Iggy Pop

James Newell Osterberg 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.

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.

He 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 which he joined at 18 years old. The Prime Movers gave him the nickname “Iggy” for having played in The Iguanas.

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.

Iggy Pop, guitarist Ron Asheton, drummer Scott Asheton, and bassist Dave Alexander formed The Psychedelic Stooges, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1967. The band’s 1967 debut was at their communal State Street house on Halloween night, followed by their next live gig in January 1968. The first major commercial show for the Psychedelic Stooges was on March 3, 1968, at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, opening for Blood, Sweat & Tears.

In 1968, one year after their live debut the band signed with Elektra Records, again following in the footsteps of The Doors, who were Elektra’s biggest act at the time.

The Stooges soon gained a reputation for their wild, primitive live performances. Pop, especially, became known for his outrageous onstage behaviour: smearing his bare chest with hamburger meat and peanut butter, cutting himself with shards of glass, and flashing his genitalia to the audience. Pop is sometimes credited with the invention or popularisation of stage diving.

In 1969, the band released their self-titled debut album; sales were low and it was not well received by critics at the time. In 1970, their second album, Fun House, was released, featuring the addition of saxophonist Steve Mackay. On June 13 of that year, television recorded the band at the Cincinnati Pop Festival. While performing the songs “T.V. Eye” and “1970”, Pop leaped into the crowd, where he was hoisted up on people’s hands, and proceeded to smear peanut butter all over his chest.

With the band having broken up, Pop met David Bowie on September 7, 1971, at Max’s Kansas City, and the pair quickly became good friends. The next day, on the advice of Bowie, Pop signed a recording contract with pop music manager Tony DeFries’ company, MainMan. A few months later, Tony DeFries and Pop met Clive Davis from CBS/Columbia Records and got a two-album recording deal.

In 1973 Iggy & the Stooges, recorded their third album, the influential Raw Power. Though not initially commercially successful, Raw Power gained a cult following in the years following its release and, like its predecessors The Stooges (1969) and Fun House (1970), is considered a forerunner of punk rock.

The Stooges disbanded in February 1974 as a result of dwindling professional opportunities; this factor was compounded by Pop’s ever-present heroin addiction and erratic off-stage behaviour.

Pop launched a successful solo career in 1977, commencing with the Bowie-produced albums The Idiot released in 1977, which featured the song “China Girl” written by Pop and Bowie and the album Lust for Life (1977).

After a March 21, 1976, David Bowie show, Bowie and Pop were arrested together for marijuana possession in Rochester, New York, although charges were later dropped.

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”.

Touring Australia in 1979, Pop appeared on the 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). 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.

1986’s new wave-influenced album Blah-Blah-Blah, features the single “Real Wild Child”, a cover of “The Wild One”, 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.

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”, a duet with B-52’s singer Kate Pierson.

Pop contributed to the Red Hot Organization’s AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Blue project, (1990) singing a version of the Cole Porter song “Well Did You Evah!” in a duet with Debbie Harry.

In 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”.

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.

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”.

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.