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A star is born -

Iggy Pop was born James Newell Osterberg Jr., near Muskegon, Michigan, on April 21, 1947. He lived with his parents Louella and James, an English teacher and baseball coach, respectively.

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Iggy's home life -

Iggy and his family were of modest means, living in a trailer park outside of Muskegon, but there was love aplenty. Iggy Pop looks back on his childhood fondly. Speaking about the more privileged kids he went to school with, he said, “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.”

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The music begins -

Iggy Pop was interested in music from a young age, and started playing drums in a number of bands involved in the Ann Arbor, Michigan music scene. One of the first of these bands were The Iguanas, who did well for themselves in the scope of Michigan high school bands.

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Expanding his horizons -

After some time with The Iguanas, Iggy moved on to play drums for the Prime Movers, who gave him the nickname “Iggy” because of his time spent with The Iguanas. His time with the Prime Movers turned out to be formative for the young musician, with biographers stating the band opened Iggy Pop up to the possibilities of artistic experimentation.

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Iggy in Chicago -

After a brief stint in college at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Iggy made his way to Chicago and dove into the music scene headfirst. He earned a modest living playing drums for various blues musicians in the city.

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The Psychedelic Stooges -

In 1967, along with friends Ron and Scott Asheton on guitar and drums, respectively, and Dave Alexander on bass, Iggy Pop took center stage and brought the Psychedelic Stooges (quickly shortened to simply The Stooges) to life. The band’s live debut was at a Halloween party that same year."

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Iggy finds his style -

During this early era of The Stooges, Iggy had yet to discover his signature stage presence. His inspiration came from Jim Morrison (pictured) of The Doors, whose stage antics and complete disregard for the crowd shook Iggy to his core. During an interview, Iggy remembered thinking, "If they've got a hit record out and they can get away with this, then I have no…  excuse not to get out on stage with my band."

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'The Stooges' -

In 1969, The Stooges released their debut record on Elektra Records, simply titled ‘The Stooges.’ The record was produced by John Cale, a founding member of The Velvet Underground, and contains one of the band's greatest hits, ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog.’

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Maniacal live performances -

It was during this time that Iggy’s stage presence began to gain notoriety. His artistic expression verged on the extreme, cutting himself with knives or broken glass at nearly every show, exposing himself to the crowd, and sometimes even vomiting on the audience. Very few performers before or after Iggy have put on such consistently visceral performances.

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Hard times -

Unfortunately, the first two Stooges records sold poorly, and a discouraged Iggy sunk into a heroin addiction that caused the band to briefly break up in 1970. As the rest of the band developed their own dependencies, the lineup of The Stooges underwent a few changes, and the band struggled to make ends meet playing small, low-paying shows.

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Enter David Bowie -

Iggy’s luck began to turn when he met with David Bowie at a nightclub in New York, and Mr. Stardust decided to bring Iggy and The Stooges to London and help record their next record. That record was ‘Raw Power,’ released in 1973. It's today known as one of the first and most influential albums in punk rock.

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Substance abuse continues -

Despite the success of The Stooges’ third record, Iggy Pop’s drug problems persisted and continued to cause problems. After a 1974 show abruptly ended with Iggy getting in a bar fight with some bikers, The Stooges disbanded for the second time.

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Rehab -

Feeling directionless after the second breakup, Iggy checked himself into a mental institution after his drug habits fell entirely out of his control. He was able to maintain his relationship with David Bowie through these dark months, with Bowie actually being one of Iggy’s only consistent visitors.

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On tour with David Bowie -

Once Iggy Pop left rehab, David Bowie (pictured), always the supportive friend, took Iggy on tour in 1976 to support the release of Bowie’s seminal 10th studio album, ‘Station to Station.’ After the tour, Iggy and Bowie moved to Berlin, where they recovered from their travels and exploits.

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The RCA records -

In 1977, Iggy Pop was signed as a solo artist to RCA Records, and released his first two solo albums, ‘The Idiot’ and ‘Lust for Life.’ Many songs on these first albums were written in collaboration with Bowie, who even played keyboard during some of Iggy’s live performances.

