One of thousands of would-be musical rebels who left college to bear their musical cross full time, Billy Idol realized that only a few were going to be successful.
But then again, you wouldn’t expect him to back away from a challenge.
“The cards are all stacked up against it,” the punk-pop patriarch says now, 30 years, one legendary band, nine solo releases, two kids, one drug overdose, one serious motorcycle wreck and one awesome comeback later.
Recently the 50-year-old once and future rebel–and new Lollapalooza act–talked about his new release, “Devil’s Playground,” tapping into his feminine side and musical youngsters.
Did you set out to try to go in a new direction with this album, or did you adopt an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” attitude?
We thought “Let’s go all over the Billy Idol map,” that mix I always explored in my music. It’s been everything from Billy Punk, to Billy Morrison, to Billy Danzig … (During my career) I’ve fallen in love, had other sorts of experiences. In the end, it really had to be more about me.
Isn’t everything better when it’s about you?
Well, not everything. But I had to focus more on stuff that’s happened to me.
You said you wrote “Sherri” from a girl’s point of view. What kind of girl would Billy Idol have been?
(Laughs) That’s amazing, huh? What would I have been like? (chuckles.) It’s frightening, isn’t it?
As a music veteran, you must see your influence in a lot of the bands. What do you think your lasting legacy is?
I suppose there are quite a few bands in the last couple of years that, I’ve noticed, have popped up with a lot of ’80s-sounding music. But the thing is, I wasn’t just from the ’80s. … That’s the thing that they’re getting mixed up with. It’s not the time (that’s important), but what a band did, if they did one great thing. You can put on “Rebel Yell” now, and it doesn’t sound dated at all. Then you can put (new song) “Scream” right next to it. They’re just two great records. It doesn’t matter when they were made.
You have two kids, Willem and Bonnie. Willem, in fact, is in a band called Lucas. You’ve done some shocking things. Is there anything your kids could do to shock you?
(Chuckles) (Willem) already has shocked me–he sings and plays guitar! … But he’s clever enough not to go out of his way to shock me. His music’s not about me. It’s not about Dad. (Laughs) He’s nothing like Billy Idol. Sometimes, when he plays, he’s got his shirt buttoned up to his throat! So he’s not trading on any of those things. He seems to have gotten the right idea, that you have to be your own person.
Do you have any more words of wisdom–you know, something for the children?
The thing is, you’ve really got to do things because you want to do them, because that’s your dream. That’s your love. You’ve gotta be that passionate. At least, it was that way for me.
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Edited by Curt Wagner (cwwagner@tribune.com) and Michael Morgan (mnmorgan@tribune.com)
