{"id":620904,"date":"2026-05-03T10:50:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T10:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/620904\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T10:50:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T10:50:18","slug":"billy-idol-interview-religion-addiction-and-almost-losing-a-leg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/620904\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Idol interview: religion, addiction and almost losing a leg"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inspired into action upon witnessing the Sex Pistols<\/a>, English-degree student William Broad entered the embryonic 1970s punk scene as guitarist with the band Chelsea, before swapping specs for contacts, bleaching his hair and recasting himself as Billy Idol<\/a>: smouldering, Smash Hits-friendly frontman with Generation X.<\/p>\n

After sneering his way into the nation\u2019s hearts and charts via Top Of The Pops, Idol enjoyed significant success with Gen X, before decamping to New York and reinventing himself as a solo artist for the MTV generation, with the assistance of producer Keith Forsey and guitarist Steve Stevens.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Hitting on a perfect blend of punk attitude, rock sonics and 1980s dance, Idol enjoyed a string of hits \u2013 including White Wedding, Rebel Yell, Eyes Without A Face and Flesh For Fantasy \u2013 that established him as a major star on both sides of the Atlantic, scoring Top 10 hits in both the UK and USA, only for a serious motorcycle accident and an extended flirtation with chemicals to almost end both his career and his life.<\/p>\n

Article continues below <\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

In 2022, as Idol geared up to release his new EP The Roadside, Classic Rock sat down with this rock\u2019n\u2019roll survivor to look back over his wayward life and career.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Lightning\n<\/p>\n

You were born in Middlesex, but moved with your family to New York when you were two and came back aged six. Did arriving late into school, with an exotic accent, set you apart from the other kids?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t remember being in England before going to America, but I was certainly aware that I was English, because I\u2019d never pledge allegiance to the flag at school. I did come back to England with an American accent. At school it was all: \u2018Give the football to the American kid so we can hack him down.\u2019 I had a crew cut, \u2018plimsoles\u2019 were \u2018sneakers\u2019. But obviously I got my English accent back, and I try to hold on to it now because it just feels good.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Billy\n<\/p>\n

Billy Idol in 2014 (Image credit: Kevin Nixon\/Classic Rock Magazine)<\/p>\n

Your parents were regular churchgoers. Did you share their faith? Did you enjoy a close family relationship?<\/p>\n

Sign up below to get the latest from Classic Rock, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

My mother was very religious, an Irish-Catholic who thought of herself as Catholic even though she joined the Church of England. The first thing I did in front of an audience was read from The Bible in church. But I rebelled against all of that. I wasn\u2019t trying hard at school, and eventually, between the ages of fourteen and sixteen, my dad didn\u2019t talk to me for a couple of years. I had really long hair and he couldn\u2019t stand it. That was when I got really interested in the rock scene. A teenager we knew would give me Rave magazine, so I\u2019d read up about all the groups. I had all The Beatles\u2019 singles, and I\u2019d go around to a friend\u2019s house who had all the Rolling Stones\u2019.<\/p>\n

What I liked about the music scene was it gave you a sense of freedom; it was just so alive, as opposed to your parents who were still so fuddy-duddy. They couldn\u2019t help it. They\u2019d grown up with the depression and the Second World War, and couldn\u2019t imagine the world was going to give them anything. Whereas we\u2019d grown up watching all these bands leaving where they lived, going around the world, expanding their horizons. My parents were always going on about getting qualifications. But there\u2019s no qualifications in rock\u2019n\u2019roll, it\u2019s based on what you can do and how you go about doing it. We looked askance at our parents\u2019 world, not realising what they\u2019d gone through. We were able to dream a lot more.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Billy\n<\/p>\n

Billy Idol onstage in the 1980s (Image credit: Peter Stone\/Mirrorpix\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Talking of qualifications, why did you drop out of your English degree at Sussex?<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

We were starting to see the Sex Pistols, knew the whole scene down at Sex \u2013 Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren\u2019s shop down the King\u2019s Road \u2013 we could see this thing was going to happen. Even if it was only for the two hundred people who were into it in London, we were going to do it. We never imagined it was going to explode like it did in England after the Pistols went on the Grundy show.<\/p>\n

Punk rock opened the door, it said if we can\u2019t beat these other people at their own game, we\u2019ll change the playing field.<\/p>\n

