Iggy Pop Caricature 1970

Iggy Pop Caricature 1970, shown here at age 23. Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, producer and actor. He was the vocalist of influential proto-punk band The Stooges, who reunited in 2003, and is well known for his outrageous and unpredictable stage antics.

Pop’s music has encompassed a number of styles over the course of his career, including garage rock, punk rock, hard rock, art rock, new wave, jazz and blues. Though his popularity has fluctuated through the years, many of Pop’s songs have become well-known, including “Search and Destroy” and “I Wanna Be Your Dog” by the Stooges, and his solo hits “Lust for Life”, “The Passenger”, and “Real Wild Child (Wild One)”.

James Newell Osterberg, Jr. was born in Muskegon, Michigan of German, English, Irish, Norwegian and Danish descent.
Pop began his music career as a drummer in various high school bands in Ann Arbor, Michigan, including the Iguanas; he eventually dropped out of the University of Michigan and moved to Chicago to learn more about the blues.
In 1967 Pop formed the “Psychedelic Stooges” and began calling himself Iggy. The band was composed of Iggy on vocals, Ron Asheton on guitar, Asheton’s brother Scott on drums, and Dave Alexander on bass. Their first show was played at a Halloween party at a house in Detroit, Michigan. Members of the MC5 were also in attendance.
In 1968, one year after their live debut and now dubbed the Stooges, the band signed with Elektra Records. Pop called Moe Howard to see if it was all right to call his band “The Stooges,” to which Howard responded by merely saying “I don’t care what they call themselves, as long as they’re not the Three Stooges!” and hung up the phone.

The Stooges breakup in 1974 was mainly due to Pop’s on and off heroin addiction. With the support of David Bowie, Pop finally overcame the addiction in 1984.
Besides The Stooges, he’s played or collaborated with The Trolls, David Bowie, Slash, Debbie Harry/Blondie, Tom Waits, Lou Reed and Rob Zombie.

The Stooges reunited in 2003 and played together until 2010.

In 2010, the Stooges were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Pop lives near the Atlantic coast, south of Miami, Florida. He has been married three times: to Wendy Weissberg (for several weeks in 1968, the marriage was annulled shortly thereafter), to Suchi Asano (1984–1999), and most recently, to his longtime partner Nina Alu. He has a son, Eric Benson, born in 1970 to Paulette Benson.