(Credits: Far Out / Alamy / Gorup de Besanez)
Wed 17 December 2025 13:00, UK
Some of the greatest rock and roll songs of all time have come from the combination of The Rolling Stones and copious amounts of alcohol, but, seemingly, the musical mastery brought about by that hedonistic mix is not limited entirely to the Stones’ own extensive material.
From their early days spent in the dingy R&B nightclubs of London’s backwater, The Rolling Stones always had a penchant for collaboration, whether that involved sharing songs with the likes of The Beatles or simply going out for week-long drinking sessions with any number of now-iconic rock stars.
They were, after all, the rebellious voices of a new generation, so why waste any opportunity to live fast and enjoy themselves – they can’t have imagined that they would still be going over half a century later, mind you.
To their credit – or rather, the credit of their livers – the band managed to keep up their hedonistic lifestyle of rock and roll excess for decades after their 1960s heyday had disappeared from their rear-view mirror. In fact, they became drinking buddies with the next generation of rock and roll rebels, Billy Idol being one key example.
The Rolling Stones were famously resistant towards the emergence of punk rock during the mid-1970s, with Mick Jagger once declaring, “I don’t feel connected with bands like the Clash, the bands that still play every night. I can only see them as repeats of everything that happened before”. Nevertheless, the Stones seemed to make an exception for Idol, who was quickly able to exchange his punk beginnings for a slice of mainstream success.
Eventually, Idol was invited along to a drinking session with Jagger, Keith Richards, and Ron Wood during the early 1980s. Although the Stones had a 20-year head start when it came to training their bodies for heavy drinking, Billy Idol managed to keep up with them, and the drunken antics that ensued paved the way for one of his most iconic tracks, ‘Rebel Yell’.
That lead single, taken from the 1983 album of the same name, owes its title to Rebel Yell bourbon whiskey, which was the tipple of choice for Idol and the Stones on that fateful night. According to Idol, who once spoke about the song’s inspiration on VH1 Storytellers, he had never encountered the Kentucky bourbon before, whereas his rockstar drinking partners were more than familiar with its charm.
Idol, in a rather telling fashion, didn’t delve deep into what he got up to with the Stones after consuming said bourbon, but, regardless, ‘Rebel Yell’ arrived very soon thereafter, continuing his journey from Generation X punk hero to mainstream rock powerhouse.
Not only is ‘Rebel Yell’ among Billy Idol’s greatest efforts, therefore, but it serves as a kind of time capsule for a night when the upper echelon of rock and roll greatness united with the angry young upstarts of the punk age, coming together under a common appreciation of alcohol abuse and cheap American whiskey.
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