James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor who was the lead vocalist of the proto-punk band the Stooges. Regarded as the "Godfather of Punk", he is noted for his outrageous and unpredictable stage antics, poetic lyrics, and unique voice. He was named one of the 50 Great Voices by NPR, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Stooges in 2010, and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020 for his solo career.
He had a long collaborative relationship and friendship with David Bowie over the course of his career, beginning with the Stooges' album Raw Power in 1973. Both musicians went to West Berlin to wean themselves off their respective drug addictions and Pop began his solo career by collaborating with Bowie on the 1977 albums The Idiot and Lust for Life, Pop usually contributing the lyrics.
Initially playing a raw, primitive style of rock and roll (progressing later towards more experimental and aggressive rock), the Stooges sold few records in their original incarnation and gained a reputation for their confrontational performances, which sometimes involved acts of self-mutilation by Pop. He was one of the first performers to do a stage-dive and popularized the activity. Pop, who typically performs bare-chested, also performed such stage theatrics as rolling around in broken glass and exposing himself to the crowd.
Though his popularity has fluctuated, 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)". In 1990, he recorded his only Top 40 U.S. hit, "Candy", a duet with the B-52s' singer Kate Pierson. Pop's song "China Girl" became more widely known when it was re-recorded by co-writer Bowie, who released it as the second single from his most commercially successful album, Let's Dance (1983). Bowie re-recorded and performed many of Pop's songs throughout his career.
Although Pop has had limited commercial success, he has remained a cultural icon and a significant influence on a wide range of musicians in numerous genres. His music has encompassed a number of styles over the course of his career, including garage rock, punk rock, hard rock, heavy metal, art rock, new wave, grunge, jazz, blues and electronic. His vocal stylings ranged from "baritone croons [to] unhinged shrieks". The Stooges' album Raw Power has proved an influence on artists such as Sex Pistols, the Smiths, and Nirvana. His solo album The Idiot has been cited as a major influence on a number of post-punk, electronic and industrial artists including Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails and Joy Division, and was described by Siouxsie Sioux as a "re-affirmation that our suspicions were true: the man is a genius."
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Early life
James Newell Osterberg Jr. 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. He is of English, German, and Irish descent on his father's side, and Danish and Norwegian ancestry on his mother's side. His father was adopted by a Swedish-American nurse surnamed Osterberg. The family lived in a trailer park in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
As a child, Osterberg was interested in the industrial noises emanating from Michigan's manufacturing plants; he cites a visit to Ford's River Rouge Plant when he was nine as a particular inspiration for his musical development. 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. In a 2007 Rolling Stone interview, he explained his relationship with his parents and their contribution to his music:
Once I hit junior high in Ann Arbor, I began going to school with the son of the president of Ford Motor Company, with kids of wealth and distinction. But I had a wealth that beat them all. I had the tremendous investment my parents made in me. I got a lot of care. They helped me explore anything I was interested in. This culminated in their evacuation from the master bedroom in the trailer, because that was the only room big enough for my drum kit. They gave me their bedroom.
He attended Tappan Junior High School, now Tappan Middle School. Ron Asheton later described him as having been a conventional teenager: "He hung out with the popular kids that wore chinos, cashmere sweaters, and penny loafers. Iggy didn't smoke cigarettes, didn't get high, didn't drink."
Music career
1960s
Osterberg 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 (with brothers Dan and Michael Erlewine), which he joined at 18 years old. The Prime Movers gave him the nickname "Iggy" for having played in the Iguanas. According to biographer Jim Ambrose, the two years he spent in the band made him aware of "art, politics, and experimentation".
Osterberg eventually dropped out of the University of Michigan and moved to Chicago to learn more about blues. While in Chicago, he played drums in blues clubs, helped by Sam Lay (formerly of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band) who shared his connections with Pop. Inspired by Chicago blues as well as bands like the Sonics, MC5 and the Doors, he formed the Psychedelic Stooges. The band was composed of Osterberg 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. Osterberg became interested in Ron Asheton after seeing him perform in the Chosen Few (a covers band), believing "I've never met a convincing musician that didn't look kind of ill and kind of dirty, and Ron had those two things covered!" The three nicknamed Osterberg "Pop" after a local character named Jim Popp, who he was said to have resembled after shaving his eyebrows.
