Iggy Pop Was Almost A Member Of AC/DC

4 January 2023 | 4:43 pm | Emma Whines

"I hadn’t re-formed the Stooges, I hadn’t moved to England, and this guy said, 'Are you interested in joining AC/DC?'"

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In a massive retrospective interview with New York Times, James Newell Osterberg Jr, AKA rockstar Iggy Pop, revealed that he almost became a member of AC/DC. 

In conversation with interviewer David Marchese, Osterberg somehow jumped onto the topic of AC/DC and reminisced on a time when he was asked to join as a singer. 

"They had a manager many years ago, when I hadn’t re-formed the Stooges, I hadn’t moved to England, and this guy said, 'Are you interested in joining AC/DC?' They were looking for a singer," he noted. 

When Marchese asked him if he considered the opportunity, he went on to say, "No, because I listened to their record. I thought, 'I can’t fill that bill.' I wasn’t like, 'Ugh, I don’t like them.' It was quite well made. They do careful work. But I’m not what they needed."

Not long after, Osterberg re-formed The Stooges. Now the band are set to release their 19th studio album, Every Loser, which will come out on Friday, 6 January 2023.

The album announcement followed fans' and critics' joyful response to the first single and first track from the record, Frenzy, which was recently released. Rolling Stone wrote that the song "marks a left turn back toward the Godfather Of Punk’s roots".

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Despite the band still pumping out tunes, Osterberg is adamant that he is "too rickety" to stage dive anymore in a recent interview with NME.

"I’ve left the proscenium a few times if the crowds were too dull just to whip ’em up, but mostly I didn’t have to," he said. It's hard to imagine a dull Iggy Pop crowd. He continued, "I won’t do the dives again; I’ve managed to survive it mostly, and I’m too rickety for that now."

However, he went on to finish his New York Times piece with gratitude for live music above all else. 

"I’ve done good work when it comes to the gig," he stated in reference to his exhilarating stage presence. "That’s always been the one place where I felt, OK, whatever you take away from me, I can control that."