Ahead of the release of a candid new documentary, the former hellraiser talks about fame, excess and near-death experiences alongside his Cork heritage
Billy Idol: ‘Shocking society, being rebellious and loud, that’s part of your MO when you’re 20’. Photo: David Raccuglia
The artist and the act, the persona and the person behind it – these can often be hard to separate.
Billy Idol, for fans in the 1980s, was a kind of cartoonish figure, a playful exaggeration of the ‘punk rocker’ archetype: spiked peroxide hair, leather strides and studded wristbands, omnipresent sneer, with bratty shock-the-parents swagger.