I was shocked and then delighted when I heard that Iggy Pop, arguably one of the grandfathers of punk, was set to perform on American Idol last week. Although a little sloppy, Iggy’s performance was unwieldy, un-sanitized and a wee bit dangerous. Yeah, that’s rock ‘n roll kids. Take notes!
However, Iggy didn’t do Idol just for the exposure. He tells Billboard magazine, that no only did he enjoy his Idol experience, but he also likes and respects Idol.
“I enjoyed the band they put together for me, and they were good to work with. It was a very specific participation, very limited, and I kind of liked it that way. I went and did my thing, basically. I don’t know what to say about it, exactly, except I didn’t know what to expect, I had a good time and actually enjoyed singing the song and enjoyed the audience.”
Initially an Idol-hater, Iggy eventually came around, his opinion, “changed over time and I came to respect certain things about it, bit by bit. I began to see if not the good in the format at least the good in the contestants, especially some of the final contestants, ” particularly, he says, Carrie Underwood and Jennifer Hudson.
Heres an interesting tidbit: Idol producers approached Iggy when they were putting together the new Idol panel for Season 10. “It didn’t go very far, ” he tells Billboard. “There were two phone calls…I wasn’t sure I was interested or available. They called me…I was curious and we spoke a couple times, and that was as far as that went. I don’t think I could’ve done the right job for them on that particular show. I think Steven (Tyler) does a really, really good job of it.”
