![\"English](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/a065a914-c8f8-4716-83ee-ebae57c1e4fe.jpg\")
Kim Wilde in 1987Getty images<\/p>\nKim<\/p>\n
Because Dad had been a rock star, people assumed we were millionaires. Sorry to disappoint you, but my early childhood was spent in a suburban semi in Greenwich, south London. By the time I was born in 1960, Dad\u2019s hits had tailed off and he hadn\u2019t even seen much of the money he\u2019d made in the Fifties. Like lots of young singers, he was ripped off. Other dads were plumbers or mechanics, but my dad earned his money by doing a summer season performing in Clacton or Brighton. A lot of guys would have gone to pieces \u2014 you\u2019re a big star and suddenly it\u2019s all over. I\u2019m proud of how Dad handled that. He kept touring to ensure we were OK.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was only in 1968 that things started to change. Dad was writing songs for other artists \u2014 Jesamine by the Casuals was huge all over the world \u2014 and he suddenly had a big payday. We all jumped into the car and Dad showed us a chocolate-box thatched cottage in the Hertfordshire countryside. This was our new home.<\/p>\n
He never sat there thinking success made him special. It was just a job. Mind you, a lot of that level-headedness comes from Mum, Joyce. They were both ridiculously young parents: Dad was 21, Mum was 19. She was a pop star too, and was part of Britain\u2019s first all-female rock\u2019n\u2019roll band, the Vernons Girls. Thankfully, she\u2019s also a great organiser. While Dad was entertaining \u2014 the big, beautiful kite flying across the sky \u2014 Mum was the one who kept him anchored in reality. Falling in love with Mum changed his life and probably saved it too.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kim Wilde in 1987Getty images<\/p>\n
Yes, Dad had a rebellious image \u2014 one of his hits was called Bad Boy! \u2014 but I can assure you he was not like that in real life. None of the \u201ccraziness\u201d you get with rock\u2019n\u2019roll, no drugs, no TVs in the swimming pool. And maybe that\u2019s the reason I never went down that path. What did I have to rebel against? Even when punk and new wave came along, Dad was listening to the same music and going to the same gigs that I was. He was the one bringing home albums by the Clash and Kraftwerk, turning the stereo up full blast.<\/p>\n
Dad often says that he wishes he\u2019d pushed me more at school, but our education \u2014 me, my sister and two brothers \u2014 was happening away from the classroom. Music was the glue that held us all so close, but it was also how we accessed the world: driving back from a show with Dad, listening to him talk about Elvis and Frank Sinatra or playing Mike Oldfield\u2019s Tubular Bells. I would tilt the seat back and drift off with this space-age music drifting through my head.<\/p>\n
And it was Dad \u2014 along with my brother Ricky \u2014 who totally changed my life by writing Kids in America. It was my debut single in 1981 and went to No 2 in the charts. Although Dad knew there was a darker side to the music business, I never felt he was worried about me becoming \u201cfamous\u201d. Did blokes try it on? Course they did! I remember doing a TV thing in Europe and Lemmy from Mot\u00f6rhead marched into my dressing room. He propped his cowboy boots on the table, opened a bottle of vodka and poured me the best part of half a pint. \u201cHave a drink!\u201d In the end he was lovely. Plus, Dad had created this protective cocoon around me; Ricky was in my band, Mum and Dad would often be backstage or Dad organised a minder.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Had you told me back then that both me and Dad would still be touring and releasing new music in 2026, I wouldn\u2019t have believed you. But Dad is a sturdy old fella. He still drives himself to gigs, makes me laugh and he\u2019s still in love with music. And he has the record player on full blast now because he\u2019s slightly deaf.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"NINTCHDBPICT001073327627\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/9514b796-ac1d-419d-9d16-9b1c903bf965.jpg\")
Father and daughter in 1961<\/p>\n
Marty<\/p>\n
I was an immature kid. I\u2019d signed a record deal in 1957 aged 17, my picture was in the papers and I had a few quid in the bank. I was silly with money. I remember buying a new pink Vauxhall Cresta and selling it the next day because I\u2019d banged my knee on the steering wheel.<\/p>\n
Even becoming a dad didn\u2019t change me that much. I wasn\u2019t at Kim\u2019s birth. The doctors called from the hospital. \u201cCongratulations! It\u2019s a girl!\u201d To my eternal regret, I hardly saw anything of my four kids growing up. Even today, when I see a young couple out pushing a pram, it breaks my heart. I missed all that; the first steps, the first laugh. Yes, I\u2019m a grandad to eleven and great-grandad to three and I love them to bits, but I wish I\u2019d made more of an effort with my four. I don\u2019t think I was a particularly good father during those early years.<\/p>\n
Maybe music has to take over your life. It felt like that when I was in a south London cinema in 1955 watching Blackboard Jungle, hearing Rock Around the Clock for the first time. It was like getting smacked on the back of the head with a brick. My first hit single was Endless Sleep in 1958. And then I got to meet a lot of those guys, working with Jerry Lee Lewis, Eddie Cochran and Johnny Cash. Johnny was like a modern-day gunfighter. I\u2019m tall but he towered over me, dressed in black. And that deep voice: \u201cHi, Marty. I\u2019m Johnny Cash.\u201d<\/p>\n
My career was in the doldrums by the early Sixties when Kim was born. I was having to take any old work that was offered, a few shows here and there. Promoters knew I was struggling and they took advantage, paying me a pittance. It was tough, but Joyce kept everything ticking along. Without her I\u2019d be in some care home, telling the other residents I used to be Marty Wilde.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rock\u2019n\u2019roll marriages don\u2019t always last. So how have we managed over 66 years? I\u2019m not saying that every day was perfect. Joyce had a fiery temper and so did I. We had some right old rows and wouldn\u2019t speak to each other for days. But the simple thing is that I am still madly in love with her. The thought of her walking into a room on the arm of another man would kill me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kim was doing some backing vocals for me, so the idea of her making a record must have been floating around. Rock music had been dominated by blokes, but the Eighties changed all that. Then Kim\u2019s on Top of the Pops, looking like a punky Brigitte Bardot. What made me most proud was she never changed. Even when she was No 1 in the US and all over Europe, there was no celebrity palaver. She\u2019d still pop out to get us a bit of shopping. Then she\u2019d be off to play Wembley Arena!\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s funny, really. I\u2019ve made a few mistakes over the years and not been the man I hoped I would be, but music has always been there to rescue me. It\u2019s the thing that\u2019s guided this family and given me a lifetime of joy.
Marty Wilde\u2019s album Let\u2019s Rock the Place is out now. He is touring throughout the year. Kim Wilde\u2019s Singles tour begins next spring<\/p>\n
Strange habits\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kim on Marty\u00a0
He rewrites the lyrics of songs. As a kid, I\u2019ll never forget him singing, to the tune of Wand\u2019rin\u2019 Star: \u201cI was born under an elephant\u2019s bum\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Marty on Kim\u00a0
We watched the moon landing in 1969 and the Artemis II lunar flyby together. We\u2019re both space buffs and, yes, both believe in alien life<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kim Because Dad had been a rock star, people assumed we were millionaires. Sorry to disappoint you, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-426825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}