virgin Records, which was a unique hybrid of distribution deal for his RCA releases and a recording contract for new albums. Virgin first reissued Lust for Life and The Idiot in 1990, then TV Eye Live 1977 in 1994.

1990s

In 1990, Pop recorded Brick by Brick. The album was produced by Don Was and featured members of Guns N' Roses and the B-52's as guests. His Kiss My Blood video (1991) was directed by Tim Pope and filmed at the Olympia in Paris. The video attracted much controversy, as it included footage of Pop performing with his penis exposed to the audience. Brick by Brick featured his first Top 40 U.S. hit, "Candy×Candy1990 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 3 tracks1Candy4:162The Undefeated (acoustic demo version)3:373Butt Town (acoustic demo version)2:33", a duet with B-52's singer Kate Pierson.
Also in 1990, Pop sang the role of "The Prosecutor" for the POINT Music/Philips Classics recording (released in 1992) of composer John Moran's multimedia opera The Manson Family. That year he also contributed to the Red Hot Organization's AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Blue project, singing a version of "Well Did You Evah!" in a duet with Debbie Harry.
In the early to middle 1990s, Pop would make several guest appearances on the Nickelodeon show The Adventures of Pete and Pete. He played James Mecklenberg, Nona Mecklenberg's father.
In 1991, Pop and Kirst contributed the song "Why Was I Born (Freddy's Dead)" to the soundtrack of the film Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare. The song also plays over the end credits of the film, with a compilation of clips from the A Nightmare on Elm Street series running alongside the end credits. In the same year, Pop sang a leading role in the John Moran opera The Manson Family.
In 1992, he collaborated with Goran Bregović on the soundtrack for the movie Arizona Dream×Arizona Dream1993 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracks1In the Deathcar5:132This Is a Film4:14 by Emir Kusturica. Pop sang four of the songs: In the Deathcar, TV Screen, Get the Money, and This is a Film. Also in 1992, he collaborated with the New York City band White Zombie. He recorded spoken word vocals on the intro and outro of the song "Black Sunshine" as well as playing the character of a writer in the video shot for the song.
In 1993, Pop released American Caesar, including two successful singles, "Wild America×Wild America1993 · EPSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 4 tracks1Wild America5:462My Angel4:183Credit Card2:244Evil California3:49" and "Beside You×Beside You1993 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 4 tracks1Beside You4:292Les Amants5:163Louie Louie (live)5:324Beside You (acoustic version)3:52". The following year Pop contributed to Buckethead's album Giant Robot, including the songs "Buckethead's Toy Store" and "Post Office Buddy". He appears also on the Les Rita Mitsouko album Système D where he sings the duet "My Love is Bad" with Catherine Ringer.
In 1996, Pop again found mainstream fame when his 1977 song "Lust for Life×Lust for Life29 August 1977 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 9 tracksA1Lust for Life5:14A2Sixteen2:26A3Some Weird Sin3:42A4The Passenger4:44A5Tonight3:40B1Success4:26B2Turn Blue6:57B3Neighborhood Threat3:26B4Fall in Love With Me6:31" was featured in the film Trainspotting. A new video was recorded for the song, with clips from the film and studio footage of Pop dancing with one of the film's stars, Ewen Bremner. A Pop concert also served as a plot point in the film. The song has also been used in TV commercials for Royal Caribbean and as the theme music to The Jim Rome Show, a nationally syndicated American sports talk show.
In 1996, Pop released Naughty Little Doggie and the single "I Wanna Live×I Wanna Live1996 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 3 tracks1I Wanna Live (edit)4:002Heart Is Saved2:593Pussy Walk3:48". Pop was injured during a show in 1997 when he dove from the stage of the Polaris Amphitheatre and the crowd failed to catch him, resulting in a dislocated shoulder and tendon damage. Around this time, he remixed Raw Power to give it a rougher, more hard-edged sound; fans had complained for years that Bowie's official "rescue effort" mix was muddy and lacking in bass. Pop testified in the reissue's liner notes that on the new mix, "everything's still in the red". Also in 1997, Pop was credited with the soundtrack to the film The Brave×The Brave1997 · Album · SoundtrackSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 26 tracks1Opening4:202Raphael's Theme5:023Going Down1:134Return in One Week0:505Amos Moses2:176Raphael's Last Days, Part I1:067Raphael's Life1:548Welcome to My World2:219Poverty1:2810You're the Man of the House2:0411I Want to Provide for My Family2:0212One Way Trip1:0313Raphael's Last Days, Part II1:1214Do You Remember?3:0115El Sacamandu5:0416The Devil With the Blue Suede Shoes5:0617El Sisquisiri3:3218El Alhualuico2:2019El Caiman3:3320Knoxville Girl3:5121Las Flores2:1322Paul Y Fred3:0823Final Day Draws Near1:0724Saying Goodbye1:5825Leaving Home2:5726End Titles4:00.
On January 1, 1998, Pop made a guest appearance on Paramount Television's science fiction series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Pop played a Vorta in an episode based upon the film The Magnificent Seven, titled "The Magnificent Ferengi". Pop also contributed the theme song for Space Goofs.
Pop co-produced his 1999 album Avenue B×Avenue B29 September 1999 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 13 tracks1No Shit1:212Nazi Girlfriend3:003Avenue B5:214Miss Argentina4:155Afraid to Get Close1:026Shakin’ All Over4:357Long Distance4:568Corruption4:249She Called Me Daddy1:5310I Felt the Luxury6:3211Español4:1212Motorcycle2:4313Facade5:29 with Don Was, releasing the single "Corruption×Corruption4 October 1999 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 3 tracks1Corruption4:232Rock Star Grave4:303Hollywood Affair2:53". Pop also sang on the 1999 Death in Vegas UK Top-10 single Aisha. The same year he appeared on Hashisheen: The End of Law, a collaborative effort by Bill Laswell, reading on the tracks "The Western Lands" and "A Quick Trip to Alamut".

