I'm not a singer, a walking instrument like Aretha Franklin. When you get an Iggy Pop record, you don't get "Iggy Sings." I am also a style of music, an approach.
'Iggy' was my dog - he was named after Iggy Pop - and 'Azalea' is the street where I grew up; together, they have the right amount of syllables to make the perfect name.
I think 'pop' can be a bit of a dirty word. People are very cool in Australia. They don't like to admit that they like pop. There are people who listen to Triple J and cool stuff like that, but commercial radio is massive, and if you look at the sales of the pop songs every week, people love pop music.
The period right before punk rock where people like Lou Reed and Iggy Pop were really strong.
Some cats, Iggy Pop, they're going to always have that hunger.
I have always maintained that Iggy Pop is the Heavyweight Champion of Rock & Roll.
Even as a fan, as someone who's into his performances, the Stooges and his own stuff, Iggy [Pop] is one of the people who kept underlining something that a lot of my older musician friends with punk roots say: you get into this space in your life where you feel like a weirdo, you're marginalised, you don't fit in... and then you can get up on stage in front of people who probably hate you.
For me, as a performer or a songwriter, Stevie Nicks is always a huge inspiration as well as Iggy Pop.
Iggy Pop is a pure Michigan product - gritty, smart, but not afraid of looking stupid or foolish. His father was once a high school English teacher. I love Iggy as a physical entity, sinewy, twisty - even in old age - an embodiment of rock and roll history.
On the first album, we were trying to do a pop-punk album with a classical influence. We'd say 'pop-punk,' and people would say, 'No, you're like burlesque-cabaret-punk,' or, 'It's baroque-pop,' and we were like, 'That sounds way cooler.'
People wanted me to become this cliched Keith Richards, Iggy Pop character. I wasn't expected to marry a beautiful wife and have kids.
I've interviewed everyone from Joe Strummer to Iggy Pop.
I'm always looking to rock out. But it isn't really about rocking out versus being mellow, in terms of your personal satisfaction. In the end, you just want to be good. When you look at something that's really good, it might be Iggy Pop or it might be Leonard Cohen. Whatever it is, you want it to be really good.
People have said on blogs - which is kind of where I decide where to describe my style, from other people telling me - so I don't know, people say it's like, "electro-pop with glam and old rock influences." Or it's "indie pop" or whatever that means.
To be honest, for me, my main workout is when I'm on stage. Even though I make pop music, I don't think I perform in the classic 'pop star' sort of way. I'm very active on stage; I always end up dripping in sweat afterwards. It's always like a full-on, wild performance, so that's pretty much like my exercise, I would say.
I became Iggy because I had a sadistic boss at a record store. I'd been in a band called the Iguanas. And when this boss wanted to embarrass and demean me, he'd say, 'Iggy, get me a coffee, light.'