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. Morrison's extreme behavior, while performing in a popular band, inspired the young Pop to push the boundaries of stage performance. Other influences on Pop's vocals and persona were Mick Jagger and James Brown:
I attended two concerts by the Doors. The first one I attended was early on and they had not gotten their shit together yet. That show was a big, big, big influence on me. They had just had their big hit, "Light My Fire" and the album had taken off. ... So, here's this guy, out of his head on acid, dressed in leather with his hair all oiled and curled. The stage was tiny and it was really low. It got confrontational. I found it really interesting. I loved the performance ... Part of me was like, "Wow, this is great. He's really pissing people off and he's lurching around making these guys angry." People were rushing the stage and Morrison's going "Fuck you. You blank, blank, blank." You can fill in your sexual comments yourself. The other half of it was that I thought, "If they've got a hit record out and they can get away with this, then I have no fucking excuse not to get out on stage with my band." It was sort of the case of, "Hey, I can do that." There really was some of that in there.
1970s
The Stooges and the follow-up, Fun House, produced by Don Gallucci in Los Angeles in 1970, sold poorly. Though the release of Fun House did not receive the recognition expected, it was later ranked No. 191 in Rolling Stone's '500 Greatest Albums of All Time' in 2003. Shortly after the release of Fun House, the group disbanded because of Pop's worsening heroin addiction.
In 1971, without a record deal, the Stooges kept performing in small clubs with a five-piece lineup that included both Ron Asheton and James Williamson on guitars and Jimmy Recca on bass, Pop having fired Dave Alexander the previous year when he turned up for a gig unable to play because of his chronic alcoholism. That year Pop and David Bowie met at Max's Kansas City, a nightclub and restaurant in New York City. Pop's career received a boost from his relationship with Bowie when Bowie decided in 1972 to produce an album with him in England. With Williamson signed on as guitarist, the search began for a rhythm section. However, since neither Pop nor Williamson were satisfied with any players in England, they decided to re-unite the Stooges. Ron Asheton grudgingly moved from guitar to bass. The recording sessions produced the rock landmark Raw Power. After its release, Scott Thurston was added to the band on keyboards/electric piano and Bowie continued his support, but Pop's drug problem persisted. The Stooges' last show in 1974 ended in a fight between the band and a group of bikers, documented on the album Metallic K.O. Drug abuse stalled Pop's career again for several years.
After the Stooges' second breakup, Pop made recordings with James Williamson, but these were not released until 1977 (as Kill City, credited jointly to Pop and Williamson). Pop was unable to control his drug use and checked himself into a mental institution, the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute, to try to clean up. Bowie was one of his few visitors, continuing to support his friend and collaborator. In 1976, Bowie took Pop as his companion on the Station to Station tour. This was Pop's first exposure to large-scale professional touring, and he was impressed, particularly with Bowie's work ethic. Following a March 21, 1976, show, Bowie and Pop were arrested together for marijuana possession in Rochester, New York, although charges were later dropped.
Bowie and Pop relocated to West Berlin to wean themselves off their respective drug addictions. "Living in a Berlin apartment with Bowie and his friends was interesting…" Pop recalled. "The big event of the week was Thursday night. Anyone who was still alive and able to crawl to the sofa would watch Starsky & Hutch."
1980s
During the recording of Soldier (1980), Pop and Bowie argued with Williamson over various aspects of the project. Williamson recalled, "I was not at all happy with a number of aspects of that record including the band, the material and the recording facilities. So I was unhappy in general and vice versa". Williamson left the project. Bowie appeared on the song "Play it Safe", performing backing vocals with the group Simple Minds. During a live performance in Brooklyn in 1981, Pop smashed a microphone into his own face, knocking out a front tooth.