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'Lust for Life' -

‘Lust for Life’ still stands as Iggy Pop's most critically acclaimed record. Its influence on the harder side of rock music is impossible to overstate, and no list of the greatest rock records is complete without it. The title track ‘Lust for Life’ and the single ‘The Passenger’ are two of Iggy’s most enduring hits.

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Arista Records and 'New Values' -

After leaving RCA, Iggy Pop signed with Sony imprint Arista Records, and released his fourth album, titled ‘New Values.’ But despite Iggy’s best efforts and the influential sway of his relationship with David Bowie, he still couldn’t break into commercial success, and the album flopped in the US.

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Iggy in Australia -

The album did quite well, however, in Oceania, and Iggy Pop headed to Australia to promote it. This trip resulted in what has become an iconic moment, not only in Iggy’s career, but also in the history of Australian television.

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'Countdown' -

While in Melbourne, Iggy Pop had a spot on the popular Australian variety show  ‘Countdown,’ where he gave an iconic performance of ‘I’m Bored,’ during which he made it obvious he was forced to lip-sync by completely disregarding the microphone while he jumped around the stage. The show has gone down as one of the best television performances in history.

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Iggy in the '80s -

By 1980, Iggy Pop still hadn’t found commercial success despite his popularity, and he struggled between albums, having to tour and record constantly to make ends meet. In a foreword to Iggy’s autobiography that was published in 1980, Andy Warhol wrote, “I don't know why he hasn't made it really big. He is so good."

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The money comes in -

Finally, in 1983, Iggy Pop began to know the financial security he deserved. Royalty checks started coming in big after David Bowie rerecorded some of the songs that they had cowritten together and released them on his megahit album ‘Let’s Dance.’

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Everything's coming up Iggy -

Iggy used this new financial freedom to better himself, kicking his persistent drug dependency issues once and for all, as well as taking acting classes. Since then, Iggy Pop has gathered more than 50 television and film credits.

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Iggy's work with film -

Between studio albums, Iggy Pop started working more closely with the film industry, scoring numerous small roles and also writing a considerable amount of music, including the theme and title song for the 1984 cult classic ‘Repo Man.’

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The easy life -

Throughout the rest of the 1980s and early '90s, Iggy Pop weaved in and out of the public eye, releasing music regularly to varied amounts of acclaim and commercial success, and appearing in the occasional film or television show.

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'Lust for Life' in 'Trainspotting' -

Iggy Pop touched on superstar status after the successful Danny Boyle film ‘Trainspotting’ (1996) used one of his first hits, ‘Lust for Life,’ in the opening scene of the movie. A new music video was recorded for the song in the wake of its resurgent success.

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The Stooges reunite -

During the early 2000s, the surviving members of The Stooges reunited for a number of tours, including an opening spot on the first night of Madonna’s Reinvention world tour. With everyone a bit more calm now, some 30 years after their start, the band is still able to tour together on occasion without incident.

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Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame -

On December 15, 2010, The Stooges were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This was after the band had been put on the nomination ballot six times previously, with no luck. Two years earlier, when Madonna was inducted into the Hall of Fame, the pop icon allegedly asked Iggy Pop to perform in her place, in protest against The Stooges’ exclusion from the institution.

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Other awards - In 2020, Iggy Pop received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Grammys. Despite his storied and influential career, it is one of only a few major awards that he's ever received.

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Forever the Godfather of Punk -

Today, Iggy Pop lives comfortably in a small house near the beach in Miami with his wife, Nina Alu. He’s never stopped writing music, with his last album released in 2019. While his antics have died down considerably, and he no longer stage dives or cuts himself on stage, Iggy Pop will always be the Godfather of Punk.

Sources: (Clash Magazine) ('I Need More: The Stooges and Other Stories') (Classic Rock Revisited)

See also: The most influential music acts of the 1970s

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