2000s

Pop sang on the tracks "Rolodex Propaganda" and "Enfilade" by At the Drive-In in 2000. In 2001, he released Beat 'Em Up, which gave birth to the Trolls, releasing the single "Football" featuring Trolls alumni Whitey Kirst and brother Alex. Pop's music appeared on the soundtrack to the 2001 film He Died with a Felafel in his Hand. In 2005, Pop appeared, along with Madonna, Little Richard, Bootsy Collins, and the Roots' Questlove, in an American TV commercial for the Motorola ROKR phone.
Pop's 2003 album Skull Ring×Skull Ring4 November 2003 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 17 tracks1Little Electric Chair4:412Perverts in the Sun3:183Skull Ring3:524Superbabe4:095Loser2:416Private Hell2:507Little Know It All3:338Whatever3:169Dead Rock Star4:4010Rock Show2:0911Here Comes the Summer4:5312Motor Inn4:1113Inferiority Complex4:1314Supermarket3:0215Til Wrong Feels Right3:1316Blood on Your Cool7:0217Nervous Exhaustion (Hidden Track)3:12 featured collaborators Sum 41, Green Day, Peaches, and the Trolls, as well as Ron and Scott Asheton, reuniting the three surviving founding members of the Stooges for the first time since 1974. Pop made a guest appearance on Peaches's song "Kick It×Kick It5 January 2004 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracks1Kick It2:332Felix Partz (remake)2:58" as well as the video. Also in 2003, the first full-length biography of Pop was published. Gimme Danger – The Story of Iggy Pop was written by Joe Ambrose; Pop did not collaborate on the biography or publicly endorse it.
Having enjoyed working with the Ashetons on Skull Ring, Pop reformed the Stooges, with bassist Mike Watt (formerly of the Minutemen) filling in for the late Dave Alexander and Fun House saxophonist Steve Mackay rejoining the lineup. That year, Pop opened Madonna's Reinvention World Tour in Dublin.

