Iggy slams Clash for ‘sincere’ stance

Iggy Pop has called into question the sincerity of the Clash and punk bands like them – saying he never believed they were genuine.

The Stooges icon has been credited with being one of the inspirations behind the British anti-establishment movement of the mid-1970s. But he remains unconvinced over how many of those acts believed what they were saying.

Iggy tells the New York Times: “I reacted to it better than I had to the hippie thing. As it developed, I couldn’t stand the ‘sincere’ punks. I never believed them – I still don’t.

“Like the Clash were going to make the world politically correct for everybody’s benefit, but only if you kept buying Clash records. I never really went for the righteousness; I want more for the profligate, sneering groups.”

He believes the rough, edgy sound embraced by the movement was something he was glad to have moved beyond. “I realised it was good that I wasn’t going that sort of music any more,” he says. “It would have been worse if I was still knocking out stuff that sounded like my first record, but not as good.”

The veteran frontman admits he’s been “a little bit damaged” by his years of drug abuse and hard living, although he describes himself as “a more than moderately healthy 65-year-old male who has gotten way with a lot of stuff.”

But his days of stagediving almost certainly remain behind him following his 2010 announcement that he’d pulled his signature stunt for the last time after he jumped off the platform during a concert for Tibet at New York’s Carnegie Hall – and slammed onto the floor.

He said at the time: “When I landed it hurt and I made a mental note that Carnegie Hall would be a good place for my last stage dive.”

But now he admits he was “a little miffed” when he spoke. “Lenny Kaye was playing I Want To Be Your Dog too damned slow and I just ran out of ideas and thought, ‘Well, let’s just stagedive.’ Nobody caught me because it was the Carnegie Hall Tibetan-whatever audience.

“We’ve done two gigs this year and I haven’t done one yet. Stages are getting higher and higher, and I’m getting older and older.”

-Classic Rock magazine