Punk icon Iggy Pop plans new album with rocker Homme
Punk icon Iggy Pop on Friday unveiled his latest project -- a reflective album in collaboration with garage rocker Josh Homme.
The duo debuted their joint act on CBS television's "Late Show with Stephen Colbert," performing a song entitled "Gardenia" in which Pop sings a tale of a decrepit motel in the underbelly of America set to Homme's hard guitar.
The song is the first track off "Post Pop Depression," an album by the two rockers that will come out March 18.
The artists said that Pop reached out and the two recorded together in Joshua Tree in the California desert, Homme's home.
"I proposed to him by text from my flip phone," the 68-year-old Pop told the talk show when asked how he started working with Homme.
Pop was one of leading American figures in the punk movement, offering raw energy in his vocals and notoriously sweaty live performances with works such as the 1977 album "Lust for Life."
Homme, 42, is a prominent force in California's desert rock scene, which combines hard guitar and an irreverent attitude.
Homme is the frontman of Queens of the Stone Age and co-founder of Eagles of Death Metal, although he was not present when the latter band's show was attacked on November 13 in Paris by Islamist extremists, killing 90 people as part of a coordinated assault.
Homme, speaking to The New York Times about the new album, said that he focused on his project with Pop, a longtime inspiration to him, after the tragedy.
"The fact that I had this to work on, it saved me," he told the newspaper.
The rockers in the interview said that the album was a thorough collaboration but that it was an especially introspective album for Pop.
"This is a much deserved victory lap for a man who's not sure if he won," Homme said.
Pop told the newspaper that the album's theme was: "What happens after your years of service? And where is the honor?"
Pop has seen a resurgence of activity in recent years. His last album, "Ready to Die," came out in 2013 and marked the return of his old band The Stooges.
The new album was announced days after the death of music legend David Bowie, a close friend of Pop who worked with him on some of his best-known works including "Lust for Life."