Punk icon Iggy Pop has released his latest album online after record label bosses shunned the new work fearing it would flop.
The Lust For Life singer has moved from rocker to crooner for his new record, titled Apres, which is made up of French-language covers of artists including Serge Gainsbourg, Edith Piaf and Georges Brassens.
He is selling the album in digital form online and as a CD on French website called Vente-privee.com after he struggled to impress major record companies.
Speaking at a Paris press conference to launch the record, he said, "They would have preferred that I do a rock album with popular punks... I was not going to do that! What has a record company ever done for me but humiliate and torment and drag me down? They didn't want it. They didn't think they would make any money, they didn't think my fans would like it."
Iggy Pop now might continue to go alone for future records: "I've always had a very rough time in the big time music business. I got kicked off every label."