Iggy Pop to Recount Stooges Story in New Bio for Third Man Books
Iggy Pop will tell the story of the Stooges in a new book, Total Chaos, set for release via the publishing wing of Jack White‘s Third Man Records.
The book was written by Jeff Gold and contributor Johan Kugelberg, who spent two days interviewing Pop in his Miami home and parsing through his massive Stooges collection. The book will recount the rise of the proto-punk outfit, which Pop formed, and downfall in the face of drug and alcohol abuse, as well as an unforgiving music business. It will also touch on the Stooges’ reunion 30 years later and continued efforts to tour and record.
“It was a rare privilege to sit with Iggy as he downloaded the story of The Stooges,” Gold said in a statement. “He’s an incredible storyteller with a fantastic memory and a great sense of humor, and he held nothing back. The Stooges were pioneers in sound, look and live presentation, and along the way invented a genre — punk rock — and influenced countless others that followed. There was no precedent in rock music for what they did. They’re definitely the only group in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame who started out playing an amplified Waring blender, a vacuum cleaner, spring water bottles and a 200-gallon oil drum.”
Total Chaos will also feature contributions from Jack White, Joan Jett, Johnny Marr, Third Man’s Ben Blackwell and author Jon Savage, who also edited the book. Both Gold and Kugelberg have extensive backgrounds as music writers, historians and collectors. Kugelberg’s bibliography includes dives into Norwegian black metal, the Velvet Underground and the early days of hip-hop, while Gold is a former executive for Warner Bros. and A&M Records, as well as a noted record collector, who owns and writes on the site RecordMecca and authored 101 Essential Rock Records.
Third Man Books has yet to announce a release date for Total Chaos, though it’s expected to arrive this winter.