Rock veteran Iggy Pop is scaling down his tour schedule for the sake of his health after the deaths of his peers Lou Reed and Tommy Ramone.

The Lust for Life hitmaker has been regularly performing energetic shows on stage since the late 1960s but he admits his years of hellraising are starting to take their toll.

His hearing is beginning to fade and he has now decided to limit his live shows, fearing he is "pushing it a little too far" and could become the next rock casualty.

Asked about the death of Reed last year (13) and Ramone's passing in July (14), Pop tells British magazine Seven, "I know. Yeah, I know... and then I'm starting to think... I dunno. I'm not touring at the moment and part of it is, I just had an instinct I could be pushing it a little too far. And also, what happens is, you lose your... your brain."

Asked if his hearing has been affected by his years onstage, he adds, "It's about half-bashed, but not fully bashed. But tinnitus... with the Stooges, I would walk offstage and then it was literally, no matter what you said to me, I'd say, 'What?' It wasn't ringing - I just couldn't hear anything. And it doesn't take a genius to think, well, maybe if I just keep doing this over and over I will lose all my (hearing). But I haven't lost all of this or all of that... Everything kinda functions."