Billy Idol Backstage at MMRBQ 2023
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00:00It is 93.3 WMMR and we're backstage at our MMR-BQ and Billy Idol is with us.
00:06Good day, Billy.
00:08Hi, everybody.
00:12That'll work. That'll work.
00:14It's so nice to have you with us.
00:16We appreciate you being here.
00:17You've had quite a year.
00:19There's a couple of wonderful things that have happened, including, I think it was December,
00:23you got your star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
00:26Was that a rather surreal experience for you?
00:29It was rather wild.
00:30I guess I never imagined something like that.
00:31It's pretty wild to be included with all those other great musicians and actors and other artists
00:38because there's all sorts of people who are honored on that walk.
00:40So, yeah, it's pretty incredible.
00:42I mean, yeah, wild.
00:44Well, I'm wondering, now you had the big thing and all the people are there,
00:47I'm wondering if since that time you've ever just gone back by yourself
00:50and looked at your star sitting wherever it may be along Hollywood Boulevard.
00:55My girlfriend did.
00:56I haven't.
00:56She won.
00:58It's by Amoeba Records, so if I go there, I will look.
01:02There you go.
01:03Well, I love vinyl and Amoeba Records, such a great record store.
01:07And you just also, I think it was in July, you re-released the debut album
01:12and a really nice package in a two-CD expanded set and on vinyl.
01:17And it brings us back to when you arrived in, I think, New York.
01:22It was 1981.
01:23And again, when we use the word surreal, I think for an Englishman, a rather surreal experience.
01:29Tell us about your arrival in New York.
01:31Yeah, well, I really arrived with, I had a little trunk with some clothes in it,
01:36my country gentleman guitar, and I was wearing a pink Elvis jacket.
01:40So, yeah, it was, yeah, there was a kind of, in the sky that night, the, something, you know,
01:48the moon clouded over and it was kind of an event in the sky and everything.
01:53It's just a while, while coming to America.
01:55I couldn't have, I'd lived here when I was a child on Long Island for, when I was about
01:59two and a half to about five, and then we went back to America.
02:03So, I always wanted to come back here.
02:05So, this was me reclaiming my right to live here, you know.
02:10It was rather odd, I heard, because as a Brit, you were not used to the humidity and the heat.
02:17And it was an entirely different, you know, physical experience from England.
02:20Well, yeah, that's why one of the first songs I wrote was Hot in the City, because, yeah,
02:25literally, I was walking through all the air conditioners and the humidity and the heat,
02:30and then I felt, yeah, I felt hot.
02:32I felt like I was hot sexually, so.
02:35Well.
02:36So, it was easy to put that together, because that was the first song I wrote in America
02:39was Hot in the City.
02:40Really?
02:41I remember we played it, MMR has been around for 55 years, so our station is not new to
02:46the game.
02:47We played all kinds of music through those years, and we played everything that you've done.
02:51And I remember when that came out, there's a break in the song where you go, New York.
02:56But then, I think the record company said, we've got to work the other markets.
03:00And I think you went in and re-recorded other city names, because somewhere there's a version
03:04that says, Philly!
03:06Yeah, we did about 100 names, yeah.
03:07Did you, really?
03:08That's when I found out all these short, Cincy is short for Cincinnati, and Twin Cities!
03:13You know, I found out all these, I learned a lot from doing that, believe it or not.
03:17It is 93.3 WMMR, Billy Idol is with us.
03:21The two EPs that came out, first, I'd like to go back to the roadside, I think that was
03:262021, Butch Walker, the great Butch Walker produced it, and there's a song on there, Bitter
03:31Taste, and it talks about, you know, pretty heavy topics, very introspective, and you're
03:36talking about growth and death and rebirth, and part of it also touches on your motorcycle
03:41accident, and there was a quote I read where you said, a little bit of me got left on the
03:46roadside that day.
03:47Tell us about that song, Bitter Taste.
