Today he adds: “There’s also a bit of the punkier people who’ve made serious fortunes. Even Justin Bieber gets punk points for egging his neighbour’s house a few years ago,” he laughs, referencing the Canadian’s 2014 controversy. “That’s not something teenage heartthrobs used to do.” Every Loser’ has few subdued moments, like the slow-burning ‘Morning Show’, which hits on Iggy’s “disappointed areas where I don’t feel 100 per cent wunderbar”. There’s also the poetic ‘Atlantis’, a tribute to the miscreants and sinking land of the “shitty, shady, paradise” Pop calls home. Even with those fleeting serenades in tow, the album is begging to be played loud and live. “That’s what I like about it,” Iggy says In March 2016, Pop released ‘Post Pop Depression’, a career highlight, and his first record to reach the Top 20 on the US Album charts in the United States. Co-written and produced by Josh Homme of Queens Of The Stone Age and featuring Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders and LA multi-instrumentalist Dean Fertita, the album went on to receive a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Music Album. Taylor Hawkins drums up a storm [on ‘Every Loser’]. I’m very fortunate to have that colour on the record.” Punk and nostalgia’s chokehold on current culture seems to be grasping even tighter as of late. Recent music festival lineups, like Los Angeles’ Just Like Heaven and Las Vegas’ When We Were Young have rolled out sold-out events featuring post-punk and pop versions of the sound, headlined by artists like Interpol and My Chemical Romance. It’s now even made its way from the club stage to the runway.

One thing that comes with the particular game I’m involved in to make a living, depending on your position and phase of life, you get a lot of aggro from other places,” he says. “I’m not a celebrity culture person. I’m not gonna go out and tweet an insult to my enemies. It’s just not me. I had a lot of stuff saved up, if you will. A few things were pushing my buttons, and I just said it, it popped out.”The album has been described as containing ″crooning vocals, Cole Porter covers, soft melodies, and an all-around sense of everything suave″. [5]

It really surprises me. I always assumed there would be an arc and things would quiet down after I hit 65,” he says. “That hasn’t been the case.” When asked by Bill Flanagan if he had heard any good records lately, Bob Dylan mentioned Après. [6] Has the grandfather of punk mellowed with age? While it may appear that way, it really isn’t. How so? While it is true that Iggy achieved such legendary status as a Wildman from his early Stooges days in the late 1960’s. He’d threaten the audience. Cut himself with broken bottles hurled at him by the audience. Basically, he’d appear out of control. He was. But as the 70’s wore on, he started to change musically. He experimented with more somber music; Especially on his classic album, “The Idiot”. Teaming up with Bowie on that particular album, Iggy showcased his darker, more melancholy side. Songs like “Night clubbing” and even “Sister Midnight” came off like neo-modern cabaret songs. The original Stooges [records], they were all inappropriately mastered. They sounded wimpier than they really were. Then later, as CDs came in and then, especially in the digital age with streaming, suddenly the same records sound the way they should have.” lyrics: Vito Pallavicini, Pierre Delanoë, Claude Lemesle; music: Pasquale Losito, Salvatore Cutugno

With his influence present in everything from designer jewellery to the music of up-and-coming acts, is he able to wrap his mind around his level of impact? “No, I’m not fully aware,” he responds. “I suppose if I was another person, I could sit down and graph all that out and come up with some sort of a schematic plan to capitalise a little bit more, but I’m not. I have noticed life has become a little easier and more rewarding in certain areas than it used to be and seems to continue that way, which really surprises me. Mostly I’m grateful there are people who’ve listened to the music and enjoy it.” Every Loser’ marks Pop’s first release on Atlantic’s partnership with Gold Tooth Records, the label founded by producer Andrew Watt, an avid Stooges fan and award-winning mastermind behind releases from Ozzy Osbourne, Miley Cyrus and Post Malone.

Pop’s first commercial success came at an eerie time, five long decades after The Stooges released their self-titled debut and a short three months after his close friend and collaborator David Bowie had passed, aged 69. Iggy’s Bowie-produced seminal proto-punk albums in ‘70s, ‘Lust For Life’ and ‘The Idiot’, heavily inspired ‘Post Pop Depression’, with much of the album mirroring the production and arrangements of Pop’s first solo debuts. To those who thought Preliminaires was fun - and I think it's one of the most enjoyable albums Iggy has done post 70s - there are elements to enjoy here particularly Iggy's take on 'La Vie En Rose'. And it's the songs in French that work best probably because they're less familiar to English speaking ears. But I don't think any one of them would have made the cut on his previous album and you can't help but think 'out-takes'. Every Loser’ also delves into how punk has leaked into the greater pop culture subconscious since artists like Iggy incited the genre half a century ago. In ‘Neo Punk’, Pop rattles off the lines, “ I don’t have to sing, I’ve got publishing/ I’m a neo punk” and “ my hair is blue and my prescription too / I never have enough to do.”More than half a century into his career, Iggy Pop now takes many forms. To most he remains the proto-punk showman who used to roll around in broken glass or crowd-surf covered in peanut butter. His early records with the Stooges on the 1960s/70s cusp remain some of the most influential in the canon – documents of devil-may-care nihilism that provided a scuzzy counterweight to the era of peace and love. Others immortalise Iggy in the 70s alongside his buddies David Bowie and Lou Reed, a triad of exalted reprobates.