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When Iggy Pop asked his audience to stab him

Monicel
When Iggy Pop asked his audience to stab him

Iggy Pop - 1977

(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)

By now, Iggy Pop has settled into a sweet punk godfather role, spending his days hanging out with his birdie Biggie, recommending new songs on the radio and still occasionally busting out his gear on stage But when he first broke out in the 1970s, first as the leader of The Stooges and then with his solo project, Iggy Pop was wild and, in one case, downright terrifying, as a live show began to feel more like a bloody ritual.

There are countless crazy Iggy Pop stories. There’s the time he got David Bowie drugged into a mental hospital for him, or the time he dressed up in a gorilla suit and terrified Elton John. He’s fought biker gangs, snorted all sorts of mysterious substances, spat blood at this audience, and all that weird and wild stuff that’s kept rock fans fed good stories for a long time.

But this one looks fun and more downright terrifying. It was August 11, 1974. The Stooges had recently disbanded with the other members of their band, citing Pop’s worsening heroin addiction as the reason. But the musician continued his crazy rock campaign in his solo career and landed in Los Angeles ready to play his first solo show.

The promoters, by now, probably knew what they were getting into when they booked Iggy Pop. The Stooges were no strangers to tearing up venues or whipping their crowds into a frenzy. In 1973, Iggy Pop was even rumored to be asking New York promoters for a million dollar fee to take the stage at Madison Square Gardens and kill himself. Andy Warhol claimed he planned to do this at a special New Year’s Eve event, but thankfully the plan never came to fruition. But it was clear that booking the musician was essentially agreeing to book a potentially dangerous liability. His solo debut was no exception to the rule.

He headlined the performance “The Murder of a Virgin”, which should have immediately raised alarm bells. It took place at Rodney Bingenheimer’s English Disco, a favorite venue and watering hole of the LA alternative scene. The place was familiar with butchery. Writer Richard Cromelin said of the venue, “Once inside, everyone’s a star,” adding, “Weekend nights usually see at least one elaborate, tearful fight or breakup.”

But Iggy Pop brought a different kind of chaos. As he took the stage, he growled into the microphone, “You want to see blood?” He then got his guitarist, dressed in a Nazi uniform, to whip him over and over as the crowd watched.

It gets worse. After that, the musician, at the height of his addiction, began hurling racial abuse at his crowd, trying to incite someone, anyone, to stab him with the knife he had brought on stage and that now he was shaking When no one took him up on the offer, he ended the “performance” by carving a giant, bloody X into his chest.

Unsurprisingly, no one cheered for an encore.

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