In early 2006, Pop and the Stooges played in Australia and New Zealand for the Big Day Out. They also began work on a new album, The Weirdness, which was recorded by Steve Albini and released in March 2007. In August 2006, Pop and the Stooges performed at the Lowlands pop festival in the Netherlands, Hodokvas in Slovakia and in the Sziget Festival in Budapest.
Author Paul Trynka completed a biography of Pop (with his blessing) called Open Up and Bleed, published in early 2007. In February 2007, Pop and the Stooges played at Bam Margera's wedding and Pop appeared on the single "Punkrocker" with the Teddybears in a Cadillac television commercial. Pop was also the voice of Lil' Rummy on the Comedy Central cartoon Lil' Bush and confirmed that he has done voices for American Dad! and Grand Theft Auto IV, which also included the Stooges song "I Wanna Be Your Dog×I Wanna Be Your Dog2006 · EPSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 6 tracks1I Wanna Be Your Dog (Barcelona solo acoustic Sputnik TV show 1993)2I Wanna Be Your Dog (San Diego November 17, 1977)3I Wanna Be Your Dog (Tokyo, March 24th, 2004)4I Wanna Be Your Dog (Switzerland, July 15 2000)5I Wanna Be Your Dog (Tokyo, March 24th, 2004)6I Wanna Be Your Dog (Detroit, October 6th 1973)" (though the game's manual credited Iggy Pop as the artist).

Pop and the Stooges played the Glastonbury Festival in June 2007. Their set included material from the 2007 album The Weirdness and classics such as "No Fun" and "I Wanna Be Your Dog". Pop also caused controversy in June 2007 when he was interviewed on the BBC's coverage of the Glastonbury Festival. He used the phrase "paki shop", apparently unaware of its racist connotations, prompting three complaints and an apology from the BBC.
Pop guested on Profanation, the new album by the Bill Laswell-helmed group Praxis, which was released on January 1, 2008.
On March 10, 2008, Pop appeared at Madonna's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. Together with the Stooges, he sang raucous versions of two Madonna hits, "Burning Up" and "Ray of Light". Before leaving the stage, he looked directly at Madonna, quoting "You make me feel shiny and new, like a virgin, touched for the very first time", from Madonna's hit song "Like a Virgin". According to guitarist Ron Asheton, Madonna asked the Stooges to perform in her place, as a protest to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for not inducting the Stooges, despite six appearances on the nomination ballot. Pop also sang on the "No Fun" cover by Asian Dub Foundation on their 2008 album Punkara.
On January 6, 2009, original Stooges guitarist and Pop's self-described best friend Ron Asheton was found dead from an apparent heart attack. He was 60 years old. In 2009, James Williamson rejoined the band after 29 years. On December 15, 2009, it was announced that the Stooges would be inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 15, 2010. Pop had "about two hours of a strong emotional reaction" to the news.
Pop collaborated with Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse on the album Dark Night of the Soul, singing the track "Pain".
Pop's fifteenth solo album, Préliminaires×Préliminaires25 May 2009 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Les Feuilles mortes3:552I Want to Go to the Beach2:533King of the Dogs2:024Je sais que tu sais3:125Spanish Coast3:586Nice to Be Dead2:497How Insensitive3:038Party Time2:089He’s Dead / She’s Alive2:0010A Machine for Loving3:1611She’s a Business3:1112Les Feuilles mortes (Marc’s Theme)3:53, was released on June 2, 2009. Inspired by a novel by French author Michel Houellebecq called La Possibilité d'une île (2005; Trans. as The Possibility of an Island by Gavin Bowd, 2006), Pop was approached to provide the soundtrack for a documentary film on Houellebecq and his attempts to make a film from his novel. He describes this new release as a "quieter album with some jazz overtones", the first single off the album, "King of the Dogs", bearing a sound strongly influenced by New Orleans jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton. Pop said that the song was his response to being "sick of listening to idiot thugs with guitars banging out crappy music". The album is available on legal download sites, CD, and a deluxe box set is available at only 6000 units worldwide. This box set contains the Préliminaires album, a collector "Les Feuilles Mortes" b/w "King of the Dogs" 7 inch, the cover of which is Pop's portrait by Marjane Satrapi, and a 38-page booklet of drawings also by Marjane Satrapi.
In January 2009, Pop was signed up as the face of Swiftcover, the UK-based online insurance company. He fronted a £25 million TV ad campaign for Swiftcover, using the strapline "Get a Life". The advert was then banned by the Advertising Standards Authority on April 28, 2009, for being misleading – it implied that Pop himself had an insurance policy with Swiftcover when at the time the company did not insure musicians.