Billy Idol<\/p>\n

In 1976 I told my parents I was leaving university to join a punk rock group, and they didn\u2019t even know what a punk rock group was, let alone what it meant to join one. Then I met Tony James, knew of Mick Jones, The Clash and all these other people, and I knew it was going to happen. I didn\u2019t know what it was going to lead to, but it was happening and it was fun.<\/p>\n

Did you have musical ambitions prior to joining the punk scene?<\/p>\n

I started out trying to play the drums when I was about seven years old. Then I realised John Lennon and Paul McCartney were at the front, writing the songs, playing the guitars, so I started teaching myself the guitar at ten, just to have something to sing along to. Music in the sixties was really exciting: it went from bubblegum to crazy psychedelic stuff like Sgt. Pepper\u2019s, and then back again to rock\u2019n\u2019roll with the White Album, the Stones, Captain Beefheart. Then in the seventies we got into the Velvet Underground. We also started to realise that even if our musical ability isn\u2019t great, there\u2019s music we can play. The Stooges gave us hope. We knew we could never do what Led Zeppelin were doing, but what if you\u2019re not the greatest musician and still wanna do it?<\/p>\n

Punk rock opened the door, said if we can\u2019t beat these other people at their own game, we\u2019ll change the playing field. And that\u2019s what we did. If you went to see the Pistols every week you\u2019d see these guys were still learning to play their instruments, but they\u2019re on stage, writing great songs, and having a great time while they\u2019re doing it. And also telling everybody to fuck off, which looked like great fun.<\/p>\n

During your time with Chelsea, you rapidly metamorphosed from William Broad, guitarist, into Billy Idol who \u2013 with newly blond hair, contact lenses and a new level of self-confidence \u2013 simply had to be a frontman.<\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t want to be in a retro band, which is what Chelsea [fronted by Gene October] was, me and Tony [bass] wanted to be in a full-on punk group. We did Chelsea for a few months, but were always writing songs for me to sing, songs for our age group: young twenties, late teens. We made the move inside Chelsea, really, taking [drummer] John Towe, then finding Derwood [Bob Andrews, guitar], and kicking off Generation X in the November of 1976. We finally had the punk rock group we\u2019d dreamed of.<\/p>\n

To the casual observer it looked like Generation X enjoyed overnight success, that you went straight from opening The Roxy to being on Top Of The Pops.<\/p>\n

Me and Tony got on well. We found Derwood playing in a youth club in Fulham, doing Jimi Hendrix and Deep Purple stuff. We knew we all had to be a little different. That\u2019s what Lou Reed and David Bowie had been saying to us: you\u2019ve got to be yourself, find out who you are and be it. So we knew we\u2019re not going to be the Sex Pistols or The Clash or Buzzcocks, we\u2019re going to be Generation X.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Generation\n<\/p>\n

Billy Idol (second right) with Generation X (Image credit: Paul Cox \/ Avalon)<\/p>\n

Generation X appearing on Marc Bolan\u2019s TV show Marc in 1977 also seemed to be a pivotal moment in your career.<\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t realise what was going to happen. We thought it was going to be a gestation period where we\u2019d latch on to this little scene to get our shit together. And then it exploded. Next minute, every record company in England wanted their own punk rock group, so you were being offered all these things and playing places like the Marquee.<\/p>\n

I wanted to put punk rock with dance music. It\u2019s crazy, but that\u2019s what I wanted to do.<\/p>\n

Billy Idol<\/p>\n

You had to have a record out to play the Marquee in London, but there we were, without a record, selling it out That came as a shock to the powers that be \u2013 even the club owners. That was part of the excitement: you could harness the power of the fans. We were thrown into it, television, everything, learning as we went.<\/p>\n

And the hits kept coming: King Rocker, Valley Of The Dolls\u2026<\/p>\n

I preferred Generation X\u2019s first album. Then Tony wanted to turn us into a more\u2026 not a mainstream rock band exactly, but [second album] Valley Of The Dolls seemed to be moving in that direction. I was writing songs with Tony, so I was part of doing that, but in my heart of hearts I wished we\u2019d done another album like the first.<\/p>\n

So with the Gen X album Kiss Me Deadly I straightened everything out, stopped the roller-coaster thing we were doing with the drums, put the speed back in with songs like Dancing With Myself. So we did have a bit of a falling out among ourselves over where we were going and what the direction was, which broke us up in the end. That\u2019s the thing about groups, they\u2019re great when you\u2019re all going in the same direction, but not so great when you\u2019re not.<\/p>\n

