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E V O L

JJ Haggar takes Billy for a spin. Live

Pics: Chiaki Nozu

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Seems like the layoff didn’t do Billy any harm at all. At Download this year, he was received with open arms by a sardine-like Snickers tent.

Billy Idol now lives in Los Angeles, high in the Hollywood Hills. His back catalogue boasts three gold, three platinum and one double platinum disc.

His live shows have sold out arenas across the world.

It was not an easy journey, something the lyrics to one of his early songs (English Dream) reflect: “They shut all the doors….

But I kicked ’em down...”. He fought against drink and drug addiction, refused to comply with the music bosses demand for conformity, and survived a near fatal motorcycle accident which left him with a serious compound fracture to his leg, a broken arm and confined to bed for six months.

“I thought…Thank God I wasn’t wearing my favourite leather jacket,” he recalls and as the prospect of death stared him in the face. His dogged determination has helped him through everything.

William Broad ceased to exist during what Billy refers to, as ‘the summer of hate’ (or 1976 to the rest of us) when he decided to set about realising his true dream.

Joining forces with Tony James, another fellow student, they formed Chelsea – which led to Generation X (with Tony James on bass, Mark Laff on drums and Bob (Derwood) Andrews on guitar).

They played their first live show in November 1976 and in July 1977 they were offered a contract with Chrysalis Records. Punk,

however, began to run its course and after their third album and amid increasing disillusionment, Billy decided it was time to make a break and headed off to America.

New York City was his first destination. It was the start of some wild years as the 1980s brought huge successes for Billy with his co-writer and guitarist Steve Stevens.

First came 1982’s self titled debut, followed the following year by the legendary Rebel Yell. Vital Idol (’85) and Whiplash Smile (’86), a huge tour all followed.

Very soon, the trappings of life in the fast lane began to take their toll and toward the end of the ’80s, Billy decided he needed to make some changes. He uprooted from everything familiar, including his writing and recording partner Steve, and settled into the relatively slower pace of life in Los Angeles.

A new band, a new album and a new life followed, complete with an offer of a prominent role in the Oliver Stone movie of The Doors and another world tour to promote the already successful Charmed Life album. These plans were interrupted when Billy suffered the near fatal motorcycle accident in February of 1990.

The 90’s progressed, however, and we all got introduced to the wonders of the internet. 1993 brought us the Cyberpunk, and then Billy took a break. He felt he wanted to take some time to ‘live a little’, enjoy his life and in particular his children.

A brief guest appearance in The

AND EVERYBODY SEEMED “TONOBODY HAVE AN OPINION ON WHO BILLY

BILLY TALKS THROUGH THE TRACKS ON THE ALBUM Super Overdrive: I was thinking of the Richard Branson rocket, especially that first flight when it started to wobble just as it was leaving the atmosphere. Rock and roll is like that – very fragile, and it can kill you, but you can ride it to places you’ve never been. Brian had the riff and I said, ‘Well, what are we going to call it?” And Steve looked down at his distortion pedal and said, ‘Super Overdrive’? We were laughing because it was so brilliantly dumb. I was in super overdrive with my music, but I’ve also been in super overdrive when I was just crazy.

World Comin’ Down: That’s kinda written from a kid’s point of view. I remembered all the things that I went through as a kid, and how school is just the world in microcosm. There are times for everyone as you grow up to resent authority, but you have to break the rules to be true to yourself. Now, they really penalize you for that.

I’ve never been able to learn anything that I wasn’t interested in, just couldn’t make myself care why the litmus paper was changing colours.

Rat Race: That’s the adult me talking to myself. Our public lives turn into rat races, but then you discover your private life is a rat race too, and the problem is inside yourself. It’s so easy to get sucked into things and then wonder why you’re doing them, which can cause damage. Somehow you’re not going to be the same person again, the person you’re proud of.

Sherri: I wrote it from a girl’s point of view, something I’d never done before. I’d pretty much done everything by the age of 16, so I know how easy it is to run away from things and then discover that there’s really no place to run. You’ve got to make the best of what you’ve got right here. It’s difficult to tell anyone what to do, especially when you’re Billy Idol, but then, we all grow up a little don’t we?

Plastic Jesus: I was playing this thing on acoustic guitar one day and Steve Stevens said, “That sound’s like Plastic Jesus.” And I said, “What’s that?” We couldn’t find a recording of the original, so I’m sure the melody is different. We just downloaded Ernie Marrs’ lyrics, which had the feeling of a hillbilly song. I identified with the guy being an alcoholic carrying around his booze in the plastic Jesus. There might be a little Donovan in the chorus. The weirdest stuff comes out when you squeeze the sponge.

Scream: Totally filthy. It’s three o’clock in the morning and the sex beast is on the prowl. It’s such a Billy Idol song, it’s almost funny. But it really roars.