2010s

Pop also sings on "We're All Gonna Die" on Slash's first solo album Slash, which was released in April 2010. He appeared as a character in the video game Lego Rock Band to sing his song "The Passenger×The Passenger23 February 1998 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 3 tracks1The Passenger4:462Lust for Life5:143Nightclubbing4:14" and also lent his voice for the in-game tutorial. With reference to the song "The Passenger", Pop has appeared on NZ television advertising phone networks, showing that he could get a band to play together by conference call. He was inducted as part of the Stooges into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 15, 2010.

After a March 2010 stage diving accident, Pop claimed he would no longer stage dive. However, he did so on three occasions at a concert in Madrid, Spain on April 30, 2010, and did similarly at London's Hammersmith Apollo on May 2, 2010. On July 9, 2010, Pop again stage dived at Rock Zottegem, Belgium, causing bleeding from the face. In June 2010, Pop appeared at Yonge and Dundas Square in Toronto with the reformed Stooges on the NXNE main stage. In 2011 he teamed up with the Lilies, a collaboration between Sergio Dias of Os Mutantes and French group Tahiti Boy & The Palmtree Family, to record the single "Why?".
Pop lent his image to PETA's campaign against the annual Canada seal hunt.
On April 7, 2011, at age 63, Pop performed "Real Wild Child×Real Wild Child1991 · Album · LiveSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 20 tracks · 2 discsDisc 11I Got a Right3:272Gimme Danger3:273Some Weird Sin3:334Real Wild Child3:315Sister Midnight4:506Blah‐Blah‐Blah4:537Nightclubbing4:178Fire Girl3:1195 Foot 13:5510Shades6:1411Loose3:18Disc 21T.V. Eye5:012Down on the Street4:063China Girl5:224The Passenger5:065Winners & Losers6:326Lust for Life5:227Raw Power3:408Cry for Love5:049Search and Destroy3:50" on the tenth season of American Idol; the Los Angeles Times music blog "Iggy Pop & Hiss" described Pop as being "still magnetic, still disturbing". He is also featured on Kesha's song "Dirty Love" on her second album Warrior. In 2012, Pop was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame. On August 25, 2013, Iggy and the Stooges co-headlined RiotFest 2013's Day 2, performing in Toronto and Denver along with the Replacements. Stooges drummer Scott Asheton died of a heart attack in March 2014 at the age of 64.
On October 14, 2014, Pop gave the fourth annual BBC Music John Peel Lecture in Salford, on the topic of "Free Music in a Capitalist Society". He used the lecture to discuss his experiences of the music industry, and his reflections on the effect of the internet on the consumption of music and the broader media.
In January 2015, it was announced that Pop contributed the theme song to Alex Cox's film Bill, the Galactic Hero. He also collaborated with New Order on the song "Stray Dog" of their album Music Complete released in September of that year. Pop also collaborated with Tomoyasu Hotei on the songs "How The Cookie Crumbles" and "Walking Through The Night" from the album Strangers, also released that same year.
On June 22, 2016, Stooges guitarist James Williamson made an official statement saying that the Stooges were no more:

The Stooges is over. Basically, everybody's dead except Iggy and I. So it would be sort-of ludicrous to try and tour as Iggy and the Stooges when there's only one Stooge in the band and then you have side guys. That doesn't make any sense to me.
Williamson also added that touring had become boring, and trying to balance the band's career as well as Pop's was a difficult task.
In 2016, Pop recorded an album with Josh Homme titled Post Pop Depression×Post Pop Depression22 January 2016 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 9 tracks1Break Into Your Heart3:552Gardenia4:143American Valhalla4:394In the Lobby4:155Sunday6:076Vulture3:167German Days4:488Chocolate Drops3:589Paraguay6:25. The album was released on March 18, with a tour of Europe and North America entitled Post Pop Depression Tour to follow, starting from March 28. On both sides of the Atlantic, the album set a new peak chart position for Iggy Pop albums, becoming his first US Top 20 album and first UK Top 5 album.
On October 28, 2016, Pop released the double live album Post Iggy Pop Depression: Live At The Royal Albert Hall on Eagle Rock Entertainment (on DVD+2CD and digital formats).
In 2017, Pop composed and performed vocals on the Oneohtrix Point Never song "The Pure and the Damned" on the soundtrack for the crime film Good Time.