03:49Well, yes, yes, about 33 years ago, I had quite a bad motorcycle accident, that, it
03:55was, my sister in England heard I was dead, you know, so, that's, I died, but no, I just
04:03damaged my leg very badly, but, yeah, for a short time, I really didn't know if I was
04:09going to keep my leg, or if they were going to cut it off, you know, I think if it was
04:12a few years earlier, they would have cut it off, you know, so I was lucky they could save
04:16it, so it was a horrible time, it was really painful, I had about seven operations, and
04:21I was in hospital for over a month, and then had more operations after that, so, yeah, it
04:27was nasty, and initially we were thinking about the coronavirus, really, which was just starting
04:35in 2020 when we were doing the roadside EP, so I was kind of looking for something that
04:40would sort of resonate, because I thought it was a little too soon to try and write a coronavirus
04:44song, because we'd only just started finding out about it, so I thought about another time
04:49in my life that was painful, difficult, you know, problems, I didn't know what my future
04:54was going to be like, I didn't know if I was going to be this Billy, so I thought, well,
04:57maybe if I write about that, it would resonate with people with the pandemic, and then a year
05:02or so later, we did the Cage EP, where we did write a pandemic anthem, Cage, get me out
05:09of my cage, you know, because we locked in for so long, you know.
05:12It's a great video, because it opens with you in a straitjacket, and then you're in
05:16the cage, and Steve is on the platform doing this wicked guitar, and the song really resonated,
05:22and we played it when it came out, and love it to this moment.
05:25Are you playing it in concert?
05:27Yeah, yeah, we're playing it tonight, yeah.
05:29Your relationship with Steve is such a long-running one.
05:33You've got these legendary partnerships, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, you've got, you know,
05:37Bruce and little Steven, you've got a million different partners that have teamed up through
05:40the years.
05:41Can you describe in words your connection with that guy?
05:44Well, you know, the great thing about Steve is, you know, whatever I want to do, he can
05:48do it in spades, so it's, that's what he can bring to the table, you know, anything I want
05:54to do, he can do it, you know, guitar, on the guitar, and that means, like, it gives us
05:59a wide range of freedom in terms of choosing what songs we want to do, because I know whatever
06:05we want to do, he can nail it, that's a big, that's a big factor in what we do, so Steve's
06:10so instrumental in what I've done, we really are a really good team, and I think we give
06:16each other space, that's a big, a big part of it, that we don't crowd each other, you
06:20know.
06:21All right.
06:21In 2014, you also put out your autobiography, Dancing with Myself, and, you know, obviously
06:27it's written, but then you went and did the words to it as well.
06:32Well, I'm wondering, when one looks back at one's life, again, an entirely different
06:37texture to have the words written, but then to go back and speak those words after it
06:42was completed, I'm wondering if that created any flashbacks, any different sensations as
06:47you were reading those words for the audiobook.
06:49Well, I did have to read about my father dying, and that was really when I actually broke down
06:54and cried when I was reading the piece about him dying, you know, because I hadn't really,
07:00yeah, there was like when I really, yeah, it just really affected me reading it, that's
07:05I actually cried when I was reading it, so, yeah, so going back through your life, it, yeah,
07:10I was at a sort of, I'm at a vantage point now, now I'm 67 now, so I'm even more, the latest
07:15records we've been making, they're very autobiographical, they were making an album right now, it's mainly
07:21looking back over my whole life, because you're at such a vantage point when you're
07:25out at 67, you really can look back and see your young self, and see how, you know, removed
07:31you are from him in some ways, you know, he's quite a different person to me now, you know,
07:36but so you can sing about that, and that's what's kind of magic, and this new record we're
07:41doing is, it's kind of a, it's got a lot of different times in my life being spoken
07:46about in the lyrics, you know, it's fun, fun because of that.
07:49Will we see that coming soon, is it a full album, or another repeat?
07:52Yeah, next year, yeah, full album, next year.
07:54Do you have an album title?
07:55Dream Into It.
07:57Can you name us one song from it that you're fond of, that you're working on, even though
08:01we may not have heard it yet?
08:04Pissing Off People I Love.
08:06That's a title?
08:07Oh, I love that, Pissing Off People That I Love.
08:10I'd like to introduce that on the radio.
08:11Here is Pissing Off The People That I Love on MMR.
08:15Ladies and gentlemen, take a listen.
08:16It's cool.
08:17You've had so many great experiences, one of which happened recently on Labor Day weekend,
08:23if I understand correctly.
08:24Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters, and you've joined them before, invited you to join them
08:29on stage, and you together did a Sex Pistols song.
08:33Is that right?
08:34Yes.
08:35Yeah, well, I just happened to be playing a show with them, and we got together before we
08:40both played, and we went through, I'd just done a tour with Generation Sex, it was with
08:45two of the Sex Pistols, and Tony James of Generation X, so we'd just been singing some
08:50Sex Pistols and Generation X songs, so it was easy to do Pretty Vacant.
