It seemed like last summer had new candidates for the American Idol judging gig emerging every week. While Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez were more or less confirmed a while before the actual announcement ceremony, there were rumors that Brett Michaels, Mariah Carey, and Howard Stern, among others, would be taking the place of Simon Cowell, Ellen DeGeneres, and Kara DioGuardi. One name that wasn't really bounced around blog sites and mainstream media recently was confirmed: Iggy Pop.

Yes, he who recently freaked out Jennifer Lopez was once approached by Idol to join the panel, according to Billboard. While Pop maintains that the talks didn't go that far (two phone calls) and that he's still not a big fan of the show, it's still such a bizarre thing to think about. On one hand, it would have been the type of manic energy that the judging panel needs, plus Pop has been around for decades and he must know something we don't about how to make it in the music industry. On the other hand, I'm just not sure how clear his critiques would have been (I know, Paula and to a lesser extent Steven aren't the most lucid judges in the history of reality TV) and how he would have approached the show itself, i.e. whether he would have been genuine or approach it with a sense of contempt.

Pop did get a chance to shake up the Idol stage without having to make the time commitment that Tyler and Lopez have had to make, so I guess he got the best of both worlds. It would be fun for the show to have Pop as a mentor, just to see how he interacts with that season's kids. Who knows? It worked as an audition for Jennifer and it could work just as well for the rock pioneer.

Would you have liked Iggy Pop on the judging panel? How do you think this season would have been different with him? Are you satisfied with the current judging panel?