On July 27, 2018, Pop released a joint EP with Underworld, titled Teatime Dub Encounters×Teatime Dub Encounters27 July 2018 · EPSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 4 tracks1Bells & Circles7:312Trapped7:433I’ll See Big4:464Get Your Shirt7:33. Pop and Underworld had both contributed tracks to Danny Boyle's 1996 movie Trainspotting.
Pop's eighteenth studio album, Free, was released on September 6, 2019.

2020s

In January 2020, Pop received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In April 2020, he released an alternate mix of his "China Girl×China Girl1977 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksAChina Girl3:26BBaby3:20", as part of a seven-disc deluxe box set, due to feature expanded remastered versions of The Idiot and Lust for Life. In August, Pop was featured in a tailoring campaign for Gucci which also starred Tyler the Creator and A$AP Rocky. In December, Pop featured on a rework of Elvis Costello's song "No Flag" from Costello's 2020 album Hey Clockface. The song was a re-recording, with Pop providing the vocals, translated to French for this version. A new digital track by Pop was also released, titled "Dirty Little Virus×Dirty Little Virus21 December 2020 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Dirty Little Virus2:50". Lyrically, it is about the COVID-19 pandemic. That year, he also collaborated with Morrissey on his upcoming album Bonfire of Teenagers.
In April 2021, French singer Clio released a duet with Iggy Pop titled "L'appartement". On his new album Breathe by Hammond master Lonnie Smith, Pop provides vocals on two tracks, "Why Can't We Live Together" (a cover version of the Timmy Thomas original) and on "Sunshine Superman×Sunshine Superman3 March 2021 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Sunshine Superman3:48" (a cover version of the Donovan original). The album was released in March 2021.
Pop collaborated with Belgian composer and violinist Catherine Graindorge on three tracks on her new EP The Dictator×The Dictator9 September 2022 · EPSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 4 tracks1The Dictator4:462Mud I4:243Mud II3:084Iggy4:36. It was released in September 2022. "Frenzy×Frenzy28 October 2022 · SingleSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Frenzy3:00" was released late 2022 ahead of Pop's nineteenth studio album Every Loser×Every Loser6 January 2023 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Frenzy3:012Strung Out Johnny4:143New Atlantis4:084Modern Day Rip Off3:295Morning Show3:476The News for Andy0:557Neo Punk2:158All the Way Down4:299Comments3:5410My Animus Interlude1:0311The Regency5:42: the track featured Duff McKagan and Chad Smith. The album was produced by Andrew Watt. Upon release in January 2023. Every Loser received favourable reviews with NME dubbing it "a high-velocity joyride full of delightful doses of wit and grit". At around this time, Pop said he was done with stagediving. In 2024 he re-recorded "The Passenger×The Passenger23 February 1998 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 3 tracks1The Passenger4:462Lust for Life5:143Nightclubbing4:14" in duet with Siouxsie Sioux: their orchestral version with a slower tempo was conceived for a commercial.
In May 2025, he collaborated with the champagne brand Dom Pérignon for a campaign named "Creation is an Eternal Journey".
In 2025, Pop's 2006 collaboration "Punkrocker" with Teddybears was featured in the superhero film Superman.
On September 27, 2025, Pop headlined the "CBGB Festival" in Brooklyn NY.

