IGGY POP’snew album is a reassertion of his punk rock id,facing down the fakers, “sicios” and “bougie dicks” aller a Phase of snmhre rellection.It’s the latest kink in a contrary solo career that began with Bowie and survived smack, Soldier, and Elton in an ape suit. “I iry to avoid the Professionals,” he informs TOM DOYLE.

“A lot of the real hardcore punk people are like 60, 65, 70 years old”: Iggy Pop, shot by Bryan Adams for the 2022 Pirelli Calendar.

Photograph: BRYAN ADAMS

IGGY POP HAS A RECURRING NIGHTMARE.

“I’m alone,” he says, “often barefoot and dirty. Maybe with like one or two dollars and some change in my pocket. I’m in some strange city, but there are no other people. And I want to get in a shelter somewhere, but there are no knobs on the doors.”

In another variant of this unnerving scenario, the singer finds himself stuck in an old folks’ home, broke and decrepit and sitting around all day wearing a moth-eaten dressing gown, waiting for someone to come and visit him.

“Yeah, I still have that one,” he drily chuckles. “You see that in this business all the time. People who one day seem to be very, very, very wealthy and all-powerful. Then, ka-bing ka-bang ka-boom, things can go wrong. Y’know, I’ve taken a lot of risk in my life.”

A psychologist would likely diagnose these night-time visions as post-traumatic side-effects of a life spent on the edge of the edge. Luckily for Pop, then, he woke up this morning in his own little corner of paradise: his home, nestled among trees in the village of El Portal on the northern fringe of Miami.

“I had a triple espresso in bed, hopped in a hot jacuzzi thing, then got in the pool to wash that off,” he reports of his day so far. “I combed my hair on the terrace, played with my cockatoo [Pop’s handsome, music-loving cockatoo, Biggy Pop, is a YouTube hit] and then I looked at the new releases in the UK, ’cos it’s Friday.”

Routine that keeps the Popbod stage-ready: 20 minutes of Qigong deep breathing, 20 sit-ups (“because I’ve got a little happiness belly!”) then a cup of yoghurt and some pistachios and macadamia nuts for breakfast. Next stop: a beach frequented by locals, unknown to tourists.

“I swam around a buoy there, out about 100 metres,” he says. “And there’s usually a loon on top of the buoy that looks at me. Then I taped a radio show [BBC Radio 6 Music’s Iggy Confidential] and now I’m talking to you.”

That’s quite an involved morning, and a very detailed description of it, too, MOJO notes.

“Well, once people get to my vintage,” Pop drawls in his familiar basso profundo, “they tend to go on a bit.” He erupts into surprisingly high-pitched laughter. “I know that.”

Bryan Adams/Pirelli/MEGA

Neighbourhood threat: (clockwise) Iggy lusts for life, Hilversum, Netherlands, September 13, 1977;

Pop stars on a couch alongside Bill Wyman and Elton John, 1975;

Getting his kicks in Kensington, June 1981;

Working through Post Pop Depression with Josh Homme in Paris, May 15, 2016.

Avalon.red, Getty