Importance Score: 52 / 100 🔵
Few luminaries embraced rock ‘n’ roll’s perilous extremes as fervently as Billy Idol. However, the British rocker reveals he has discovered a substitute for hard drugs and alcohol: his grandchildren. He says, “I have two granddaughters and two grandsons, all under six. Observing them so young, so thrilled to be alive, it rejuvenates you. The affection of your kin, my daughter, and sons, maybe that’s paramount. I’ve relinquished drugs and been repaid with affection.” This passion for family highlights a new chapter in the life of the iconic rock star.
Billy Idol: From Rebel Yell to Grandfatherly Joy
Billy, 69, adds, “Grandkids embrace you as you are. They’ve witnessed granddad on stage, but they are oblivious to your history.” And what a narrative it is. Born William Broad, he gained notoriety with his punk ensemble, Generation X, before attaining solo superstardom in the 1980s when he conquered America with iconic songs such as “Eyes Without A Face,” “Rebel Yell,” and “White Wedding.” These MTV-friendly new wave rock anthems, paired with Billy’s arresting image – spiky bleached hair, sneering curled lip, and biker leathers – cemented him as a heartthrob for a generation craving rebels. “I’ve been exceptionally fortunate,” he states. “Had punk not emerged, would I have become a professional musician? Unlikely. It presented an avenue. Watching the Sex Pistols, guys identical to us, our age, improving each week and composing colossal anthems for our generation – Pretty Vacant, Anarchy In The UK – it was electrifying. I discerned the opening and seized the opportunity.”
The Documentary Interrupted: A Blessing in Disguise
Billy has been producing a biographical documentary since 2019, but filming was halted by Covid. “The interruptions were beneficial,” he admits. “It’s advantageous to coexist with something and progressively refine it. I’d been visiting locations like the Roxy in Neal Street, Covent Garden, where Generation X originated, and I contemplated why not chronicle these diverse facets of your existence?” Billy informed his deceased parents of his decision to abandon university to establish a punk band at 20. “I terrified my beloved parents. My father was unfamiliar with punk. He operated a modest business and was displeased that I shunned following in his path. But I could never have endured a conventional job. It would have been a nightmare. I aspired to pursue something I adored.”
The 1990 Motorcycle Accident: A Wake-Up Call
Bill and Joan Broad’s gravest fears nearly materialized in 1990 when Billy – still intoxicated from a night in the recording studio – disregarded a Los Angeles stop sign on his Harley Davidson motorcycle and collided with a vehicle. The devastating mishap left his right leg “a bloody mangled stump.” Surgeons at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre labored for seven hours to salvage it, inserting a steel rod between his ankle and his knee. But the outcome could have been considerably worse – he wasn’t wearing a crash helmet when he struck the pavement. Bedridden for six months, Billy, then battling heroin addiction, acknowledged his lifestyle was destructive. “I realized I had to evolve, you can’t perpetuate that lifestyle indefinitely. Detrimental events were unfolding. Like that incident. I discerned I had to relegate it to my past. You had to disassociate from that path, or it would culminate in your demise, imprisonment, or vegetative state.”
Dream Into It: A Musical Autobiography
Billy’s compelling new album, Dream Into It, encapsulates his life narrative in nine tracks, from remarkable pinnacles to imprudent nadirs. He extols the vigor and fervor of the nascent London punk scene, centered around the Roxy. “It was ground zero for punk… That was part of it. We were attempting to chart our course, and the audiences were unwitting accomplices.” He reminisces about the scene: “It was ground zero for punk, a confined space, with a capacity of 250, but we squeezed in approximately 1000 on the night we supported The Clash and The Heartbreakers.” On the album’s second track, “77,” Billy and Avril Lavigne vocalize about the allure of those early punk years.
He reflects on the era: “The 70s weren’t markedly different from contemporary America,” he muses. “Society was deeply fragmented and polarized. In England, youth cults engaged in internecine conflicts. Punks battling skinheads and Teddy Boys… I was reminiscing about a girlfriend I had, Wendy May, who looked stunning in a bin-liner – we resembled nocturnal vampires. One Saturday, we were at Charing Cross tube station, and a contingent of Teds stormed through the ticket barrier. My companions and I fled, but Wendy remained and confronted a female Teddy – and triumphed.”