Film, television and radio career

As an actor Pop has appeared in a number of movies including children's movies. Movie appearances include: Sid and Nancy (a non-speaking cameo role), The Color of Money, Hardware (voice only), The Crow: City of Angels (Iggy wanted to play Funboy in the original The Crow movie, but his recording schedule would not permit him.), The Rugrats Movie, Snow Day, Coffee and Cigarettes (opposite Tom Waits, in the third segment of the film, "Somewhere in California"), Tank Girl and Atolladero, a Spanish science fiction Western. Pop worked with Johnny Depp on several films: they appeared together in Cry-Baby and Dead Man.
Pop has also appeared in many television series, including Tales from the Crypt, The Adventures of Pete & Pete, where he played Nona's dad in the second and third season, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, in which he played Yelgrun in the episode "The Magnificent Ferengi". With the Stooges, he was featured in an episode of MTV's Bam's Unholy Union as the main band performing at Bam Margera's wedding. Additionally, a portion of the music video for Pop's "Butt Town×Butt Town1990 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Butt Town3:332Butt Town (demo)2:323Foolish Dreams (demo)3:094Beggar (demo)3:045When Dreaming Fails (demo)4:526The Wind (demo)3:257Starry Night (demo)3:088Brick by Brick (demo)3:299I Am (demo)2:1310Think Alone (demo)2:1411L.A. Blues (demo)2:19" was featured on an episode of Beavis and Butt-Head. Pop also voiced a cameo in the American Dad! episode "American Dream Factory" as Jerry, the drummer, in Steve Smith's band. Pop played himself as the DJ of the fictional rock station Liberty Rock Radio 97. 8 in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV. The Stooges song "I Wanna Be Your Dog×I Wanna Be Your Dog2006 · EPSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 6 tracks1I Wanna Be Your Dog (Barcelona solo acoustic Sputnik TV show 1993)2I Wanna Be Your Dog (San Diego November 17, 1977)3I Wanna Be Your Dog (Tokyo, March 24th, 2004)4I Wanna Be Your Dog (Switzerland, July 15 2000)5I Wanna Be Your Dog (Tokyo, March 24th, 2004)6I Wanna Be Your Dog (Detroit, October 6th 1973)" was featured on the same station. Pop appears as a character in the Adult Swim animated comedy-adventure series The Venture Bros.. He is one of the bodyguards, along with Klaus Nomi, of David Bowie, who is "The Sovereign" of the Guild of Calamitous Intent. Pop has some unclear super-powers, which he uses when he and Nomi turn against Bowie.
Pop has been profiled in several rockumentaries and has had songs on many soundtracks, including Crocodile Dundee II; Trainspotting; Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels; Haggard; Repo Man; Black Rain; Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare; Shocker; and Kurt Cobain: About a Son.
Pop hosts a weekly radio show and podcast titled "Iggy Confidential" on BBC Radio 6 Music. In it he covers an eclectic range of music from punk to jazz, and champions new artists such as Shame, Fat White Family, False Heads, and Sleaford Mods. He also championed Mik Artistik, whose song "Sweet Leaf of the North" was named by Iggy as one of his favorite songs of the 2010s.
1993:

Pop provided the soundtrack for The Brave×The Brave1997 · Album · SoundtrackSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 26 tracks1Opening4:202Raphael's Theme5:023Going Down1:134Return in One Week0:505Amos Moses2:176Raphael's Last Days, Part I1:067Raphael's Life1:548Welcome to My World2:219Poverty1:2810You're the Man of the House2:0411I Want to Provide for My Family2:0212One Way Trip1:0313Raphael's Last Days, Part II1:1214Do You Remember?3:0115El Sacamandu5:0416The Devil With the Blue Suede Shoes5:0617El Sisquisiri3:3218El Alhualuico2:2019El Caiman3:3320Knoxville Girl3:5121Las Flores2:1322Paul Y Fred3:0823Final Day Draws Near1:0724Saying Goodbye1:5825Leaving Home2:5726End Titles4:00, which was directed by and starred Depp, and music for Depp's film Arizona Dream.
2000:

Pop played a DJ at an ice rink for the comedy Snow Day.
2004:

Pop also featured as a voice talent in the Atari video game DRIV3R (as Baccus and other characters), which was produced by Reflections Interactive.
2007:

Pop voiced Lil' Rummy on the Comedy Central show Lil' Bush, and also provided the voice for a character in the English-language version of the animated film Persepolis.
2008:

He makes an appearance in FLicKeR, a feature documentary by Nik Sheehan about Brion Gysin and the Dreamachine.
2009:

