
Iggy took a year off to kick a heroin habit, enduring three weeks of cold turkey in the process. Was at the Goose Lake Festival before 100, 000 fans. 1966-67 assumed stage name Iggy Pop and formed the Psychedelic Stooges, 1968, lead singer in Psychedelic Stooges, 1968-70, and 1972-76 solo featured artist 1976 -.Īwards: Won Rolling Stone Critics ’ Poll “Comeback of the Year Award ( ’But Back From Where? ’), ” 1977.Īddress: c/o 250 W. 1964-65 played drums in blues bands in Chicago, 111., c. Played in various high school bands in the Ypslanti/ Ann Arbor, Mich., area, including the Iguanas and the Prime Movers, c. Education: Attended University of Michigan. son of James (a schoolteacher) and Louella (a schoolteacher) Osterberg married wife ’s name, Paulette children: Eric.

Their last performance For the Record …īorn James Jewel Osterberg, 1947, in Ypsilanti, Mich. Why did they come see me? ” A band cannot survive for long playing with such abandon and, sure enough, the Stooges collapsed shortly after. The live show was beyond pathetic by now later, in 1979, Iggy would reflect in Rolling Stone, “I hated the audience, at times, for things they made you do. Shall I compare it to an atom bomb? a wrecker ’s ball? a hydro electric plant? Language wasn ’t designed for the job. Robert Christgau ’s review in his Record Guide noted: “Now I regret all the times I ’ve used words like ‘power ’ and ‘energy ’ to describe rock and roll, because this is what such rhetoric should have been saved for. The Stooges continued to play around the Midwest, and in 1970 they entered the studio to record their follow-up LP, Funhouse. With songs like “No Fun ” and “I Wanna Be Your Dog ” it was obvious the band was about as far from flower-power as one could get. Former Velvet Underground member John Cale produced their first album, The Stooges.

By 1969 Elektra records realized the potential and signed both the Stooges and MC5 to contracts. The Motown sound was dying down but bands like the MC5, Frost, and the Amboy Dukes were highpowered and revolutionary. The music in Michigan at that time was quite different from what was popular on the national scene. They played their first gig on March 3, 1968, opening for Blood Sweat & Tears at Detroit ’s Grande Ballroom. With Dave Alexander on bass and brothers Ron and Scott Ashton on guitar and drums respectively, Iggy held down the vocals and insanity positions. Upon moving back to the Ann Arbor area, he switched his name to Iggy Pop and formed The Psychedelic Stooges. He left them for a rival band, the Prime Movers, before he took off to Chicago to play blues drums. All of this a good seven years before the punk movement and about 1, 000 light years away from the Pat Boone school of rock and roll.īorn James Osterberg in 1947 in Ypsilanti, Michigan, he first became musically involved in high school, playing in a local band, the Iguanas. Resembling the freak show in a circus, Iggy often reverted to tactics such as smearing peanut butter and feces on himself, rolling around on stage in broken glass and even diving head first into the crowd. Indeed, that ’s the exact reaction Iggy Pop hoped to get out of his audiences as they witnessed a show by his band, The Psychedelic Stooges.

This isn ’t just a show -he ’s out of his mind. “I ’d just watch him and I ’d think, ‘Wow, this guy will stop at nothing. “Iggy had gone beyond performance -to the I point where it really was some kind of psychodrama, ” said John Sinclair.
