IRRITATINGLY INTERESTING: AN INTERVIEW WITH
IGGY POP
By Jeb Wright
Iggy Pop is a true icon of power punk, rock n’ roll.
He took Jim Morrison’s stage antics to a new level. In
fact, there is no debate over whether Pop whipped it
out, as it was plain to see for anyone willing to look.
Add rolling in glass onstage, inventing stage diving and
punk rock and you can see why Iggy has always had a lust
for life.
On September 27, 2011, MVD will release a new DVD
titled Iggy & the Stooges – Raw Power Live that
sees The Stooges recreate their classic Raw Power
album live in concert – with a twist. The DVD was filmed
by Stooge fanatics that were selected by Iggy. There is
also a bonus feature where the ubber Stooge fans get the
opportunity to interview their hero.
Read on as we discuss how the fans chosen were
irritatingly interesting to Pop, how Iggy was even
coherent enough to record the original Raw Power
and how attending a concert by the Doors changed his
life. Oh yeah, and how he once wanted to become
President of the United States of America.
Jeb: I love the album Raw Power. I love the
fact that you played it last year in it’s entirety and
that a DVD is being released on MVD next month. When
Raw Power first came out, it kind of flopped, even
though it is now considered a very influential album.
Iggy: There were certain people, that as soon as they
heard it, it completely changed their life; a lot of
them were musicians. From the get go it was a really,
really great album but not a lot of people got to hear
it when it first came out. If a lot of people would have
got to hear it then it still would not have been a
commercial album because it was way ahead of the times,
way ahead of the music industry and it was also way
ahead of all the damn people too.
Jeb: You were really fucked up back then. Did you
realize how important this album was when you were
writing, and recording it?
Iggy: Of course, I knew it was immediately important,
at the time, because of the quality, and the
consistency, and the care of which it was made. Of
course, I knew how good it was. I wasn’t completely
fucked up all the time. In terms of all that stuff, the
album was recorded in a period of relevant calm between
two of my own most fucked up periods of my life, which
lasted, roughly, from late 1970 through the entire year
of 1971. In 1972, I perked up long enough to write and
record Raw Power. The album was mixed in early
1973, and in late 1973, my weaknesses in that regard,
re-emerged. For another year and a half, through 1975, I
was pretty fucked up, but in-between, there was a period
where drug use, or whatever, was controlled enough where
I was very much focused on work and able to focus, put
it that way.
Jeb: Raw Power became the ultimate Stooges
album.
Iggy: It is for a lot of people. There are those who
prefer Fun House. It usually depends on what your
musical values are. Personally, I like all three of
them, equally. I like the first one as well. It’s fresh
and it made certain breakthroughs that no one had ever
done before. Raw Power is, by far, the most
advanced of all the Stooges albums.
Jeb: Now, many years later, you did an entire concert
of Raw Power.
Iggy: Ron [Asheton] past away in the first couple of
days of 2009, I, then, spoke to James [Williamson]. I
actually spoke to two people about possibly doing more
work with the Stooges. James was one. He was the only
real major league, A List, artist choice. The other one
was a very nice fellow and a great player. He’s the
guitarist for the band Radio Birdman, who are Stooges
nuts. If he had been interested, I would have done
something much more on the down low, reunion type gigs,
just for fun. It turned out James became available. We
started out in 2010 and we did one gig to warm up in
Brazil in 2009. It wasn’t as good as we needed it to be
but we needed to start somewhere to break the ice. Parts
of that show were good and parts weren’t. We are,
basically, in the second year of this right now.
Jeb: When did the idea to let six fans record the DVD
first come up?
Iggy: Ed [Seaman, COO of MVD] approached us…it’s been
a fucking year and I’d like to kick that guy in the
head! He is such a big pain in my ass; his name is Ed
and he’s with MVD. These things take a long time. The
concert was just about exactly one year ago from when it
is going to come out. He approached us about it that
spring, so it’s been a about a year and a half ago. He
had a nice idea. I liked the idea but I’m a very
impatient person as you can tell from my vocals. I
really don’t like waiting for things.
Jeb: This is Iggy and the Stooges, its not like there
are going to be a bunch of overdubs needed.
Iggy: Exactly, there are no overdubs and there are no
fucking crane shots. There is none of the stupid shit
where they make the lights dance. But, everything takes
a while with us and I always hate it, but it’s okay.
Jeb: How did you pick the six fans that got to record
the show?
Iggy: To be honest, the company we made it with
narrowed it down to about fifteen or twenty people. I
was given an audition tape of each of them, and I was
also given a list of the ones the company suggested,
that I didn’t look at. The ones I chose were pretty
close. I think there was one chick that was some sort of
stripper. I think she was like a bondage specialist or
something. I’m definitely not against those sorts of
things but it was just that she seemed a little too much
like she wanted to get into the act. They really wanted
her in and that was the only one where I said ‘no.’ if
there is any B&D done in this band, I’ll take care of
it.