February - Iggy played the character Victor in the movie Suck.
2010:

April - Pop was featured alongside indie starlet Greta Gerwig in the film Art House, which premiered at the Nashville Film Festival.
2012:

Pop played the conscience of a clown named Elliot (Denis Lavant) in the French film L'Étoile du jour (Morning Star) directed by Sophie Blondy.
2013:

Pop appeared briefly in the French film Les gamins then he voiced The Caterpillar in the television series Once Upon a Time in Wonderland.
2014:

Pop presented (narrated) the BBC documentary Burroughs at 100. William Burroughs profoundly affected Pop's writing, inspiring lyrics in the famous "Lust for Life×Lust for Life29 August 1977 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 9 tracksA1Lust for Life5:14A2Sixteen2:26A3Some Weird Sin3:42A4The Passenger4:44A5Tonight3:40B1Success4:26B2Turn Blue6:57B3Neighborhood Threat3:26B4Fall in Love With Me6:31".
Pop voiced the character Texas Red on the Adult Swim animated comedy Mr. Pickles, which ran from 2014 to 2019.
Based on Kai Grehn's German translation of Walt Whitman's poetry cycle in 2005, a radio drama and bilingual double-CD audio book "Kinder Adams/Children of Adam" was released by Hörbuch Hamburg in 2014, including a complete reading by Pop.
2015:

It was aired in the US on This American Life on January 30, 2015, in the episode "Burroughs 101", commemorating his 101st birthday.
In 2015, Pop had a starring role as Vicious in the Björn Tagemose-directed silent film Gutterdämmerung opposite Grace Jones, Henry Rollins and Lemmy.
Pop also featured in the Rammstein documentary Rammstein in Amerika that same year.
In May, Pop appeared as himself in an episode of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.
2016:

In 2016, Pop was featured as a main subject in the documentary Danny Says starring alongside Danny Fields, Alice Cooper, Judy Collins, Wayne Kramer, Jac Holzman and more.
In the same year, Pop starred in Toby Tobias' thriller Blood Orange in which he plays an aging rock star.
Also during 2016, Jim Jarmusch directed Gimme Danger, a documentary movie about the band.
Also in 2016, he participated, with Michel Houellebecq and others, in Erik Lieshout's documentary To Stay Alive: A Method.
2017:

On August 8, 2017, In Praise of Nothing premiered at the Locarno Film Festival which he solely voiced over its full length.
In 2017, Pop appeared in Song to Song directed by Terrence Malick, opposite Michael Fassbender.
2019:

In early 2019, Pop executive produced a four-part documentary series entitled PUNK for Epix.
Pop also appears as a zombie in the 2019 Jim Jarmusch film The Dead Don't Die.
2021:

In 2021 Pop appeared with Nico Rosberg – 2016 Formula One champion – in a video advert for the German State Railways' (Deutsche Bahn) high-speed train services. The backing music was Pop's song "The Passenger×The Passenger23 February 1998 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 3 tracks1The Passenger4:462Lust for Life5:143Nightclubbing4:14". Pop also participated in the Detroit City FC public investment fund, contributing $1,000 to the club.

Cancelled biopic

The Passenger was, as of 2007, the putative name for a biographical film about Pop's early career with the Stooges. The film was to be directed by Nick Gomez and Elijah Wood was to play Pop. Pop supported the project and the casting of Wood, but refused to take part in the film. The project later was shelved.

Classical scholarship

In 1995, a journal of classical scholarship, Classics Ireland, published Pop's reflections on the applicability of Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire to the modern world in a short article, "Caesar Lives" (Vol. 2, 1995). Pop also relates how reading Gibbon while on tour in the Southern United States inspired him to a spontaneous soliloquy he called "Caesar", which was included on his 1993 album American Caesar×American Caesar7 September 1993 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 17 tracks1Character1:092Wild America5:453Mixin’ the Colors4:504Jealousy6:045Hate7:016It’s Our Love4:107Plastic & Concrete2:558Fuckin’ Alone4:599Highway Song3:4410Beside You4:3011Sickness3:1512Boogie Boy4:4713Perforation Problems3:1714Social Life4:1215Louie Louie3:4916Caesar7:1217Girls of N.Y.4:15.

