7 Rock Legends Who Really Have No Business Still Being Alive

7. Iggy Pop

Born: 21 April 1947; Muskegon, Michigan Career Highlights: Co-founder and lead screamer of The Stooges, who were either the first punk band or the first garage rock band, or both depending on which side of that tiresome and long-running semantic slanging match you happen to be on. But if anything can be safely and inarguably said about the Stooges, it is this: no band ever wielded such wide-ranging influence while selling so few records. Together for only six years and three albums, Iggy Pop and his bandmates had no reason to think at the time of their breakup in 1974 that they'd be fondly remembered by anyone. But in the latter part of the '70s, when punk became commercially viable and bands began pointing to them as an influence, The Stooges began a retroactive upward arc of artistic credibility that has not waned to this day. Notable Addictions: Heroin, Cocaine, Alcohol, Not Wearing a Shirt. Why He Should Be Dead: Iggy Pop is the youngest entrant on this list at age 66, in spite of his extensive and well-documented efforts to kill himself far sooner. "I did really debauch myself to achieve a visual at the time," says Pop, freely admitting that his drug intake had as much to do with creating an aesthetic €“ one can almost hear the punk purists gasping in outrage €“ as it did with getting high. Sober now for over 20 years, Pop now gets his highs from daily sessions of yoga and something called Qiqong, which is presumably cheaper than heroin.