Yelling At The Xmas Tree: My dad never came home drunk like that, but I did a few times. And I did spend an entire Christmas once yelling at the tree like it was my manager or somebody. I don’t think my mother ever had sex with Santa Claus. But maybe. Who knows?

Romeo’s Waiting: A few years ago I found myself in a strip bar with all the other losers, and I started to see it from their point of view. They’re the most romantic people in the world, because they’re thinking that the chick is dancing for them, that they’re going to save her. Romeo was always a bit of a loser. A total loser, when you think about it.

Body Snatcher: My mother was an O’Sullivan and she always said that people with an O in front of their name heard the Banshee wail. And I have heard the Banshee wail.

I’ve been in that place when I thought the body snatchers were coming. I’ve nearly killed myself on the motorcycle, and I’ve nearly killed myself with drugs, so I’m very lucky to be here. But this is more about something dark taking over your soul, the melancholia thing.

Evil Eye: Continues the same theme as Body Snatcher. Heroin is a relationship drug.

That’s how I got into it. I fell in love, and we fell into heroin. That was a long time ago, and it took a long time to shake it.

Lady Do Or Die: A mix of Johnny Cash and Leonard Cohen. You’re on the road, and you decide that playing music for living isn’t so bad. Music as a way of freeing yourself from prison.

Cherie: The challenge was writing a song that says ‘I Love You’ and making it real. I did it by flashback to my childhood in the punk revolution. You have everything but you’re still looking for something more, so you lose what you had. And yet you’ve still got your memories, even after you fuck up so badly. So I’m saying, ‘Thanks for helping me. You made my life great, even if we’re not together anymore.’

Summer Running: I was riding my motorcycle and rejuvenating the life I nearly destroyed in Body Snatcher and Evil Eye. When you ride, it’s almost like meditating and you can ask yourself all the important questions: What do I really love? What do I really believe? What do I really want to do? You can answer those questions if you just find a place where you can stop and think. For me, that was the motorcycle. For somebody else, it might be a Winnebago. I learned that I had to get back to having a great band again, writing great songs again, celebrating those moments when you’re alive and healthy. You go on for all the people who can’t do that. You do it for them, I think.

IDOL WAS. BILLY IS THIS, BILLY IS THAT… HOLD ON, WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU TO TELL ME WHO BILLY IDOL IS? I’M FUCKIN’ BILLY IDOL!

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BILLY LOVES GUITARISTS, BILLY DOES:

Who’s Quadrophenia live stage production, and a short appearance in Adam Sandler’s film The Wedding Singer seemed to start to lay down a fresh rock ‘n’ roll track.

By a quirk of circumstances Billy hooked up once again with his old friend and co-writer, Steve Stevens and they found the bond they had once shared was still evident. It turned out that he and Steve didn’t hate each other as much they thought.

Brian Tichy, a killer drummer boiling over with song ideas, also came aboard and the band was complete with motorcycle mate Stephen McGrath on bass and Derek Sherinian on keyboards. They toured medium-sized clubs, gradually warming from ‘80s nostalgia to a shit hot rock and roll band. After a Greatest Hits collection (EMI was expecting sales of 100,000 and it exceeded all expectations when the CD went platinum-plus), a VH1 Storytellers and Behind the Music, they needed some new material. With Keith Forsey (Billy’s producer since Generation X) again at the board, both star and support system were complete. The recording began in November of 2003 and ended in November 2004.

Zero finally caught up with Billy and we all really wanted to know, where the fuck has he been?

“Well,” comes back the voice, “Ice Ice Baby killed me! SBK which was a small label when that Vanilla Ice record came out, became huge and bought up lots of record companies including Chrysalis which I was on. Nobody and everybody seemed to have an opinion on who Billy Idol was. Billy is this, Billy is that…

Hold on, who the fuck are you to tell me who Billy Idol is? I’m Fuckin’ Billy Idol!

“So I was set adrift and it took forever to get free. In 1995, I ran into a brick wall. I had no band anymore, and the music business was getting quite soulless. It seemed like the big record companies

“James Burton is someone I love so much, Scotty Moore is someone I would kill to play with and Steve Jones is fantastic. He has the right attitude, he really digs in.

“I have played with some great people – including Steve Jones – and also John Mgeoch, who was brilliant, tastefully brilliant.

“But of course I also am lucky that every night I look over to my right and there is Steve Von Stevens, ready to blow like a space shuttle.”

I tell Billy that Steve Stevens is back and doing what he does best, playing like a fucking demon, and Billy laughs. “Yeah, Steve damaged his wrist in an accident, so he could not play properly for a while and when he did get back on track he started to do all the flash things he can do and everyone went fucking wild. I was telling him ‘yeah, that’s Steve Stevens, that’s what they want to see you do’, and when he does it and the crowd reacts he gets that ‘look’ in his eyes and it takes me to a place where I am smiling and rocking and the whole level goes up again.

