Iggy Pop talks free music, politics & tai chi

On Newsnight BBC TWO, Iggy Pop talked to Kirsty Wark ahead of this year's BBC Music John Peel Lecture at the Radio Festival 2014 on Monday 13 October, where he'll deliver a speech on 'Free Music in a Capitalist Society'.

On free music in the capitalist world he said:

IP: "When I started I was unaware of my fiduciary duty to make money for the record company, I was thinking about other things. Later, a few years in that became a problem because I was a disgrace to the industry.

"I wanted to talk about the spirit of freedom and the idea of giving freely in a society which is getting dominated by one system, which is beginning to threaten other systems, because ultimately you've got to make a quick investment return for somebody that's sitting somewhere collecting interest. And that's fine, that's a good system but maybe it's a bit too successful sometimes and somebody should beat it back a bit.

"There are a lot of artists who go through this… in the visual arts world there's a patronage and a gallery system."

KW: "So are apple the patrons of U2 then?"

IP: "That might be a sponsorship. I thought about this the other day and I thought gee, television shows are commonly sponsored by whoever sponsors these ads you see. That's accepted… and for some reason when that comes over to music it's a different feel. I'm not sure people are accepting of that."

On wanting to be a politician:

IP: "I did want to be a politician, until JFK got shot. And then I thought…

KW: "Not for you?"

IP: "Not because he was shot, but because... suddenly you had Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, LBJ… a kid can look at these people and think - these people are not well."

On being a golfer:

IP: "I tried out for the school golf team, didn't make it. I was about 15 handicap."

On taking up Tai Chi and getting healthy:

IP: "I hit about 1989 I had a combination of... it was hard enough debauching for fifteen years or so but it was harder when I had to go mediocre for about 12 years and I don't do that well. I had to start pooping out albums for the American industry and remixing something to make a single they could get on the radio, being nice with promo people, making MTV videos that weren't as good as my own wild stage performances, and basically that was hard work... between all of it I was pretty much beat down by about 1990 and I thought wait a minute, I'm too young, what can I do. And I found a Tai Chi master."

On working for BBC Radio 6 Music:

IP: "It's a wonderful job and Jarvis Cocker was really nice to let me take his slot for this year... I just really enjoyed doing this job."

Iggy Pop delivers this year's BBC Music John Peel Lecture at the Radio Festival 2014 on Monday 13 October. It will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 6 Music, 7.30-8.30pm, and filmed for BBC Four to be broadcast on Sunday 19 October at 8pm. Iggy Pop also hosts a weekly show on BBC Radio 6 Music, Sundays 4-6pm.