In the early 1970s, Iggy Pop was completely out of his head on drugs. After an arrest, a judge gave him a choice: jail or commitment to a mental health facility. That’s how he ended up in UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute ward in 1975.
Doctor Murray Zucker diagnosed Iggy with hypomania, which is a form of bipolar disorder. His only visitor was his friend David Bowie, who was having his own drug and alcohol issues.
One day, Bowie was meeting with Ola Hudson, his LA-based costume designer. “I’m going to visit my friend Iggy,” he said. “Can I take your 10-year-old son with me?” Ola thought it might be a good lesson for her boy, Saul. It’ll scare him straight, so she said yes.
That kid grew up to be Slash of Guns N’ Roses. Obviously, the visit to Iggy had exactly the opposite effect on young Slash, didn’t it?
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