Iggy And The Stooges

Iggy Pop related the story of the circumstances of the ‘Metallic KO’ album in his autobiography ‘I Need More’ (published by 2.13.61 Publications Inc.), and also to Giovanni Dadomo in Sounds. The Stooges had been playing ‘a pit hole’ down a farm road called the ‘Rock and Roll Farm’ in Wayne, Michigan. Iggy was playing to about 1,000 kids wearing a floppy, flowery woman’s hat, a dancer’s leotard and ballet slippers, nicely set off with a curtain as a sash. Someone found the scene and sound in front of them objectionable. Eggs started flying onto the stage. So Iggy got really fed up with it, and says “Stop the music!” He wants to know who’s been throwing the eggs. ‘Lo and behold, the waters part, and hundreds of people spread apart, and there before me, just standing there like man mountain Dean, just grinning, feet squarely planted, toes out, was this ENORMOUS youth, with the biggest happiest smile I’ve ever seen. A wonderful smile, cause he KNEW he was king and about to kick my ass. He must have been 6’ 5”, huge shoulders, with a large plaid lumberjack shirt, and this big grin. And one arm had a KNUCKLE GLOVE that went ALL THE WAY UP the arm. Carrying one of those dozen-egg cartons. He’s clearly got his act, and he’s just standing there, hand on hip, leering at me, and in a deep resounding voice he says “Hello”.’ ‘So I had to make a show of it, and I’m on my toes like I’d seen boxers on TV, and I come out like David against Goliath to face my tormentor. Watching his fist moving toward you was like waiting for a train to hit you. He decked me with that one punch, right down on the ground, and I’m bleeding and everything – I still have a scar, just dead between the eyes. I saw stars. It was obvious I couldn’t win so I said “Alright, well … on with the show!” And I went back and did ‘Louie Louie’.’ Humiliated, and with The Stooges existence hanging by a thread, the next day Iggy found himself doing a radio interview in Detroit to promote the final show of the tour. ‘I challenged the entire gang, The Scorpions, of which the guy was a member, to come down and do their worst at my big show at the Michigan Palace in Detroit – which they proceeded to do. It became “the last ever Stooges gig”, ‘Metallic KO’, with a picture of me on the front of it knocked out cold – lying IN STATE as it were.’ ‘All The Scorpions came down to the Michigan Palace. They started out with just beer bottles and wine bottles and vegetables and stuff like that. But I had an arsenal backstage and a few throwers, so I had them all come out and whip stuff back at them. It was like a hailstorm.’ ‘And on the tape you can hear all sorts of things flying through the air. Shovels, four-gallon jugs, M-80’s, blah blah. (But our lady fans in the front rows threw a lot of beautiful underwear, which I thought was sweet!)’ Amazingly, no one was injured – but The Stooges were not to play together again for nearly 30 years.