08:55We used to kick off the show with Pretty Vacant, so I already knew the words and stuff, so it's
08:59fantastic playing it with the Foo Fighters.
09:01They really knocked it out of the park.
09:03It was incredible.
09:04Well, they can play anything, right?
09:05Yeah.
09:05And Dave Grohl is so cool.
09:07I think you joined them in 2018 and covered Lennon.
09:11Yeah, give me some truth, because with Generation X, we covered Give Me Some Truth, because I
09:16was always looking for a Lennon song or a Beatles song we could do, and the Beatles songs didn't
09:21make so much sense, but John Lennon's solo career, yeah, Give Me Some Truth, I thought,
09:27yeah, if we speed that up, it'll make a fantastic punk rock song, and yeah, I got to play that
09:32with the Foo Fighters a few years ago, yeah.
09:33Other people that you've played with that you never thought you might have coming up,
09:37because some people, when the punk movement was coming out, said, well, they'll never
09:40play with a so-called traditional band, and yet Dave Grohl's one of the best examples I
09:45can come up with of someone of the Nirvana generation that wants to play with members
09:50of Led Zeppelin or Paul McCartney or things of that era.
09:53Any examples that you've had of those kinds of experiences in your travels?
09:58I did a tour with The Who, quite a quadrophenia tour, where I was the Ace Face and the Bell
10:02Boy, and I did a Tommy, a charity Tommy with them too, so I've done some things like that,
10:09and it's fantastic, just hanging with Pete and Roger, and Roger always gives me pointers
10:16on singing, you know.
10:17Really?
10:17Yeah, so they're really great guys, and Bill Kerbishley, their manager too, he's always
10:23been instrumental in my career, you know, so I've had a big connection with them through
10:27the years.
10:28In the quadrophenia tour, because I remember you rode the Vespa out, and then the Vespa,
10:33after that tour, got put in Roger Daltrey's garage, and they just have pulled it out of
10:39The Who's charities, the Teenage Cancer Trust, and they pulled it out and restored it, and I
10:45think they were playing the Royal Albert Hall at the end of their last tour, and it was
10:49a benefit for the Teenage Cancer Trust, and the Vespa that you drove has been restored,
10:55and people can pay money to sit on it, take a picture, and eventually they'll auction it
10:59off, but while you would make those entrances, I'm just curious, the crazy part of me, did
11:04anything ever go wrong?
11:05Did it not work?
11:06Did you have moments of driving that thing on stage where it was...
11:09Well, I always had to carry these heavy suitcases back, you know, because I was a bellboy
11:16by the end, and then one night, I fell off the stage completely, but I somehow managed
11:20to, it was a really long way down, but I didn't hurt myself, and I managed to scramble up and
11:24still appear with my bellboy hat a little bit askew, with a bag somehow, even though I'd
11:30fallen off the stage, it disappeared.
11:32So there were things like that, but it was great fun.
11:35I really enjoyed it, and the charity Tommy was incredible.
11:39That was with Elton John, and Steve Wynwood, and Patti LaBelle, and you played...
11:44I was Cousin Kevin, the babysitter, you know.
11:47Ah, Cousin Kevin, not to be leaving your child with Cousin Kevin.
11:50Final question, in 2018, you became an American citizen, which I think is a great tribute of
11:57the...
11:58We just love England so much.
12:00Everyone in America wants to be British and speak with a British accent, but you coming
12:04from that country, even though you spent some time here early on, became a citizen.
12:09Why did you want to do that?
12:11Well, it's just I've been...
12:12I had a green card for a very long time, and it was always, as I came...
12:17I used to come back through LAX, there was always one guy who used to say,
12:20Why aren't you a citizen?
12:21You should be a citizen.
12:22Come on.
12:23I'd always start going, Lincoln, Madison, Monroe.
12:26You know, I'd start doing the presence.
12:27I'd got to get it right.
12:29So it's mainly...
12:29He used to say, you know, come on, you should be a citizen.
12:32So finally, I did it.
12:33I went like, you know, he's right.
12:35And it's my privilege to be...
12:37I'm glad, you know, I'm glad I'm a...
12:38I've got dual citizenship of England and Britain and America.
12:43So, you know, I've got the best of both worlds, really.
12:45We are thrilled that you did.
12:46As usual.
12:47Billy, thank you for playing our MMR-BQ.
12:49Thank you for coming back to Philly.
12:50And thank you for being with us today.
12:52Thank you, everybody on MMR.
12:54Yeah.
12:54Cool.
12:54Cool.
12:55Cool.