They were mostly the people who had the most genuine
passion for the group and seemed to care about the
group. It is sort of like American Idol; you get a lot
of people who want to try out. “Hey, I heard there’s
another reality thing happening.” We chose real fanatic,
kind of anal fans, who knew a lot about the group and
doing this would really be a big deal to them.
Jeb: You’re a rock icon but you are still kind of a
down to earth guy --- well, maybe not down to earth –
but I can’t think of a better description. Do you
realize what a huge honor it is for those six fans to be
able to do this?
Iggy: You know, I think maybe I do. I think that is
good for everybody; it’s good for them and it’s good for
me. I think there is a place in this world,
unfortunately, for people who do everything by the
numbers. I just can’t do it. I still get a kick out of
people who let me know whatever we have got in common. I
really do get a kick out of that.
Jeb: In addition to the videotaping, they also did an
interview session with you. Were you impressed with
their questions or were they kind of goofy?
Iggy: Actually, they were good in that everything was
kind of like really detailed. There were little picky
things that really bothered them, and that they really
needed to know about, or they were going to go crazy. It
was kind of nice. When you’re dealing with
professionals, there is always some sort of pressure
that they feel to represent the publication, or some
sort of people who are not there in the room with them,
but to whom this conversation is going to be presented.
With them, it was a little more of a real conversation
with someone who is irritatingly interesting [laughter].
That is kind of really nice. It’s never the most
wonderful thing to talk about what you do when it comes
to music, because talking is talking, and music is
music. There is always a question in your mind about if
this is all really necessary, or if this really spoils
things. As it went on, it seemed okay to me. It is
something I sort of did – it was not my idea, it was
somebody else’s idea. I have a policy that if it is not
going to cut my nose off then I will try to say, “you
know what, maybe somebody else has a good idea. Let’s
try it.” I don’t want to be like Robert Mugabe and tell
everybody what to do, where to go and where they can
jump over the fence.
Jeb: The concert that is coming out features Raw
Power in its entirety. Was this the Holy Grail
performance for Stooge fans? Did you nail it that night?
Iggy: We did, for what we have to offer, absolutely.
There were certainly points, forty years ago, where I
may have been prettier. I still think I’m pretty enough,
now, to do my job. The group may have been more
incredibly strange and exotic. As far as the overall
totality of the performance, we’ve improved from where
we were. If you compare it to what anybody else can do
right now, then I think it really stands up.
I was lucky because I was working right close to the
crowd. There were none of those fucking stage barriers;
I was working knees to hands, which is my favorite way
to work. I thought we played really, really well. It’s
really rockin’ and the interaction with the crowd was
good. I think it was a really fun and sweaty time.
Jeb: I have to ask if you plan your stage antics or
if you are possessed by the moment?
Iggy: Some of them I just do by the moment because I
just want to do it right then and there. If I am on a
twelve-foot stage and the barrier is eight feet away,
and has spikes on it, and the people on the other side
are all crazy, then I don’t stage dive at all. We have
one particular song that we do, it’s “I Wanna Be Your
Dog,” and because it is our oldest, and most very, very
memorable number, I do it. I also do it on that song
because I push so hard on the first two versus that I
can’t think of anything to do by the time the guitar
solo comes around. When the guitar solo comes, I tend to
do a stage dive to go with the solo.
Jeb: I love it. People over think things and say what
a genius Iggy is but really it’s just you looking for
something to do with the guitar solo.
Iggy: Exactly. Sometimes some very practical things
just come into play.
Jeb: I have heard you were really influenced by Jim
Morrison. Is that true?
Iggy: 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. I had the album
first and I really loved the record. The Doors played
the University of Michigan Homecoming Dance, which was
5,000 mullet headed jocks and their rightwing
girlfriends in a gymnasium. It looked like the gymnasium
in that video “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana.
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
but the music sounded terrible because they didn’t have
the sound system together. They had a really unique
style and it wasn’t easy for them to sound good live, at
first. 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.
By the time they came to Detroit again, and played
the big arena, in the big city, they were very polished,
had a great sound and the music was fabulous. He still
had a lot of presence and he still did some interaction
with the audience. He sort of ran down the isle and back
up at one point. He tried to get real. The band was much
better, but it wasn’t quite as fabulously interesting.
Jeb: Last one: If the music gig had not worked out,
then what in the hell would you have done with your
life?
Iggy: Before they shot Kennedy, I wanted to be
President. I actually wrote my Civics term paper in 8th
Grade on that. You had to write a paper and say what you
wanted to do when you grew up. I actually wrote on
saying that I would be President. The teacher said, “Are
you sure you don’t want to just say you will be a
politician?” I said, “No, I want to be President.”
I suppose I would have ended up with some sort of
failed career in law school and veered off into
politics, or, I might have become a drug dealer and gone
to jail and died.
By the time I was about 16, I started to slide away
from everything else, as I knew I wanted to be a
musician.
