Madonna put some luster back into her lust by smooching Britney.
Santana gained a fresh perspective with Matchbox Twenty's Rob Thomas.
Now the bratty, lovable punks of Sum 41 could put Pop on pop radio.
Rock legend Iggy Pop recruited Sum
41 for "Little Know It All," the
melodic, rambunctious first single from Skull Ring, due November
4 (see "Iggy And The Stooges Record Together; Green Day, Sum 41 Also
Lend Hand For Pop's LP") Iggy took a shine to
Sum frontman Deryck Whibley right away when the two parties met at the
recommendation of Pop's A&R man. In addition to admiring Whibley's
talent, Iggy got a kick out of the Canadian rocker's youthful zeal.
"He's a damn nice guy, but he's very 'girls, vodka, girls, guitars,
girls, vodka,'" mused Pop. "We've performed together a few times, and
they'll always say, 'Are you going to the after-show party, man?' And I
say, 'Well, no. I got a great girlfriend. It's getting late. I'm 56,
guys. I gotta get up in the morning.' "
The age gap was a temporary obstacle. Sum wanted to write a song that
the rock legend could relate to, while Iggy wanted to come up with
lyrics that would work with the band's brand of radio-friendly,
metallic punk.
"They tried to [reference] something that was historical," recalled
Pop. "But the most historical thing they could reference was early
Social Distortion, which was the '80s. I'd already been at it two
decades by then. But what they wrote was good. And I had a similar
problem with the lyrics, so I tried to write a lyric from their point
of view.
"I tried to remember how I felt when I was a kid and how the kid in me
still feels," he added, contorting his features into an exaggerated
pout. "'Oh, nobody really knows me. Nobody really listens to me. I
think I know better. There are some things I deeply feel, but I know in
a lot of ways that I'm full of sh--.' So that's why I called it 'Little
Know It All.'"
Two days after Pop performed at April's Coachella festival, he entered
the studio with Sum 41 and they quickly recorded the song. He was
impressed with how tight and efficient the band was in a recording
environment and said the door is open to future collaborations.
"They're a real smooth machine and they're heartwarming to work with,"
Iggy said. "I got excited by what they did, and my vocal went well. You
could feel the energy in the room. And Deryck sang beautifully on it.
He sounded like a beat-up choirboy."
The video for "Little Know It All" was directed by Manny Rodriguez and
features mostly performance footage interspersed with shots of Iggy and
Sum 41 playing pool. The clip goes to video channels next week, while
the happy team will reconvene on November 5 to play "The Late Show With
David Letterman."
This report is from MTV News.
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