Generation X – King Rocker – YouTube
\n\"Generation<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

Did you fear at that point that this might be it, that your time in the public eye might be coming to a somewhat premature end? <\/p>\n

Yeah, it was a weird time, but I was already finding people I\u2019d work with to build my solo career later. That last Gen X album was the first Billy Idol solo album, really.<\/p>\n

How did you begin working with Kiss\u2019s former manager Bill Aucoin?<\/p>\n

We\u2019d had problems with a Generation X manager who was machinating between different band members, and eventually, in seventy-nine, he brought a High-Court action against us. This was another thing that stopped the momentum of the group. We had a big block of time where we couldn\u2019t play, which caused a lot of dissension. We tried playing as Wild Youth for a bit, to keep the band going, but he stopped us. That\u2019s when I started to take heroin and stuff like that. So that didn\u2019t help me and Tony\u2019s relationship.<\/p>\n

At the same time, while talking with the record company about potential managers, Tony said, as a joke, what about the guy who manages Kiss? And Chris Wright and Terry Ellis, the heads of Chrysalis Records, knew Bill Aucoin, who came over, met us and agreed to manage us. Eventually I said to Bill Aucoin that what we need is a producer who\u2019s got one foot in the rock\u2019n\u2019roll world and the other in dance music. I wanted to put punk rock with dance music. It\u2019s crazy, but that\u2019s what I wanted to do.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Billy\n<\/p>\n

Billy Idol with guitarist and right-hand man Steve Stevens (Image credit: Ebet Roberts\/Redferns)<\/p>\n

How did you first meet Steve Stevens?<\/p>\n

Bill Aucoin knew Steve in New York. I did look around for other people as well. But as soon as I hooked up with Steve I realised how great he was. I always looked for incredible guitarists, like Derwood in Generation X. Even inside Gen X we didn\u2019t just play two-minute snappy punk songs, we had stuff like Kiss Me Deadly, Promises Promises which is seven minutes long. We wanted to stick out, so we broke all the rules. I intended to carry on making eclectic music.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t help if you were a bit of a drug addict, and I turned myself into a bit of a drug addict at that point.<\/p>\n

Billy Idol<\/p>\n

MTV loved you; the videos for Dancing With Myself and White Wedding were on heavy rotation for months. It must have been a great time to be Billy Idol.<\/p>\n

It was really fantastic just being in a new country. After months of walking around New York wondering: \u201cWhat the fuck am I going to do with Billy Idol? How\u2019s America going to get into it?\u201d, I suddenly realised that Dancing With Myself was in this thing called the New Wave Dance Chart \u2013 which I didn\u2019t even know existed. This was when I realised I didn\u2019t have to change a thing. At first, mainstream radio wouldn\u2019t play my music because I had a punk rock image, which they didn\u2019t believe sold advertising dollars. College radio and then MTV gave us a platform. Then the kids who were watching MTV phoned the radio stations, and they folded and there we were on the radio. Bill Aucoin, who\u2019d been in television in the sixties and seventies, knew cable and MTV were coming and that I\u2019d be perfect for a twenty-four-hour music channel. So we knew this was going to be our secret weapon, that we could be on it, and that it was going to change everything.<\/p>\n

Billy Idol – Rebel Yell – YouTube
\n\"Billy<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

And then came Rebel Yell, with Eyes Without A Face and Flesh For Fantasy close behind in support. How were you coping with becoming an idol, not only in name but now in actuality as well?<\/p>\n

Pop stardom\u2019s fantastic. You want people to hear your music and come to the shows. But I never thought of fame beyond just being a music person, of being on the radio and doing the occasional Top Of The Pops. MTV was on twenty-four hours a day, and it grew from an audience of a few million to countless millions all around the world. Suddenly everybody knew who you were. And that\u2019s a little weird. When I came to New York, I\u2019d walk around and only the few people who were into punk rock knew who I was; now suddenly everybody did.<\/p>\n

And it was a big change that was really hard to deal with, because it cut off your freedom. I started to live in tiny little rooms, because when you walked outside you walked into a world of mayhem. And it drives you a little nuts. So you start overloading on drugs. Because what else is there to do? So that was a problem. It didn\u2019t help if you were a bit of a drug addict, and I turned myself into a bit of a drug addict at that point.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Billy\n<\/p>\n