Both Soldier and its follow-up Party (1981) were commercial failures, and Pop was dropped from Arista.
The 1982 album Zombie Birdhouse on Chris Stein's Animal label, with Stein himself producing, was no more commercially successful than his Arista works. The same year, Pop published his autobiography I Need More, co-written with Anne Wehner, an Ann Arbor arts patron. The book, which includes a selection of black and white photographs, featured a foreword by Andy Warhol. Warhol wrote that he met Pop when he was Jim Osterberg, at the Ann Arbor Film Festival in 1966. "I don't know why he hasn't made it really big," Warhol wrote. "He is so good." In 1983, Pop's fortunes changed when David Bowie recorded a cover of the song "China Girl". The song had originally appeared on The Idiot and was a major hit on Bowie's blockbuster Let's Dance album. As co-writer of the song, Pop received substantial royalties.
On Tonight in 1984, Bowie recorded five more of their co-written songs, two from Lust for Life, one from New Values, and two new songs), assuring Pop financial security, at least for the short term. The support from Bowie enabled Pop to take a three-year break, during which he overcame his resurgent heroin addiction and took acting classes.
Additionally, Pop contributed the title song to the 1984 film Repo Man (with Steve Jones, previously of the Sex Pistols, on guitar, and Nigel Harrison and Clem Burke, both of Blondie on bass and drums) as well as an instrumental called "Repo Man Theme" that was played during the opening credits.
In 1985, Pop recorded some demos with Jones. He played these demos for Bowie, who was sufficiently impressed to offer to produce an album for Pop: 1986's new wave-influenced Blah-Blah-Blah, featuring the single
1990s
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.
Also in 1990, Pop sang the role of "The Prosecutor" for the POINT Music/Philips Classics recording (released in 1992) of composer John Moran's multimedia opera The Manson Family. That year he also contributed to the Red Hot Organization's AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Blue project, singing a version of "Well Did You Evah!" in a duet with Debbie Harry.
In the early to middle 1990s, Pop would make several guest appearances on the Nickelodeon show The Adventures of Pete and Pete. He played James Mecklenberg, Nona Mecklenberg's father.
In 1991, Pop and Kirst contributed the song "Why Was I Born (Freddy's Dead)" to the soundtrack of the film Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare. The song also plays over the end credits of the film, with a compilation of clips from the A Nightmare on Elm Street series running alongside the end credits. In the same year, Pop sang a leading role in the John Moran opera The Manson Family.
In 1992, he collaborated with Goran Bregović on the soundtrack for the movie Arizona Dream by Emir Kusturica. Pop sang four of the songs: In the Deathcar, TV Screen, Get the Money, and This is a Film. Also in 1992, he collaborated with the New York City band White Zombie. He recorded spoken word vocals on the intro and outro of the song "Black Sunshine" as well as playing the character of a writer in the video shot for the song.
In 1993, Pop released American Caesar, including two successful singles, "Wild America" and "Beside You". The following year Pop contributed to Buckethead's album Giant Robot, including the songs "Buckethead's Toy Store" and "Post Office Buddy". He appears also on the Les Rita Mitsouko album Système D where he sings the duet "My Love is Bad" with Catherine Ringer.
2000s
Pop sang on the tracks "Rolodex Propaganda" and "Enfilade" by At the Drive-In in 2000. In 2001, he released Beat 'Em Up, which gave birth to the Trolls, releasing the single "Football" featuring Trolls alumni Whitey Kirst and brother Alex. Pop's music appeared on the soundtrack to the 2001 film He Died with a Felafel in his Hand. In 2005, Pop appeared, along with Madonna, Little Richard, Bootsy Collins, and the Roots' Questlove, in an American TV commercial for the Motorola ROKR phone.
Pop's 2003 album Skull Ring featured collaborators Sum 41, Green Day, Peaches, and the Trolls, as well as Ron and Scott Asheton, reuniting the three surviving founding members of the Stooges for the first time since 1974. Pop made a guest appearance on Peaches's song "Kick It" as well as the video. Also in 2003, the first full-length biography of Pop was published. Gimme Danger – The Story of Iggy Pop was written by Joe Ambrose; Pop did not collaborate on the biography or publicly endorse it.
