Iggy Pop Admits Being Inspired By Mick Jagger And Jim Morrison

While it is common to have inspirations in the music scene, many artists are also honest about praising their heroes for impacting their stage presence and sound. Iggy Pop was more than comfortable sharing his inspirations on the Broken Record Podcast hosted by Rick Rubin. Here are the three names that stood out to him when he was starting in the industry.

“James Brown is number one first and foremost,” Pop said before naming the two other prominent names for him. “And then I’m trying to think; I mean both Jim Morrison and Mick Jagger. When I started, those were two people that would be wise to study; check out what they do.”

The singer noted, “Although at the time, Mick Jagger didn’t do anything particularly strange at first, and there wasn’t a pushy performance when I first saw them; that was 1965. They played Cobo Hall, I was still in high school, and Brian Jones was still in the band, and they just lined up in a row and played, and there was they all looked amazing, frankly, and all looked really good. Mick Jagger had a very large head, and the movement came from the head, but it was a great visual.”

After Jagger took center stage, that was when everything changed for Pop as he shared, “When I saw them again in ’69, then that was the tour where he wore the Leo sign, the black outfit, and the American cardboard hat and all that, and that was a full performance in which I could see a little bit of Tina Turner, I could see a little bit of quite a bit of Tina Turner and then some stuff of his own.”

The other name that was a massive influence on Iggy was Jim Morrison. He continued, “Jim Morrison was a whole other ball game. This guy had benefited from his good quality college education at UCLA film school. So he was a film major there, and so he’s singing things about, you know, with where the lyrics were taken from French novelists 200 years ago.”

Pop lastly added, “It was from Celine, ‘End of the Night,’ and that sort of thing, and he was doing some movements that I’m sure he got straight off the side of a Grecian urn, you know, like, and trying to explore the idea of theatrical madness, so that was interesting. But with both these guys, at the time you’re young, you’re starting out, these were the two polls of what was interesting in white rock and what they both did well; they centered well, that’s the main thing for a vocalist.”

Not too surprising, right? Two names altered many rocker stereotypes, especially when they first were getting their foot in the industry. Some would say Iggy Pop could be added to the list as a ‘rebel’ along with Morrison and Jagger. If you want to hear some of the inspiration that shows itself in album form, don’t worry, as Pop has recently released his new record, ‘Every Loser,’ which you may want to check out.