Billy Idol arrives at the 1991 MTV Awards in style (Image credit: Jeff Kravitz\/FilmMagic)<\/p>\n

At the dawn of the nineties you had a major motorcycle accident in which you nearly lost a leg. What effect did that brush with death have on your attitude to life?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what Bitter Taste, on The Roadside EP, is all about. It\u2019s me reflecting back on this accident: was it something terrible, or was it something really good, where I took stock of everything and started to realise that I had to take control of myself in terms of the drug addiction?<\/p>\n

We never did it for money or fame, we wanted to be in a musical movement that changed things.<\/p>\n

Billy Idol<\/p>\n

And I did start, but I didn\u2019t really start to gradually pull back until ninety-three or ninety-four. It took me a long time to come to terms with the drug addiction, to get it under control and get a sense of discipline, because there was no real control. Nowadays, I\u2019ve taken back control and I\u2019m much happier because I\u2019m back to being me.<\/p>\n

Appearing in the 1998 film The Wedding Singer compounded your iconic status. Would you have liked to have done more acting?<\/p>\n

Well, I was in The Doors movie [\u201991]. I originally had a good part, Michael Madsen\u2019s part [as actor and Warhol associate Tom Baker], but I had that motorcycle accident. I probably should have got into acting a lot more, but it took me a long time to get control of myself in terms of drug addiction.<\/p>\n

Billy Idol – L.A. Woman – YouTube
\n\"Billy<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

Do you ever feel trapped by who you are in the minds of your audience and beyond? After all, you\u2019d have to think very hard about changing your hairstyle.<\/p>\n

Yeah, but it\u2019s still fun. I\u2019m working with great people: [Green Day producer] Butch Walker, [songwriters] Sam Hollander, Tommy English and Joe Janiak. We really enjoyed making the EP, and playing the songs live has been great. Especially after the coronavirus. The audience are really getting into it, things seem even more alive than ever, and that\u2019s incredible. So it\u2019s wild to still be here doing this, it\u2019s been fantastic and the rewards have been great. We had to go through that time of MTV when it was all crazy, but now I\u2019ve got the best of both worlds. I\u2019m known, but I\u2019m left alone now, so I can observe people. And songwriting\u2019s all about observing other people and yourself.<\/p>\n

In 2018 you worked again with Tony James, this time with Steve Jones and Paul Cook as Generation Sex. <\/p>\n

Yeah, it was lovely getting back together and doing those gigs. We\u2019re hoping to do a tour in England and Europe in 2023.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Billy\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Kevin Nixon\/Classic Rock)<\/p>\n

How difficult was it to discipline your children when you\u2019re universally emblematic of misbehaviour, of giving the finger, the sneer: great in a rock video, but possibly not so much at a PTA meeting?<\/p>\n

Yeah, but in the eyes of your children you\u2019re not Billy Idol, you\u2019re dad. But yeah, true, that would have been difficult. But they do have mothers as well, and extended family, so it\u2019s not just about me. I think I\u2019ve got a lovely relationship now with my children, and it\u2019s great. My daughter\u2019s pregnant with my second grandchild, my son\u2019s got his music and seems to be enjoying that. And that\u2019s all I want for them, to be enjoying what they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the greatest life lesson rock\u2019n\u2019roll has taught you?<\/p>\n

That your dreams can come true. We dreamed of doing something artistic as a life choice, and punk rock gave us a chance, so we grabbed it. Which is incredible. Really lucky.<\/p>\n

You benefitted from great timing, but would you recommend the same lifestyle choices you made yourself to kids of a similar age now?<\/p>\n

We did it for love, and we were lucky to have enough success to go on. It may not work for everyone, but that\u2019s the only way to approach music. If you\u2019re doing it because you love it, it makes the hard times easier. We never did it for money or fame, we wanted to be in a musical movement that changed things, that affected society, that spoke about young people\u2019s problems. We wanted to have a gravitas, we did it. We found the right combination of people, and it worked. We got our dream\u2026 Incredible.<\/p>\n

Originally published in Classic Rock issue 299 (March 2022)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Inspired into action upon witnessing the Sex Pistols, English-degree student William Broad entered the embryonic 1970s punk scene…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88],"class_list":["post-620904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}