Iggy Pop Recalls Turning Down AC/DC Audition

Iggy Pop was once asked about joining AC/DC as its new lead singer, but turned down the opportunity without a second thought.

In a recent conversation with the New York Times, Pop didn't specify when the opportunity presented itself, though he suggested that it was following Bon Scott's death in 1980.

"They had a manager many years ago, when I hadn't reformed the Stooges, I hadn't moved to England," he recalled. "And this guy said, 'Are you interested in joining AC/DC?' They were looking for a singer."

While Pop relocated to London in 1972, AC/DC didn't form until the following year and didn't release its debut album until 1975. On the other hand, after Scott's death in early-1980, AC/DC famously considered a litany of options before settling on Brian Johnson, who featured on the band's breakthrough album, Back in Black.

Pop implied that he was unfamiliar with AC/DC at the time their manager approached him, but after hearing the band he was convinced the gig wasn't for him.

"I listened to their record," he continued. "I thought, I can't fit that bill. I wasn't like, 'Ugh, I don't like them.' It was quite well made. They do careful work, but I'm not what they needed."

Pop and Scott were photographed together backstage at the Whiskey A Go-Go in Los Angeles circa 1977, though Pop has no memory of the encounter — something he attributes to being "drunk and stoned" at the time.

Johnson himself has a clear memory of his first encounter and audition with AC/DC. He was so over-the-moon to be offered the job that he asked guitarist Malcolm Young to call him a second time to prove that he wasn't imagining it.