Having enjoyed working with the Ashetons on Skull Ring, Pop reformed the Stooges, with bassist Mike Watt (formerly of the Minutemen) filling in for the late Dave Alexander and Fun House saxophonist Steve Mackay rejoining the lineup. That year, Pop opened Madonna's Reinvention World Tour in Dublin.
In early 2006, Pop and the Stooges played in Australia and New Zealand for the Big Day Out. They also began work on a new album, The Weirdness, which was recorded by Steve Albini and released in March 2007. In August 2006, Pop and the Stooges performed at the Lowlands pop festival in the Netherlands, Hodokvas in Slovakia and in the Sziget Festival in Budapest.
Author Paul Trynka completed a biography of Pop (with his blessing) called Open Up and Bleed, published in early 2007. In February 2007, Pop and the Stooges played at Bam Margera's wedding and Pop appeared on the single "Punkrocker" with the Teddybears in a Cadillac television commercial. Pop was also the voice of Lil' Rummy on the Comedy Central cartoon Lil' Bush and confirmed that he has done voices for American Dad! and Grand Theft Auto IV, which also included the Stooges song "I Wanna Be Your Dog" (though the game's manual credited Iggy Pop as the artist).
Pop and the Stooges played the Glastonbury Festival in June 2007. Their set included material from the 2007 album The Weirdness and classics such as "No Fun" and "I Wanna Be Your Dog". Pop also caused controversy in June 2007 when he was interviewed on the BBC's coverage of the Glastonbury Festival. He used the phrase "paki shop", apparently unaware of its racist connotations, prompting three complaints and an apology from the BBC.
2010s
Pop also sings on "We're All Gonna Die" on Slash's first solo album Slash, which was released in April 2010. He appeared as a character in the video game Lego Rock Band to sing his song "The Passenger" and also lent his voice for the in-game tutorial. With reference to the song "The Passenger", Pop has appeared on NZ television advertising phone networks, showing that he could get a band to play together by conference call. He was inducted as part of the Stooges into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 15, 2010.
After a March 2010 stage diving accident, Pop claimed he would no longer stage dive. However, he did so on three occasions at a concert in Madrid, Spain on April 30, 2010, and did similarly at London's Hammersmith Apollo on May 2, 2010. On July 9, 2010, Pop again stage dived at Rock Zottegem, Belgium, causing bleeding from the face. In June 2010, Pop appeared at Yonge and Dundas Square in Toronto with the reformed Stooges on the NXNE main stage. In 2011 he teamed up with the Lilies, a collaboration between Sergio Dias of Os Mutantes and French group Tahiti Boy & The Palmtree Family, to record the single "Why?".
Pop lent his image to PETA's campaign against the annual Canada seal hunt.
On April 7, 2011, at age 63, Pop performed "Real Wild Child" on the tenth season of American Idol; the Los Angeles Times music blog "Iggy Pop & Hiss" described Pop as being "still magnetic, still disturbing". He is also featured on Kesha's song "Dirty Love" on her second album Warrior. In 2012, Pop was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame. On August 25, 2013, Iggy and the Stooges co-headlined RiotFest 2013's Day 2, performing in Toronto and Denver along with the Replacements. Stooges drummer Scott Asheton died of a heart attack in March 2014 at the age of 64.
On October 14, 2014, Pop gave the fourth annual BBC Music John Peel Lecture in Salford, on the topic of "Free Music in a Capitalist Society". He used the lecture to discuss his experiences of the music industry, and his reflections on the effect of the internet on the consumption of music and the broader media.
In January 2015, it was announced that Pop contributed the theme song to Alex Cox's film Bill, the Galactic Hero. He also collaborated with New Order on the song "Stray Dog" of their album Music Complete released in September of that year. Pop also collaborated with Tomoyasu Hotei on the songs "How The Cookie Crumbles" and "Walking Through The Night" from the album Strangers, also released that same year.
