Iggy Pop pranked by Elton John in a gorilla suit

Iggy Pop says Elton John once terrorised him in a gorilla suit.

The 75-year-old rokc star – whose real name is James Newell Osterberg Jr – recalled the “funny” time in 1973 when ‘Your Song’ hitmaker Elton, 75, donned a “huge” costume while he was “really out of it” and gave him a shock.

He told Mojo magazine: “I was really out of it. I’d done too much on the downside the night before, so I had to be injected madly to get to the point where I could just barely stand up straight and hold the mike. And then I saw this gorilla. I realised it wasn’t a real gorilla, but anyone who puts on a gorilla suit looks huge.”

The ‘Passenger’ singer went on to admit that he felt as if the ‘gorilla’ could “kill” him as he had no clue that it was Elton.

He said: “You don’t know who’s in there. It could be Billy Bob and he’s going to kill me.”

However, the former Stooges frontman soon realised it was the ‘Crocodile Rock’ legend himself -whose real name is Reginald Dwight -playing a trick on him.

Iggy said: “He just picked me up for a little bit and gave me a little carry around. It was very funny.”

Meanwhile, the BBC 6 Music presenter feels his career – which has spanned more than five decades – has become “physically harder” but as time has gone on but has also become “easier” in all other aspects.

Iggy said: “It’s physically harder but, mentally and emotionally, which is the bigger part of life, it’s gotten much, much easier. Because the big problem before was the size of career, size of audience. How many units are you generating? How many people are listening? When your size isn’t big enough, you get all sorts of pushback from the world in general, and from the inner layers of the industry.

“But everything kind of added up and I have a lot of records out there. They all sell.”