Godfather of PunkIggy Pop, 71, is an unlikely mainstream icon.
But the rocker has become much more than an underground poster boy over his lengthy, sometimes fraught career.
Yet despite his influence, Pop has never won a Grammy, and has only been nominated twice.
Rob Baker Ashton
That will finally change this year when Pop receives a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy.
I thought, I dont want to.
Nothing good will come of it.
Leee Black Childers/Redferns
But as it turned out, that was a nice thing, and I was quite surprised.
I thought, Well, there must be a bit of a sea change going on.
I was looking at the list of your fellow nominees, who areOoh, really good!
Roberta Flack, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Isaac HayesThat was the best part.
That really gave me hope.
One feeds into the other.
So doing radio, Ive done a show for five years now at the BBC … or longer.
Only steady job Ive ever had!
Ive done a little film work.
Im not Sir Laurence Olivier, but…
The first effect of that was the music supervisors.
They started thinking, Oh yeah, him.
Maybe we should use one of his songs.
You learn things about storytelling, and you diversify.
I have three pensions now.
I have SAG, AFTRA, and Social Security.
Its much less money than my royalties, but Im so proud because I feel like a regular guy.
Im a union man!
Have you ever turned down an award?No, I picked up all of them!
I have so many.
I started at the bottom with something called the Brick Award in 1990.
I have a huge brick with my name on it and the cover art from my albumBrick By Brick.
From the Brick Men Stackers of America who were concerned that bricks werent being used enough in building materials.
Concrete was taking over, so they created this award.
Heavy D also got the award because a lot of his videos were in brick alleys.
My standards are my standards and I know what they are and thats that.
But outside of that, Im not really excited about excluding anyone or anything, really.
Thats not how I feel.
When Im having a bad day, I ask my assistant, Did I get [an award]?
Did it come yet?
Nope, not yet.
So there you go.
Id rather drop dead working.
[Performing live] is still just as important to me; its very,veryimportant for me.
