It's one of life's perfect ironies that the man who documented some of the greatest moments in rock history shares a name with the genre. Fresh out of Cambridge, Mick Rock began shooting on a lark, shooting friends such as Syd Barrett, and soon hanging out in the glam scene and immortalizing a then largely unknown David Bowie as he brought Ziggy Stardust to life. By 1972 Rock had forged an official relationship with Bowie as his photographer, creating album sleeves, posters, films and artwork for Bowie at the apex of his creativity.

This led in turn to Rock's working with Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and Queen -- Rock shot, among many other images, the iconic covers of Reed's Transformers, Pop's Raw Power (with the Stooges) and Queen's famous Queen II. Relocating to New York City in 1977 -- just after capturing the most infamous images of the Sex Pistols -- Rock quickly became sought after in the burgeoning punk scene, shooting beloved pictures of Blondie, the Ramones, the Talking Heads and, a few years later, Joan Jett (including the I Love Rock n' Roll cover photo). He has never stopped shooting the coolest rockers since; his amazing body of work garnered the BBC's vote as best gallery exhibition of 2005 when Manchester's Urbis mounted a show of his photos called "Rock and Roll Icons." Rock has shot our music fashion feature in the annual music issue for four years running.

PLAYBOY: You've shot some of the most famous images of Iggy -- going all the way back to his earliest days with the Stooges. Tell us the story behind your relationship with Iggy.

ROCK: We met in 1972 through David Bowie. It was that summer of 1972, and it was Lou Reed, David Bowie and Iggy fomenting all kinds of strangeness in London. There is a famous party picture of those three. I shot that photo of the three of them and around that time there were the "Raw Power" sessions. And of course I have a book called Raw Power, featuring my pictures of Iggy and the Stooges. That came out a couple years ago and he wrote the forward. Over the years we've seen each other occasionally, but truth be told it was about 23 years since I'd last shot him. But you could see the warmth when we were together on the shoot.

PLAYBOY: How have the two of you changed?

ROCK: We both know a lot more and we're both less maniacal. I didn't spend as much time with him as I did with Bowie or Lou Reed, but I was in awe of the power of his creativity. He had two albums back then that you couldn't give away and Raw Power was a complete dud and took 25 years to recoup, but he was a force of nature and still is. Iggy is a gentlemen and he likes people who are polite. But when he hits the stage the animal power comes out in him. He is still one of the great performers of all time -- and this is a guy I shot 30 years ago, a guy of 60 now.

PLAYBOY: How is Iggy as a subject?

ROCK: He is as good as it gets. He was then and he is now the finest subject you will find. He has this incredible organic presence and he's a lovely soul. He was broke for many years and he paid his dues over and over, but he was also a wild man. We were all living 30 years ahead of our time. I thought then -- and maybe David and Lou and Iggy thought so as well -- that those were the last days of rock and roll that we were acting out. But of course it wasn't quite the last days, as it is still limping along at this stage of the game.

PLAYBOY: How do you compare those guys with today's acts?

ROCK: Well there is less ground to break. They were groundbreaking artists. Rock was still a renegade art form then, but now it's been sucked into the established order. There are still great performers out there, and Iggy is one of them. I love when he hits that stage: you can still feel that menace, that unpredictability. And of course he was and remains more punk than any of the punk bands that came subsequently. There is a reason he's known as the godfather of punk. He deserves the respect he gets today, which he didn't get back then. The great thing is that he is playing with the Stooges again. He is playing with the Ashton brothers again. There is something about the vibe of them playing together. When we were shooting together for Rock the Rabbit, I said, "This is your best lineup." He said "These guys have actually gotten better."

PLAYBOY: And as you said, Iggy's as good as ever, too.

ROCK: He can still turn it on. He taps back into that same energy that he had all those years ago.

PLAYBOY: Your shoots are notorious. How do you loosen up a band that's never been through the Mick Rock experience?

ROCK: First of all, I make sure that I am loose. If I'm loose I can impart some of that energy. You've seen these shoots -- it's not an intellectual process, it's all about energy and intuition. The more I throw around my energy the looser people become. Duran Duran started a little slow, but by the end they were galvanized. Hot Chip and the Shins eventually got it. Mr. Gogol -- Eugene Hutz -- got it from the get-go. He was more of the Iggy school. I'm sure Eugene was inspired by Iggy. He embraces the raw power of Iggy and the Stooges and it manifests itself in his performances.

PLAYBOY: What was your perspective on this year's Rock the Rabbit bands?

ROCK: It was an interesting line-up. You had the classic punk in Iggy. The Duran Duran boys were the kings of the New Romantics when they came out. You've got to take your hat off to the Durans. Here they are again and they're great -- when they pull it together they still look like the fantasy they projected all those years ago. The Shins and Hot Chip are very hip and of the time and of the hour. In some ways the hardest band to shoot was Daft Punk because I couldn't see their faces. A lot of the way I work is about the interaction. Obviously I had to modify my approach. Having talked to them after the shoot, I was impressed with how modest their demeanor was. After all Daft Punk are the biggest French act in the business today. And they're also very cerebral. It was a great line-up.