The Quieter Side of Iggy Pop

“I don’t think I’m lucky; I think I have a tough constitution. That’s a lot of it. And I’ve been wise enough to listen to other people.” Iggy Pop, considered by many to be the original rock god bad boy, has been pulling all the antics—onstage and off—to the delight of punk fans for generations, but he has a quiet side, too—one that’s captured with electric intimacy by photographer Paul McAlpine in his new book Iggy Pop: Bare and Real. The book captures all Iggy’s antics, and more from Iggy’s 1977 The Idiot tour to 2016’s Post Pop Depression, from the roaring crowds to the backstage breathers.

The retrospective collection of never-before-seen photographs features plenty of onstage Iggy, the bare-chested singer who danced with his fly down and stage-dived for a crowd of dedicated fans. The set of black-and-white portraits includes the band and other contemporaries, including David Bowie, Kevin Armstrong, and Steve Jones, guitarist for the Sex Pistols. Behind-the-scenes photography captures a gentler side of Iggy (or Jim, as he is known, “unless there is a big crowd of people around”), including candid shots of a 1986 phone interview on a Santa Barbara patio and a solo rehearsal, guitar in tow, in New York in 1988. Iggy Pop—despite decades of making music—proves he is as youthful as ever, onstage and off, whether performing for swarms of fans or in the company of his closest kin.

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