

When he phones us from New York, it’s 9am he’s already been up for two hours, rising at a regular 7am, as he does every morning. Now aged 72 and residing happily with his third wife in Miami, Iggy lives a less self-destructive life these days. What we will say for sure is this: Iggy Pop is literally credited as the man who invented crowd-surfing. Whether the story DIY once heard of how the singer, high as a kite, got squashed by a fridge and just… stayed there for a bit is true, who can say, but the bizarre rumours are proof of his status as music’s original wild child just as much as the concrete reality. The numerous gigs where the then-Stooge would slice his chest open mid-show, bleeding and contorting around the stage covered in red. There’s the infamous shot of the star, held aloft by a Cincinnati crowd in the early ‘70s, smearing peanut butter on himself.

IGGY POP PEANUT BUTTER SKIN
A lithe old pensioner with the on-stage wiggle of a baby orangutan, skin the colour and consistency of tanned leather, and two perfectly-shiny sheets of blonde hair maintained with the well-groomed care of a beloved My Little Pony, he’s a magical creature that makes you look twice. Catching a glimpse of Iggy Pop is like spotting a unicorn.
