Skip to main content

Wealth & Money Quote by Iggy Pop

"Look, you're here to see me, and I can't go on until my dealer is here, and he's waiting to be paid, so give me some money so I can fix up, and then you'll get your show"

About this Quote

Nobody punctured rock-star mystique quite like Iggy Pop admitting, onstage, that the show is being held hostage by his own need. It’s not an apology, it’s a transaction laid bare: you didn’t come for art in the abstract, you came for me, and “me” requires fuel. The bluntness is the point. Where most performers wrap dependency in legend or shame, Iggy weaponizes candor as a kind of anti-glamour glamour.

The phrasing is almost customer-service hostile: “you’re here to see me” establishes leverage, then “I can’t go on” turns that leverage into a toll booth. The dealer’s presence in the narrative is key. He’s not a shadowy offstage figure; he’s a business partner, waiting to be paid like a contractor. That detail strips the counterculture fantasy down to its supply chain. Rock isn’t just rebellion; it’s logistics.

Subtext-wise, Iggy turns the audience into accomplices. If they pay, they’ve crossed from consumers to participants in the machinery that produces the performance. That’s why it lands with a queasy punch: the crowd’s desire for transcendence is rerouted into a cash-in-hand solution to a very earthly problem. It’s also a perverse kind of honesty about the era’s live-music economy, where the body onstage is the product and self-destruction is part of the brand.

Most artists sell you a dream. Iggy sells you the invoice, then dares you to keep wanting it.

Quote Details

TopicMusic
SourceHelp us find the source
Cite

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Pop, Iggy. (2026, January 16). Look, you're here to see me, and I can't go on until my dealer is here, and he's waiting to be paid, so give me some money so I can fix up, and then you'll get your show. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/look-youre-here-to-see-me-and-i-cant-go-on-until-121365/

Chicago Style
Pop, Iggy. "Look, you're here to see me, and I can't go on until my dealer is here, and he's waiting to be paid, so give me some money so I can fix up, and then you'll get your show." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/look-youre-here-to-see-me-and-i-cant-go-on-until-121365/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Look, you're here to see me, and I can't go on until my dealer is here, and he's waiting to be paid, so give me some money so I can fix up, and then you'll get your show." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/look-youre-here-to-see-me-and-i-cant-go-on-until-121365/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Iggy Add to List
Iggy Pop: Addiction and the Economics of Performance
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

Iggy Pop

Iggy Pop (born April 21, 1947) is a Musician from USA.

10 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes

Knute Rockne, Coach