Iggy Pop has had his fair share of automotive mishaps.

Scrap that: Iggy Pop has had his share, your share, my share and a few other shares of automotive mishaps. He’s had a Rolls-Royce burst into flames while he was sitting in it. He’s flipped a car at high speed, driven another straight off the road and into a Christmas tree plantation, and been done for going three times the speed limit straight through a red light. Mind you, the world makes sense that way. It would be unthinkable to discover that Iggy Pop drove a sensible family saloon and was an obsessive for traffic laws.

In spite of his myriad motoring mishaps, Pop has an enduring love of cars. He approaches the subject with the zeal of a relatively recent convert, having only discovered his passion at the age of 44. Mind you, he’s made up for lost time since, hurling himself into automotive acquisition with an unmistakable lust for life. Just as well – you can’t spend your whole life being a passenger.

1956 Chevy Nomad

© Philip Pilosian

Pop, or rather plain old James Osterberg Jr as he then was, bought his first car when he was still at high school, where he was already making money from music. "I'd been a working, gainfully employed musician since I was a sophomore, so I bought it with my music money, baby, yeah!" He opted for a red 1956 Chevy Nomad. With a V8, 4.3L engine, marketed as “The Hot One”. Back then, driver education was part of the curriculum (lucky bleeders), including safety tips. "They showed you all the scary pictures of what could happen if you don't do what they say." Sadly, it appears (possibly not for the first time) that Pop wasn’t the model student. He ended up crashing his Nomad after driving too fast on a gravel road in his home state of Michigan. "It was on an elevated stretch of gravel road, and I lost control on a curve" he says. "I had a girlfriend with me, too, and we went flying off the road, and everything went slo-mo. We flipped and came down. No seatbelts, you know, kids, and we came down hard on the top of the car, and amazingly we both walked away. No one was hurt, not a scratch. The car was totalled. So that was end of that."

1992 Ford Bronco

After the Nomad, Pop didn’t buy another car until he was 44, a result of a peripatetic musician’s lifestyle. "I never owned anything," he says. "I just lived out of a bag in the large cities of the world, and if I left the big city, I would rent." And when it actually came to acquiring his Ford Bronco, in 1991, it was Pop’s manager who did the buying. Pop freely admits that he had no ability or inclination to do things for himself back then, when someone else could do it for him. When he took delivery of the Bronco, he loaded it up and drove from LA to Mexico. "It never let me down," he says. "It was wonderful." Pop had the Bronco for about 15 years until he moved to Miami. Then the fun really started.

2009 Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead

© National Motor Museum/Shutterstock

Today, Pop drives a chopped Rolls-Royce he bought from a guy in Utah, giving it more of what Pop calls a “gangster-look”. It is the latest in a long line of Rolls’ Pop has owned, after he decided that sports cars were wasted on Miami’s congested streets. "I got it because there was a population boom in Miami, and so I didn't have room to drive my Ferrari properly anymore," he says. "The areas of Miami that I frequent, they're popular places to be, so the traffic is enormous." Also, years of stage-diving and crowd-surfing may be starting to take their toll. "It's great for my back. If you have bad back, buy a Rolls.” Your standard Phantom Drophead will set you back around half a million bucks, but thanks for the tip, Iggy. Duly noted.

1984 Ferrari 308 GTS

© Radoslaw Lecyk

When Pop first moved to Miami, he bought an old electric blue 1984 Ferrari 308 GTS from a used car dealership. "They ran a classified ad, and when I got the papers, the last owner was John Malkovich.” He doesn’t know if it’s that John Malkovich, but as he says, “it's a very unusual name". He instantly fell in love. "It was a wonderful car. Whenever I wanted to blow off steam, I'd just race around the freeways here.” Later on, he traded up to a newer model, but he still hankers after the older version: “Whatever you did, it instantly did, whereas the newer ones they have the computer to help you." Iggy sold his Ferrari 308 in 2002 after a 100mph run-in with the cops. “I drove the shit outta that car. Then I thought something terrible’s gonna happen, so I got rid of it.”

1966 Jeepster Commando

The fascinating thing about Pop’s taste in cars is how diverse it is, encompassing 1950s Detroit classics, luxury Rollers and prancing ponies. And then there’s this charismatic little number – canary yellow, with red hot-rod flames along the sides, and huge chrome wheels. It’s not exactly understated – but then look at its owner. Perhaps this is why it has an enduring place in its former owner’s affections. “Oh, it was so cool that car. It was really, really cool.” He should know.

1980 Rolls-Royce Corniche convertible

Pop’s first Rolls-Royce was a canary yellow 1980 Corniche convertible, which he loved. Right up until the moment it became distinctly less-lovable – as a pile of charred and melted metal by the side of the road near Miami Beach. “The thing caught a nasty fire,” recalls Iggy, who was listening to the Beatles’ Rubber Soul at the time and hadn’t noticed the smoke creeping from under the bonnet. “The fire department had to hack their way through the hood.”

Lincoln Continental

The final car in this list is actually one that Pop didn’t own. Hell, he never even drove it. But it probably holds more significance for him than any other car on the list. In 1976, Pop accompanied David Bowie on the North American leg of his Station To Station tour. "We went by road, coast to coast, all of America and part of Canada. He had a chauffeur-driven Lincoln Continental, the same car that's in the movie The Man Who Fell to Earth.” Inside the midnight blue Continental was a chauffeur, Bowie, Pop, another friend, a record player, and a load of records. "I saw a lot of scenery… I saw a lot of America by night and heard a lot of good music." After Bowie died in 2016, Pop revealed that their time together had a life-changing impact. “He salvaged me from certain professional and maybe personal annihilation — simple as that.”

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