Iggy Pop once offered Blondie vocalist Debbie Harry some “life-changing advice” for surviving the music industry.
The Stooges frontman and music legend had choice words for Harry, who had just released Parallel Lines with Blondie. The advice has stuck with the Hanging on the Telephone hitmaker even now, with two nuggets of wisdom shared by “Mr. Pop” as Harry called him. Those two pieces of advice seem crucial even now, with Harry confirming Pop told her to seek legal advice before making any major decisions and warned there were no freebies in the music industry. Advice from Pop came when Harry, with Blondie, opened for Pop and David Bowie on The Idiot tour. It’s words of wisdom which still hold some importance, with Harry recalling the two crucial rules the Lust for Life hitmaker gave.
Harry would share the road trip she took with Pop and Bowie on their tour probably “changed her” for the better. Speaking of Bowie and Pop’s performances together, Harry said: “There was a certain amount of improvisation in their performances.
“It wasn’t robotic, and the passion was there. Mr. Pop is passionate. It’s pretty obvious he’s kind of a wild guy, but he has standards; he has a controlled madness, and this is what it’s really all about.”
She added: “Experience is everything and I was sort of in an odd position as being a woman in a man’s band, and I tried not to be too coy or too cute — other than the fact that I was cute — but I tried to bring other elements into it. Whether I always achieved that is another story.”
It was during this tour that Pop offered Harry some crucial advice which she still seems to apply now. She said: “His favourite answer to a lot of things was, ‘Well, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.’
“I was very disappointed about that because we were being taken out to lunch a lot, but I understand the underpinnings for that. And then the serious best advice that I got was to get good legal advice.
“I’m not a trained businesswoman, and there are some real complexities with authorship, and publishing and recording, and the different ways that your recordings can be used or sold. So, it’s not as simple as I imagined it would be at one time.”
Though the free lunches and legal advice may be sound thoughts from Pop, it didn’t stop an awkward reunion from Blondie at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It led to a clearly uncomfortable moment on stage, and left one member of the band suggesting it was like they were at their own funeral.
Frank Infante’s speech at the ceremony made it clear he and the former members had wanted to perform, but were unable to. He said: “I’d like to thank the Hall of Fame for inviting us, and for not writing me, Gary and Nigel out of rock ‘n’ roll history. This is like one of the greatest gigs you could do as a musician.
“Actually, one thing that would make it better would be if we could actually perform for you tonight, but for some reason, some of us are not allowed to do that. I don’t know what we could do about that. I’d like to play.” He then turned to Harry and added: “We’d like to play with you guys – me and Nigel. Pretty please! Pretty please, Debbie!”
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