Iggy Pop Tour: ‘Only Drugs and Booze’ Backstage

Drummer Clem Burke first encountered Iggy Pop during a tour with Blondie in 1977, but that wasn’t his most unforgettable moment with the rock legend.

“I later toured with Iggy’s band for six weeks in 1981, promoting the Party album, and he was essentially out of his mind,” Burke shared with Classic Rock. “Backstage, there was no food allowed, only drugs and booze.”

During this chaotic tour, Pop famously smashed a microphone into his own face, dislodging a front tooth. Fans got a glimpse of the onstage madness in 1983’s Live in San Fran 1981, recorded in November at the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco. A DVD version followed in 2005.

“It was ‘no blow, no show,'” Burke added. “His only directive was: ‘Play as loud and as fast as possible.'”

Despite the high energy, Party turned out to be Pop’s last album with Arista Records after it stalled at a mere No. 166 on the Billboard Top 200. This was quite a decline from his commercial peak in the late ’70s with The Idiot, a David Bowie collaboration that reached the U.K. Top 30.

Pop invited Blondie to open on the Idiot World Tour in 1977, shortly after Burke’s band released their highly underrated debut album. “Blondie’s first national tour of the States was with Iggy, with David Bowie on keyboards,” Burke recalled. “The night before the tour began, we performed at Max’s Kansas City [in New York], got straight into an RV, drove to Montreal overnight, and went directly to the venue.”

Staying true to their rock and roll lifestyle, “everyone was still crashed out in a funky dressing room backstage when the door opened and in walked Bowie and Iggy,” Burke said. “They couldn’t have been nicer.”

Then, Burke noticed a surprising detail: “Iggy and I both had Anello and Davide Beatle boots on, which I’d acquired during my first trip to the UK in ’75.”