Iggy Pop was at The Door’ controversially disastrous show at the University of Michigan, and it inspired him to be a rock star.
There’s no denying that Iggy Pop is one of the most influential rock musicians of all time. But, as the icon himself tells it, he would never even have become a punk rock singer if it weren’t for Jim Morrison and The Doors’ notoriously controversial performance at the University of Michigan in 1967.
During an unearthed conversation with Classic Rock Revisted, Iggy was asked if it was true that he was “really influenced by Jim Morrison,” to which he replied by sharing that he was in attendance at the Doors’ U of M show, which has gone down in history as one of the most disasterous performances the band ever gave.g
The Doors were a “big, big, big influence” on Iggy Pop
“I attended two concerts by the Doors. The first one I attended was early on and they had not gotten their shit together yet. That show was a big, big, big influence on me,” Iggu said. “They had just had their big hit, ‘Light My Fire’ and the album had taken off. I had the album first, and I really loved the record.
“The Doors played the University of Michigan Homecoming Dance, which was 5,000 mullet headed jocks and their rightwing girlfriends in a gymnasium,” he continued. “It looked like the gymnasium in that video ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ by Nirvana.”
Iggy then went on to share, “So, here’s this guy, out of his head on acid, dressed in leather with his hair all oiled and curled. The stage was tiny and it was really low. It got confrontational. I found it really interesting.” Iggy says he “loved the performance but the music sounded terrible because they didn’t have the sound system together.”
Iggy Pop Says fans were violently rushing the stage in anger at Jim Morrison
Reflecting on The Doors and their wildly charismatic frontman, Iggy offered, “They had a really unique style and it wasn’t easy for them to sound good live, at first. Part of me was like, ‘Wow, this is great. He’s really pissing people off and he’s lurching around making these guys angry.’ People were rushing the stage and Morrison’s going ‘Fuck you. You blank, blank, blank.’ You can fill in your sexual comments yourself.”
“The other half of it,” Iggy continued, “was that I thought, ‘If they’ve got a hit record out and they can get away with this, then I have no fucking excuse not to get out on stage with my band.’ It was sort of the case of, ‘Hey, I can do that.’ There really was some of that in there.”
Ultimately, while he found himself captivated enough to want to be a rock star because of Jim Morrison and The Doors’ incredible stage prescence, Iggy confesses that the magic just didn’t last, even wnhen the band got “better.”
“By the time they came to Detroit again, and played the big arena, in the big city, they were very polished, had a great sound and the music was fabulous,” he said. “He still had a lot of presence and he still did some interaction with the audience. He sort of ran down the isle and back up at one point. He tried to get real. The band was much better, but it wasn’t quite as fabulously interesting.”
