Iggy Pop of The Stooges, Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses all occupied very different areas of rock music. Pop is one of the most well-loved and well-known icons in proto-punk, Smith is a funk rock drum icon, and McKagan was the bassist of hard rock outfit Guns N’ Roses for years. While they’re icons of rock music, they are very different artists from one another. Sometimes, when it comes to collaboration, such differences are a recipe for success.
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Iggy Pop, Chad Smith, and Duff McKagan teamed up back in 2022 for a song called “Frenzy”. Naturally, Smith took on the drums and McKagan took on the bass track. The production effort was also something pretty incredible. The song was produced by the unlikely likes of Ozzy Osbourne, Miley Cyrus, and Post Malone, as well as studio legend Andrew Watt.
The single was a standout release from Pop’s 19th studio album, Every Loser. When asked about the album, Pop was frank about the fact that it was a match made in heaven. Not only did Andrew Watt produce the whole of the album, but Chad Smith, Duff McKagan, and Josh Klinghoffer (also of Red Hot Chili Peppers) lent their instrumental talents to multiple songs.
“I’m the guy with no shirt who rocks,” said Pop, very accurately. “Andrew and Gold Tooth [label] get that, and we made a record together the old-fashioned way. The players are guys I’ve known since they were kids and the music will beat the shit out of you.”
“Frenzy” Was a Total Jam Back in 2022
“Frenzy” is a killer song on an also killer album. It’s raw and energetic, to say the least. It has all of the solid rock elements found on the rest of the album. There’s some punk rock, an alt-rock edge, with some spoken word elements here and there.
“Frenzy” and Every Loser got quite a bit of critical acclaim when it was released. Robin Murray of Clash Music called the song a “surge of electricity,” and Daniel Kreps of Rolling Stone called it a reignition of “proto-punk fire.”
When promoting the song and its album, Pop announced that the tour in promotion of the record would feature a band called The Losers. The band featured Smith, McKagan, Klinghoffer, and Watt. It was a killer tour packed with rock icons. We could stand to see more collaborative efforts among the greats of rock more often.
Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images
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