2020s
In January 2020, Pop received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In April 2020, he released an alternate mix of his "China Girl", as part of a seven-disc deluxe box set, due to feature expanded remastered versions of The Idiot and Lust for Life. In August, Pop was featured in a tailoring campaign for Gucci which also starred Tyler the Creator and A$AP Rocky. In December, Pop featured on a rework of Elvis Costello's song "No Flag" from Costello's 2020 album Hey Clockface. The song was a re-recording, with Pop providing the vocals, translated to French for this version. A new digital track by Pop was also released, titled "Dirty Little Virus". Lyrically, it is about the COVID-19 pandemic. That year, he also collaborated with Morrissey on his upcoming album Bonfire of Teenagers.
In April 2021, French singer Clio released a duet with Iggy Pop titled "L'appartement". On his new album Breathe by Hammond master Lonnie Smith, Pop provides vocals on two tracks, "Why Can't We Live Together" (a cover version of the Timmy Thomas original) and on "Sunshine Superman" (a cover version of the Donovan original). The album was released in March 2021.
Pop collaborated with Belgian composer and violinist Catherine Graindorge on three tracks on her new EP The Dictator. It was released in September 2022. "Frenzy" was released late 2022 ahead of Pop's nineteenth studio album Every Loser: the track featured Duff McKagan and Chad Smith. The album was produced by Andrew Watt. Upon release in January 2023. Every Loser received favourable reviews with NME dubbing it "a high-velocity joyride full of delightful doses of wit and grit". At around this time, Pop said he was done with stagediving. In 2024 he re-recorded "The Passenger" in duet with Siouxsie Sioux: their orchestral version with a slower tempo was conceived for a commercial.
In May 2025, he collaborated with the champagne brand Dom Pérignon for a campaign named "Creation is an Eternal Journey".
In 2025, Pop's 2006 collaboration "Punkrocker" with Teddybears was featured in the superhero film Superman.
On September 27, 2025, Pop headlined the "CBGB Festival" in Brooklyn NY.
Film, television and radio career
As an actor Pop has appeared in a number of movies including children's movies. Movie appearances include: Sid and Nancy (a non-speaking cameo role), The Color of Money, Hardware (voice only), The Crow: City of Angels (Iggy wanted to play Funboy in the original The Crow movie, but his recording schedule would not permit him.), The Rugrats Movie, Snow Day, Coffee and Cigarettes (opposite Tom Waits, in the third segment of the film, "Somewhere in California"), Tank Girl and Atolladero, a Spanish science fiction Western. Pop worked with Johnny Depp on several films: they appeared together in Cry-Baby and Dead Man.
Pop has also appeared in many television series, including Tales from the Crypt, The Adventures of Pete & Pete, where he played Nona's dad in the second and third season, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, in which he played Yelgrun in the episode "The Magnificent Ferengi". With the Stooges, he was featured in an episode of MTV's Bam's Unholy Union as the main band performing at Bam Margera's wedding. Additionally, a portion of the music video for Pop's "Butt Town" was featured on an episode of Beavis and Butt-Head. Pop also voiced a cameo in the American Dad! episode "American Dream Factory" as Jerry, the drummer, in Steve Smith's band. Pop played himself as the DJ of the fictional rock station Liberty Rock Radio 97. 8 in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV. The Stooges song "I Wanna Be Your Dog" was featured on the same station. Pop appears as a character in the Adult Swim animated comedy-adventure series The Venture Bros.. He is one of the bodyguards, along with Klaus Nomi, of David Bowie, who is "The Sovereign" of the Guild of Calamitous Intent. Pop has some unclear super-powers, which he uses when he and Nomi turn against Bowie.
Pop has been profiled in several rockumentaries and has had songs on many soundtracks, including Crocodile Dundee II; Trainspotting; Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels; Haggard; Repo Man; Black Rain; Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare; Shocker; and Kurt Cobain: About a Son.
