Why Glen Matlock got tired of seeing Iggy Pop in the nude: “It’s not that impressive”
As a former member of the Sex Pistols, you’d think that bassist and songwriter Glen Matlock was rather used to seeing plenty of depraved antics. Given that the band were a bunch of punk provocateurs who relished their status as the bad boys of British music, constantly courting controversy for their words and actions, Matlock would be no stranger to this sort of degenerate behaviour.
However, Matlock was perhaps the most reserved of the bunch, and seeing as he departed the band after growing tired of their incessant unruliness, perhaps he was never as on board with their reign of terror that they imposed on their audiences. Matlock was the member who brought some sense of stability to an otherwise volatile group, and when they replaced him with the drug-addled and musically incompetent Sid Vicious, it was inevitable that things would fall apart without his comparatively mature presence.
It wasn’t during his time with the Pistols that he saw the most egregious displays of a person debasing themselves on stage, though. A few years after the group had inevitably disbanded, he would go on to work with some other performers who had a penchant for shocking their audiences with some decidedly risqué behaviour.
In 1980, Matlock worked alongside Iggy Pop on his fourth solo album, Soldier, helping the former Stooges frontman pen many of the songs on the album as well as providing bass and backing vocals for him. Given his heavy involvement with the record, Iggy also invited him to become a part of his backing band during this period, which was where he was subjected to even more abhorrent acts on a nightly basis.
In a 2023 interview with The Times, Matlock briefly reflected upon his time performing with the Detroit garage rock icon. While he wasn’t necessarily disparaging about his time performing alongside the frontman, he stated that he rapidly grew tired of his on-stage antics, especially considering it meant that he was confronted with the unwelcome sight of the singer’s genitals during virtually every show.
Speaking about his discomfort at having to share the stage with an additional member, Matlock recalled how the prank wore thin for him: “The problem with flashing your willy on stage is that you have to get ready to flash your willy on stage, and he always did it in front of me,” Matlock reluctantly stated. In addition to it being a tiresome gag, Matlock said that the spectacle didn’t even offer much in the way of titillation. “I got a bit fed up with seeing it, to be honest,” he continued. “It’s not that impressive.”
While Iggy was known for having enjoyed exposing himself on stage, and Matlock ought to have been well aware of this, it’s understandable that he was less than impressed with the thought of having to see him strip off every night for months on end. Iggy Pop has now seemingly grown out of this stunt, though, and that’s probably for the best, as I’m sure many more people besides Glen Matlock would voice their displeasure at having to look at his shrivelled todger.