Early Life and Influences
This was a stark contrast to the aspirations the Broads harbored for their eldest child. Billy was born in Stanmore to his English salesman father and his Cork-born Irish mother. The family emigrated to New York state when he was two, returning four years later with his baby sister Jane. The family resided in Sussex before ultimately settling in Bromley, southeast London, in 1971. Young Broad was intelligent but found school monotonous. When a teacher annotated ‘Billy is idle’ in one of his workbooks, it sparked inspiration. He attended Ravensbourne grammar school and then Orpington College before commencing a course in English and Philosophy in September 1975, mere weeks before the Sex Pistols performed their inaugural gig. Punk’s anarchic enticement proved irresistible to Billy and his peers including Siouxsie Sioux and Steve Severin from Siouxsie & The Banshees. Billy and bassist Tony James briefly joined Chelsea but soon departed to establish Generation X. His moniker, Idol, was an adaptation of his schoolteacher’s remark. The rock press christened him ‘Iggy Bowie’. “Fair enough,” he says. “I was an amalgamation of my heroes.” Few disputed his onstage magnetism.
Chrysalis signed Gen X in July 1977. Their most significant hit, 1979’s “King Rocker,” reached No.11. “It was tremendously enjoyable – when we all shared a common vision,” he reflects. “It was only when our paths diverged that I entertained the notion of a solo career.”
Solo Success and Continued Rebellion
Billy took a chance and relocated to New York where Kiss’s manager Bill Aucoin secured him a solo contract and collaborated with guitarist Steve Stevens. “I could never have anticipated achieving that degree of success in America. It was astonishing.” Idol’s renown endures. As Billy’s platinum hits surged. In his autobiography, Dancing With Myself, he recounts being restrained to a hospital bed, medically sedated and escorted to Bangkok airport by armed soldiers, following accruing substantial damages in Thailand. “I did vandalize hotels and likely harmed myself, but I invariably remained a disciple of the rock’n’roll revolution I championed,” he avows. Punk, for Billy, was an immediate descendant of his childhood idols – Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, and Gene Vincent, rock’n’rollers who transferred the mantle to The Beatles, The Stones, The Who and then the Sex Pistols. He performed with Steve Jones and Paul Cook, along with Gen X’s Tony James in the 2018 punk supergroup Generation Sex. “It’s commendable that Jonesy, Cookie, and Glen Matlock are still performing,” Billy remarks. “It’s regrettable that Johnny’s not accompanying them. That would be the ultimate scenario. But they relish playing with Frank Carter. They sound magnificent, and it’s gratifying that Jonesy is reveling.”
Family, Friends and Future Ambitions
His new album is partly intended for his grandchildren: “to directly convey my narrative to them.” As well as Lavigne, his guests include Joan Jett, who is opening for him on the US leg of his tour, and Alison Mosshart. Billy, who relaxes by listening to reggae, adores touring and blending new songs with old classics.
Tour Dates and Wembley Arena
- Billy headlines Wembley Arena on June 24
- Forever Now Festival at Milton Keynes on June 22.
Idol states his sole ambition is to produce more albums. “I observed Elton John, he traversed his albums, and they were interminable. There must have been fifty or sixty of them. Consequently, I must accomplish considerably more to catch up. I admire the albums I’ve produced. Rebel Yell was the monumental breakthrough album. It genuinely established me in America.”
He was recently nominated for the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame, but ever modest says, “They should induct the New York Dolls before me”. He goes on, “I enjoyed Ozzy Osbourne’s solo induction last year – I ran into Roger Daltrey in the lift, met Dua Lipa, and then bumped into Dr Dre and Method Man who said, ‘How old is Billy Idol? 103?’.” Billy laughs. “That was a fun night.” His set for England will be one hour forty. “I can’t wait to play these new songs – I deliberately haven’t played them live yet so they’ll sound fresh. We’ll be playing them for the first time, and we’re going to kick off with Still Dancing because that says it all.”