Personal life

Pop lives in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, Florida.
He has been married three times: to Wendy Weissberg for several weeks in 1968 before divorcing her in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, on November 25, 1969; to Suchi Asano (from 1984 until their divorce in 1999); and to his longtime partner Nina Alu, whom he married in 2008. He has a son, Eric Benson, born in 1970 from a relationship with Paulette Benson.
At age 23, Pop allegedly had a relationship with 13-year-old groupie Sable Starr. Since the emergence of the MeToo movement, he has faced criticism for his relationship with Starr. The documentary Look Away, a documentary about sexual abuse in the rock music industry, is named after an Iggy Pop song about Starr from the album Naughty Little Doggie×Naughty Little Doggie1996 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks1I Wanna Live4:322Pussy Walk3:473Innocent World3:284Knucklehead4:115To Belong4:156Keep on Believing2:327Outta My Head5:388Shoeshine Girl3:519Heart Is Saved3:0110Look Away5:09.
Pop has scoliosis, with one leg being one-and-a-half inches shorter than the other.
In the 1990s, Pop became friends with Johnny Depp, Jim Jarmusch, and tattoo artist Jonathan Shaw. Shaw said the four wore matching rings depicting a skull, and all but Pop received a similar skull-and-crossbones tattoo.
Pop owns a Moluccan cockatoo, Biggy Pop. Pop uses the bird to promote Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital, an Australian charity. A beer named after the cockatoo, Biggy Pop Hop, raised funds in support of the charity.

Legacy

Iggy Pop is considered by some to be among the greatest and most influential punk rock vocalists of all time. According to Ultimate Classic Rock: "There is perhaps no human in history who has personified punk more than Iggy Pop."
Admirers

Music journalist Lester Bangs was one of the first writers to champion the Stooges in a national publication. His piece "Of Pop and Pies and Fun" for Creem Magazine was published about the time of the Stooges' second album Fun House. Another music journalist, Legs McNeil, was especially fond of Iggy and the Stooges and championed them in many of his writings.
Kurt Cobain consistently listed Raw Power as his No. 1 favorite album of all time in the "Favorite Albums" lists that featured in his Journals.
In August 1995, all three Stooges albums were included in British music magazine Mojo's influential "100 Greatest Albums of All Time" feature. Fun House was placed the highest, at 16.
Australian band Radio Birdman took their name, although incorrectly, from the lyrics of the Stooges song "1970".
In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the Stooges No. 78 on their list of 100 of the most influential artists of the past 50 years.
Layne Staley said that he was a big fan of both The Stooges and Iggy Pop.
Slash included their self-titled debut amongst his favorite studio albums.
Peter Hook included their live album Metallic K.O. amongst his favorite albums.
In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Pop at number 176 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.
"Ten Percenter", a track on the eponymous debut album by Frank Black, is about Iggy Pop.
Portrayals

In the film Velvet Goldmine, Ewan McGregor portrays Curt Wilde, a character loosely based on Pop. McGregor performs the Stooges songs "TV Eye" and "Gimme Danger" in the film.
In the Super Mario video game series, the character Iggy Koopa was named after him.
James O'Barr fashioned the character Funboy in The Crow after Pop.
In the 2013 film CBGB, Pop was played by Taylor Hawkins.
Iggy played himself as a puppet in the short film Squirrel Mountain 'Iggy to the Rescue, that also featured him performing the song "Frozen Peas", along with his touring guitarist Kevin Armstrong.
In The Venture Bros., Iggy (voiced by Christopher McCulloch) appears alongside Klaus Nomi as one of The Sovereign's bodyguards, with The Sovereign portrayed as David Bowie.

Honors

In 2017, shortly after his 70th birthday, Pop was made a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Consul general in Miami on behalf of the French government.
A photo of Pop on stage with fans at the Sydney Opera House in 2019 taken by Antoine Veling won the Culture Category of the Sony World Photography Awards.
Pop received the Polar Music Prize on May 25, 2022.