Iggy Pop Gets His High on Sense of Doom

Age hasn’t mellowed the high priest of punk, Iggy Pop.

Since his early days as the volatile leader of the Stooges, Pop (born James Osterburg on April 21, 1947) has been angry--angry about life’s despair and angry at the state of rock music as he knows and loves it.

On his latest album, “Brick by Brick,” Pop reiterates his anger from the viewpoint of someone who’s seen it all and doesn’t like much of what he’s seen.

He blasts artists who fall victim to commercialism in “Main Street Eyes,” record company executives looking for new blood at any cost on “My Baby Wants to Rock and Roll” and yuppies who glorify the almighty dollar in “Starry Night.”

He’s proud of his own integrity and self-respect, but knows he’s in for a fight to keep those traits intact because, as he says, “My head keeps trying to sell me ambition.”

Pop realized that he had to make a stand for the kind of music he believed in when he was dropped from Elektra Records in 1970 and was faced with making a career move that would have threatened that music. He said the decision only made him more determined.

“I have corruptions as far as there are things that are not particularly glorious that I do to try to protect and promote the music that I do that I think is good, but I try to keep the music part as pure as I can.”

Pure music, according to Pop, is “life-affirming.”

“It’s something that talks to your central nervous system about the fact that there was life before, there’s going to be life in the future and that really there’s something a little more glorious here,” he said.

“I spent years and years totally and absolutely alone almost all the time, and I couldn’t let anybody get near me and that’s how I wrote,” he said. “The only people I would know was my band, and I kept them at quite a distance, too.

“That has begun to change, but it’s never going to totally change, maybe because partly that’s my nature and partly because that’s how I’ve gotten used to living, but it’s changed quite a bit now.”

Guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan from Guns n’ Roses are featured as musicians and co-writers on several tracks on “Brick by Brick.” Pop praised the band for its understanding of the punk attitude.

“They really have the energy of a good punk band, and lyrically, that guy (singer Axl Rose) actually does what a good punk lyricist tries to do,” he said. “He describes what’s bugging him, no matter how out there it is, and he describes what’s going on around him faithfully.”

As a self-described “fringe character,” Pop said rock ‘n’ roll is best played by someone on the outside of society.

“To be done convincingly, it (rock) requires a real outsider--the kind of people (who) may not really be bad--doomed is probably a better word,” he said with a laugh.

“There’s a sense of doom, there’s a sense of somebody that’s outside the accepted rewards system. Half the morbid fascination of watching a rock career is usually when is he going to get punished for this behavior.”

Has he made it to that point?

“I made it. I’m really bad, but I feel good inside,” he said. “I feel cleansed from the thing, which is why I do it. I feel appropriately clean and doomed at the same time.”