The grandfather of punk rock, grunge and all alternative music celebrates his birthday today

A couple of months ago, the French media announced that in June this year, the Retro C Trop music festival would feature such stars of past decades of punk as The Toy Dolls, Sex Pistols (vocals - Frank Carter) and Iggy Pop.

It will be interesting to see what Iggy, who turned 78 today, will "show" on stage. Until now, this grandfather of punk rock, grunge and all alternative music, although not as often as before, appeared in front of photo and film cameras, but did so with a naked torso, although, let's be honest, Pop in his old age is clearly not an example of a pumped-up torso. However, Iggy doesn't seem to care: after all, his own half-naked body is a symbol of personal freedom for him.

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In his youth, it was not only the torso, but also what is below the waist and even what is hidden behind the fly. However, several years ago, Iggy Pop admitted in an interview GQ magazine that in his youth he began to show off his male attributes to the public from the stage simply out of desperation. “I didn’t have radio stations or record companies behind me,” Iggy explained, so I had to establish direct contact with the audience in such an unusual way.

It wasn’t limited to showing off his genitals. In his youth, Iggy cut himself right on stage and was the first (or one of the first) to practice what is now commonplace stage diving – diving from the stage into the audience in the hope that they would catch the “diver” in their arms.

Whether this was a deliberate invention or a consequence of drug abuse, for which Pop repeatedly underwent treatment, history is silent. But history does know that during this treatment, his friends David Bowie and the incorrigible drug addict Dennis Hopper brought him the cause of all his troubles right into the ward.

However, in recent years, Iggy Pop has apparently settled down. He swims in the ocean on Miami Beach, where he has a house, acts in films, as usual (for example, in Jarmusch's The Dead Don't Die in a cameo role as a zombie), and most often listens to reggae, pop, hip-hop, or Iggy Pop.

According to him, he has given up his bad habits, replacing them with tasty food and a glass of good wine, goes on long sea swims, and does qigong. However, in that interview, Pop admitted that there is no escape from old age - for example, he has to get up to go to the toilet at night, which he sincerely hates.

At the same time, Iggy continues to work, because he knows that without work, laziness, depression, and alcoholism will overtake him. In 2023, the media unanimously responded positively to the release of his new album Every Loser, calling it a return to the previous outrageous punk compared to the previous almost jazzy Free. Let's listen to Franzy from this album, for example - who else sings like that at this age?

So there remains only one question - will 78-year-old Iggy demonstrate his signature stage diving in France this summer?

Photo: Facebook