“I hope people enjoy that because often artists look at what is in or out of fashion. If guitar solos are out of fashion, and you have someone like Steve, are you going to say to him ‘hey, don’t play your guitar like that, kick back’? I don’t think so!

“I think that European audiences are going to love this show when it comes over. The last time I was out on tour in the UK, I had the dreadlocks and a million synthesizers and I should have been taken out and shot, but this time round I’m doing what I do best, having a party, having fun. Also, when we arrive we will be in our seventh month of touring and we will be on fire, that I can assure you!”

I just stopped putting out records when I knew they would turn out shitty, and I waited until I found a company [Sanctuary] that really wanted a Billy Idol record. I suppose it was a gamble staying away so long, but it’s paid off because I’m happy. I’m happy to be Billy Idol with a quality Billy Idol record. How’s that for a marketing tactic?”

It has to be said, the peroxide punk seems happy and relaxed these days.

“I’m back stronger than ever, because not only did I hook up with Steve Stevens again and write some fantastic songs on this record, but myself and Steve got together in the summer of 2003. We had a few great tracks like Summer Running and Romeos Waiting – I co-wrote some songs with Brian (Tichy) also during autumn 2003 and by spring of 2004 we had enough material to go and record what we all felt was a strong enough record.

“We had around 20 songs of which thirteen made the latest record and a few will hopefully surface on the next record. It’s now an internal power within the band, I guess we are now a band as opposed to being just Billy and Steve, which means that we are all reading from the same page and hopefully able to take this on to greater things.

“I now have a forward vision of what the next record will be like, if you have the energy and the hunger you can go on and this is now a 3 pronged attack writing team. It’s brought everything up to date, it’s not a retro thing where we are trying to recreate the 80s, we are moving forward with our sound.

“The album is produced by Keith Forsey, who knows what I do so well, he just puts the icing on what is now an amazing cake, it’s a complete album where you get the best of the past

“

I DO READY STEADY GO AND KISS ME DEADLY IN THE LIVE SET, AND WHEN YOU DO THOSE SONGS YOU ARE RIGHT THERE, AND THEN YOU THINK ‘MAN, WE DID SOME GOOD STUFF’.

”

were mostly interested in eating each other and promoting music as product. They didn’t really believe in rock and roll anymore. How was someone like me going to fit into that?

“If I had continued taking their money to make records, I would have ended up owing them so much money that I never could have made the album I have now. They wanted my soul in hock, and I refused to fall into their trap.

embracing the future. In fact this is like the first Billy Idol album in a way that it’s looking forward at where to go next.”

Judging by the performance at this years Download festival, I can confirm that this ain’t no retro trip. The new songs sound just as good next to the old songs, and everything as Billy says gets ‘Idolised’ “I loved that show,” he enthuses. “The audience

was right there with us, they held us up, the new energy that we’ve got comes out in a good way, the show goes up a notch as we go along… rock ‘n’ roll should be fun, I’m really lucky to do what I do” Next year will be 30 years since the birth of Punk Rock – does it seem that long to Billy?

“Yeah, in some ways, then again no!”

Cool. Clears that up then…

“It seems like I have 10 year cycles, I was a young kid, the King Rocker for 10, then in New York for 10, then set adrift for 10, and now I hope I’m back on a great new 10 year cycle that has no break.

“But that whole Generation X period is so important. I do Ready Steady Go and Kiss Me Deadly in the live set, and when you do those songs you are right there, and then you think ‘man, we did some good stuff’.You become very proud of yourself, actually, and it’s a great feeling to dig those out and get a great reaction to them.

“We tried to ride the roller coaster, the energy of the first Generation X album carried me through, to where I was in the 80s – things like Wild Youth, a Generation X track that we did a ‘Dub’ version of, which laid the foundation for Vital Idol, the Solo remix album, so those early days really came into play in later years.

“It went from gang lyrics, to about myself personally in the ‘me me me’ 80s, but everything for a reason I guess. I sit here in 2005 feeling good about my record, my band, my life, some people seem to be saying I am born again.

“In fact they heard it wrong; I said I was into porn again – not born again…”

It needs no other justification. And if you’re Billy Fucking Idol, who howled Rebel Yell, growled White Wedding, rocked the Cradle of Love and manhandled Mony Mony, you don’t need any other reason to continue swinging on the monkey bars in the Devil’s Playground.

With massive thanks to Sanctuary Records, Charles M. Young, Sharon@ThePublicityConnection and The Billy Idol Fan Club: www.billyidol.com

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