As a new documentary sheds light on Billy Idol’s incredible life, the legendary rocker tells of the drugs that threatened to “ruin” his career – and the time he came close to death
White Wedding was an anthem for the MTV generation of the 1980s when, with his peroxide hair and snarling attitude, Billy Idol epitomised the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll punk dream. Now a new documentary about the hell-raising rocker reveals how he almost dropped dead after snorting heroin days before launching his solo career in the UK.
Billy had just conquered America with his breakthrough 1983 album Rebel Yell, when he almost blew his Top of the Pops debut. He says: “I did OD and nearly died. I went to America in March 1981 and came back to the UK in triumph in 1984, after Rebel Yell.
“I was due on Top of the Pops. I nearly ruined it and nobody knew. On our return to London we met some pals and they had some of the strongest heroin, Persian Brown, I think. Everybody did a line and they all nodded out except me and a mate and we did a few more lines. I was basically dying. I was turning blue. So they put me in an ice bath and walked me around on the roof of the building.”
Billy, now clean aged 70, relives the madness of his past in his new two hour documentary, Billy Idol Should be Dead, which premieres on Sky Arts later this month. Chronicling his anarchic beginnings in the London punk scene, before finding superstardom in the MTV era, when White Wedding and Rebel Yell ruled the charts, the film reveals the near-deadly consequences of his battle with drugs.
Featuring his late mother Joan, longtime girlfriend Perri Lister and his three children, the film also tells how a freak DNA test led to Billy discovering his love child son Brant. He says: “There are elements of my life that I probably should not have survived. I am still here and I am still rocking and in love with what I do.”
Of the punk rock era, he says: “The drugs just happened to come along. Drugs ruined some things, but life is just a little like that.” Inspired by The Sex Pistols while growing up in Bromley, south London, as a geeky bespectacled teenager, christened William Broad, he was the son of middle class parents William and Joan.
Billy says: “When I was 14, it was when the music scene exploded. My dad did not understand me, as I was not trying at school. We all wanted to be David Bowie. In the 70s we were just told there was no future as there were no jobs. I saw The Pistols and that’s what we were waiting for.”
Forming Generation X, Billy toured the London scene, but moved to New York when the punk dream ended. He says: “When I arrived in New York all I had was a mattress, some sheets and a guitar. “The record company gave me money and I would buy some pot and weak smack [heroin]. I would go out to dance clubs.”
In the Manhattan clubs, Billy was introduced to hard drugs. He says: “A lot of the people we loved were heroin addicts back then. Lou Reed wrote the song Heroin. We were not thinking how dangerous it was. Instead you think ‘maybe this can unleash something’”.
Becoming close pals with Chic star Nile Rodgers, he recalls on the documentary an infamous night when Billy threw up over his idol David Bowie, who was sitting at the back of a club. Nile says: “ Billy went ‘bloody hell, that’s David f*cking Bowie’. And as he said ‘Bowie’ he barfed [vomited.] And then he went to Bowie ‘Hello mate!’”
But the fun transcended into despair for Billy, as his drug addiction deepened. Eventually, his dad flew to New York to rescue him. Billy says: “Dad came off the plane with a big stick. I said ‘why have you brought that?’ And he said ‘I’m going to beat you with it’. He was here to take command of everything. I needed him to come to wake me up a little bit, as I did need somebody to show they cared.”
Sadly, Billy’s recovery didn’t last, as he got sucked back into the New York scene, where drugs were on every corner. As his stardom grew, with the advent of MTV, Billy cleaned up for a while. And he moved to Los Angeles with his girlfriend of nine years, former Hot Gossip dancer, Perri Lister, saying: “I started to realise it [drug addiction] was changing my personality and was perverting me in a way. But it takes a lot for the real personality to take back control. It takes a lot more than you think. That’s the trouble. In LA we were living in the daylight, but in New York we were living a vampire existence.”
Unfortunately, in February 1990, he was involved in a serious crash while riding his Harley Davidson through Hollywood, and nearly had to have his right leg amputated. He says: “I was on morphine. Even the pain doctor said I was drinking it in. My leg used to look like my brain was coming out. For a while I could look into it and see my bone. They put a metal rod into it.”
Thankfully, Billy got back on his feet, but his drug addiction took hold again when his relationship with Peri ended in 1989. He says: “I went off to Thailand with my roadie. We were not going to take drugs, but after a week we asked a cab driver if he could get us some coke. He brought back this long thin vial of this white stuff. It was so strong it was probably China White [opioid].
“You only needed a pin prick and you were as high as a kite. I looked like a ghost. I had some film of us and I destroyed the tape because it was too disturbing. We were out of our minds. I passed out in the elevator [of a hotel] and Mel Gibson was there on holiday with his family, horrified.”
Things got worse, as he tried to come down from his drug-induced high. He recalls: “I picked up this large log and threw it through a glass window. A guy threatened to call the police, but we said we’d pay the $20,000 damages. The silver lining was I did finally put heroin behind me. The whole experience was horrible and it was a turning point, as I did not like who I was.’
Clean and still touring, Billy is a very different man today and loves being a dad to his son Willem, 37, by his ex Perri Lister; and daughter Bonnie, 36, with former flame Linda Mathis. He is also getting closer to his 40-year-old son Brant, his love child, conceived on his 1985 Rebel Yell tour, who he only discovered in 2023 after his daughter took a DNA test, revealing the half sibling she never knew.
Billy says Brant has given him a new lease of life, as well as two grandchildren he never knew he had. He says: “It has all drawn us very much together. This ended up being more important to me than being Billy Idol. I now see why you have children – for the grandchildren.”
* Billy Idol Should be Dead premieres on Sky Arts and streams on NOW on March 26
Wild parties were too much for Billy’s ex Perri Lister
Billy’s ex-girlfriend Perri Lister recalls his wild parties with groupies, during their nine year relationship in the 1980s. She says: “ I once knocked on his door and there were two naked girls there. He was so furious that he got caught. He slammed the door and called security on me! They escorted me out of the hotel and when I got back to our apartment they were changing the locks on me!”
Perri, a dancer with Hot Gossip, who regularly appeared on The Kenny Everett Show, says worse was to come when Billy’s drug dealer moved in next door. Mum to his son Willem, she says: “The guy would just bang on the wall and he [the dealer] would come. He [Billy] was cooking up coke in saucepans and it was exploding all over the place.” Perri, who appeared in the White Wedding video and now lives in Bali, also recalls overhearing Billy calling his mistress through the baby monitor at their LA home.
She was beside the pool when Billy said he was going inside to call his roadie, but used the phone near the baby monitor beside the crib where Willem was sleeping. She recalls: “I hear the whole conversation where he says ‘yeah hi baby, it is OK. She [Perri] is going for lunch with her mother. I will pick you up about 1.30pm.’ So he comes out and I said ‘you lying mother f*cker.’ For Perri, it was the final straw.
*If you or someone else needs urgent help after taking drugs or drinking, call 999 for an ambulance. To find drug support advice near you, visit talktofrank.com/get-help/find-support-near-you.
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