#Iggy pop drugs professional

It's a dangerous game bing called Iggy, no question about it. It's the kind of name that, when shouted across a room, makes nice people wince. My audience calls me Iggy, but groupies always called me Jim, because Iggy's not a romantic name. Occasionally my father calls me Jimbo, and sometimes my wife does, too. When my father's in a good mood, he calls me Iggy, just to hassle me. The president, however, always calls me Jim. When I met Jerry Moss, chairman of A&M Records, he called me Iggy.

#Iggy pop drugs professional

'When I begin a professional relationship with somebody, often I'm called Iggy. They put Iggy Stooge on our first album-gave everybody the same last name, like what Danny Fields later did with the Ramones-and I flipped out.' That was an invention of Elektra Records for what is called product identification. Then I thought I'd tag a good last name onto it, and because this sounded like show business, I came up with Pop. People now knew me by this name, so I stuck with it. 'I saw an opportunity there and never looked back. There were MC5, SRC, the Bob Seger System, Ted Nugent's Amboy Dukes, Dick Wagoner's the Frost, Terry Knight and the Pack, later to become Grand Funk Railroad. 'I took great note of that piece at the time, because in the Ann Arbor area alone there were at least 20 full-time, more-than-competent bands, all busting their balls for the same few gigs in the area, all working their asses off to make it in the record business. The article mentioned our use of innovative instruments that I built in a junkyard, our stage set and costumes, the thrust of our music and particularly 'Iggy's' dancing.' 'However, with the very first Stooges gig we played in 1968, which was second bill to Blood, Sweat and Tears at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, a reviewer from the student paper at the University of Michigan, instead of reviewing Blood, Sweat and Tears, devoted almost the entire review to the Stooges, saying Blood, Sweat and Tears are a packaged act who have passed their prime, and the real story tonight came from a local band, the Stooges, fronted by vocalist Iggy Osterberg. About a year and a half after the Prime Movers, I formed the Stooges and thought I had heard the last of that nickname.' I was 18, which was a big age difference at that time. 'At the same time, for five sets a night, six nights a week, I was playing in a band called the Prime Movers, which was an effete, Bohemian, intellectual blues band of 25- and 26-year-olds. My various employers at Discount Records, when they wanted to get a rise out of me, rile me, make my face turn red, or refer to my teenage hyperkinetic behavior, they would call me Iggy or Iguana.'

When I got out of high school, I quit college after one semester and got a job as a stock boy at Discount Records in Ann Arbor, Michigan. When I was in high school, I was in a band called the Iguanas. Iggy was a nickname hung on me that I didn't particularly like. My parents called me James Osterberg, Jr. You’re making me look uncool.'You can call me Jimmy, or you can call me Iggy. “Thank you for what you’re doing for my son,” he recalled his father saying, to which he thought, “Shut up, Dad. “He came to my parents’ trailer, and the neighbors were so frightened of the car and the bodyguard they called the police,” Pop remembered in the Times interview. He had the singer tag along on tour to recuperate, and soon after, produced his first two solo albums, The Idiot and Lust For Life.Īround this time, the worldly Bowie insisted on meeting Iggy Pop’s parents, who lived in a modest trailer in Detroit. Their 1973 album Raw Power marked a major comeback, but shortly after, Iggy Pop found himself again on his own, mired in addiction and briefly homeless. He expanded on their dynamic, likening it to “more of a benefactor than a friend,” since Bowie (whose mid-‘70s career was on a well-publicized high note) went so far out of his way to get him back on track.īowie met Iggy in 1971 and shortly after, convinced him (then freshly sober) to reform his scorching proto-punk band, the Stooges. Iggy Pop saluted the late, legendary musician. Remembering David Bowie: His Life in Photos Lizzo Says She Got 'So Drunk' With Adele at the 2023 Grammys