Pop hosts a weekly radio show and podcast titled "Iggy Confidential" on BBC Radio 6 Music. In it he covers an eclectic range of music from punk to jazz, and champions new artists such as Shame, Fat White Family, False Heads, and Sleaford Mods. He also championed Mik Artistik, whose song "Sweet Leaf of the North" was named by Iggy as one of his favorite songs of the 2010s.
Cancelled biopic
The Passenger was, as of 2007, the putative name for a biographical film about Pop's early career with the Stooges. The film was to be directed by Nick Gomez and Elijah Wood was to play Pop.
Pop supported the project and the casting of Wood, but refused to take part in the film.
The project later was shelved.
Classical scholarship
In 1995, a journal of classical scholarship, Classics Ireland, published Pop's reflections on the applicability of Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire to the modern world in a short article, "Caesar Lives" (Vol. 2, 1995). Pop also relates how reading Gibbon while on tour in the Southern United States inspired him to a spontaneous soliloquy he called "Caesar", which was included on his 1993 album American Caesar.
Personal life
Pop lives in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, Florida.
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. He has a son, Eric Benson, born in 1970 from a relationship with Paulette Benson.
At age 23, Pop allegedly had a relationship with 13-year-old groupie Sable Starr. Since the emergence of the MeToo movement, he has faced criticism for his relationship with Starr. The documentary Look Away, a documentary about sexual abuse in the rock music industry, is named after an Iggy Pop song about Starr from the album Naughty Little Doggie.
Pop has scoliosis, with one leg being one-and-a-half inches shorter than the other.
In the 1990s, Pop became friends with Johnny Depp, Jim Jarmusch, and tattoo artist Jonathan Shaw. Shaw said the four wore matching rings depicting a skull, and all but Pop received a similar skull-and-crossbones tattoo.
Pop owns a Moluccan cockatoo, Biggy Pop. Pop uses the bird to promote Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital, an Australian charity. A beer named after the cockatoo, Biggy Pop Hop, raised funds in support of the charity.
Legacy
Iggy Pop is considered by some to be among the greatest and most influential punk rock vocalists of all time. According to Ultimate Classic Rock: "There is perhaps no human in history who has personified punk more than Iggy Pop."
Admirers
Music journalist Lester Bangs was one of the first writers to champion the Stooges in a national publication. His piece "Of Pop and Pies and Fun" for Creem Magazine was published about the time of the Stooges' second album Fun House. Another music journalist, Legs McNeil, was especially fond of Iggy and the Stooges and championed them in many of his writings.
Kurt Cobain consistently listed Raw Power as his No. 1 favorite album of all time in the "Favorite Albums" lists that featured in his Journals.
In August 1995, all three Stooges albums were included in British music magazine Mojo's influential "100 Greatest Albums of All Time" feature. Fun House was placed the highest, at 16.
Australian band Radio Birdman took their name, although incorrectly, from the lyrics of the Stooges song "1970".
In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the Stooges No. 78 on their list of 100 of the most influential artists of the past 50 years.
Layne Staley said that he was a big fan of both The Stooges and Iggy Pop.
Slash included their self-titled debut amongst his favorite studio albums.
Peter Hook included their live album Metallic K.O. amongst his favorite albums.
In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Pop at number 176 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.
Discography
The Idiot (1977)
Lust for Life (1977)
Kill City (with James Williamson) (1977)
New Values (1979)
Soldier (1980)
Party (1981)
Zombie Birdhouse (1982)
Blah-Blah-Blah (1986)
Instinct (1988)
Brick by Brick (1990)
American Caesar (1993)
Naughty Little Doggie (1996)
Avenue B (1999)
Beat 'Em Up (2001)
Skull Ring (2003)
Préliminaires (2009)
Après (2012)
Post Pop Depression (2016)
Free (2019)
Every Loser (2023)
Honors
In 2017, shortly after his 70th birthday, Pop was made a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Consul general in Miami on behalf of the French government.
A photo of Pop on stage with fans at the Sydney Opera House in 2019 taken by Antoine Veling won the Culture Category of the Sony World Photography Awards.
Pop received the Polar Music Prize on May 25, 2022.
