Biography: Billy Idol

Billy Idol came to prominence in the early Eighties as one of the first singers to be made popular by the emergence of MTV.  Thanks to the image created by this new visual medium, he is perhaps best known for his spiky platinum-blond locks and fist-pounding sneer.  However, one listen to his songs will quickly prove that their is much more to the artistry of the man than these simple physical attributes would suggest.

In order to appreciate the musical contributions of any artist, you really need to start at the beginning, so you can see how their talents took shape.  With that in mind, let's take a trip back to November 30, 1955.  On that day, the man who would become Billy Idol was born as William Micheal Albert Broad, in Middlesex, England.  Billy's father moved the family to New York when he was two.  This was where young William first fell in love with rock & roll music. The Broad family's stay in The States was short-lived, however.  They returned to the UK just four years later.  As Billy got older, he developed a bit of a wild streak, which he insists that he inherited from his father.  Although he was very bright, academics were definitely not his strong suit.  School bored him.  This was mostly because he needed constant intellectual stimulation to remain interested, and he felt that he never got that in the classroom.  He did attend one year at Sussex University, but quickly lost interest and decided to move on, thus ending his formal education.

Billy knew that he wasn't cut out for the grind of a proper job, but by then, he had developed a great love of music, and was seriously considering the idea of pursuing it as a profession.  Unfortunately, his father was dead set against it, and they often fought bitterly over Billy's career choice.  Luckily for Billy's future fans, his father's objections fell upon deaf ears.  Although his initial motivation to follow his dream was simply to rebel against his father, his reasons slowly changed; eventually, he reached a point where he decided that he wanted to prove to his father that he could be a success, and that the career path he had chosen was not worthless after all.  The tactic worked.  Although they did not speak at all for a period of about two years, and things remained strained between them for quite a long time even after communications resumed, his father is now the first one to recognize Billy's accomplishments!

Billy began his musical journey in 1975, after meeting a few like-minded friends and forming a group called The Bromley Contingent.  They were heavily influenced by the punk rock movement of the time, especially The Sex Pistols.  Eventually, Billy began to dabble in writing his own songs with another member of the group, Susan Dallion, who would later become known as Siouxie Sioux, of Siouxie And The Banshees fame.  Unfortunately, the group drifted apart soon after, but Billy was not to be discouraged.  Realizing that he had decent songwriting capabilities, Billy decided to form his own group.  He hooked up with fellow musicians Tony James, Mick Jones (who would later form The Clash), Brian James (who went on to form The Damned), John Towe, and Gene October.  They decided to call the new group Chelsea, and Billy served as guitarist.  The band played live for the first time in 1976, but ran out of steam when Billy, Tony, and John decided to leave and form a new group.  Taking their name from a 1960s paperback, Generation X was born.

This time, Billy decided that he would make a better front man, and took his place as the group's singer.  The remainder of the group consisted of Tony on bass, John on drums, and Bob “Deerwood” Andrews on guitar.  The band played their first show in November of 1976, and quickly began to get noticed.  In a short time, they were picked up by Chrysalis records, and managed to crank out three albums before discord in the band's ranks and management problems signaled the band's demise.  By that point, it was clear that the punk movement in rapid decline.  Billy decided that the time was right to go solo.  He relocated to New York, and quickly caught the interest of then Kiss manager Bill Aucoin.  In 1981, Billy cut a demo containing a cover of Tommy James & The Shondells' hit “Mony Mony” and remixed versions of two Generation X tracks.  Although, he wasn't exactly thrilled with the results, he shopped it anyway, and landed a new solo deal with his former label, Chrysalis.

With label support firmly in place, Billy set about building a band.  He found his perfect writing partner in the form of guitarist Steve Stevens.  The two filled the remaining positions within the band, and completed Billy's first album in record time.  With great songs, and the massive explosion of the music videos for “White Wedding” and “Dancing With Myself” on MTV, the album took off, setting the stage for incredible success with Billy's sophomore album, “Rebel Yell.”  Released in 1984, the new album reached number 46 on the album chart, and produced the hits “Rebel Yell” and “Eyes Without A Face.”  With this new success, Billy began to indulge in the many of the excessive behaviors that accompany the rock & roll life, and was soon generating as much publicity for his offstage antics as he did for his music.

His next release, an eight track live compilation called “Vital Idol,” brought him another huge hit in '85 with the live version of “Mony Mony.”  Again, this success was owed to the wildly popular video, which MTV played heavily.  Just as the interest in “Mony Mony” began to wane, Billy released his fourth album, “Whiplash Smile,” in 1986.  Although the album sold well, and even earned Idol his second Grammy nomination, many felt that the new record had failed to live up to expectations.  But by this time, Billy had decided to try new things.  Since Steve Stevens had left the band to form his own group, Billy moved to Los Angeles, hired a completely new band, and accepted a role in a stage production of The Who's rock opera “Tommy.”

By 1990, however, he was ready to get back to music.  He was on the verge of releasing his fifth album, “Charmed Life,” When he was unexpectedly sidelined by a very serious motorcycle accident, in which he almost lost a leg.  The accident occurred when he failed to notice a stop sign, and was hit head on as he crossed an intersection on his Harley.  His doctor ordered him to bed for the next few months while his leg mended.  Naturally, these were orders which Billy failed to heed.  He continued to work, even though he was virtually paralyzed from the waist down.  Because of his condition, the video for the first single from “Charmed Life,” 1990's “Cradle Of Love,” only shows him from the waist up.  The album went on to become his forth consecutive disc to achieve platinum status.

With this success, Billy decided to take a break and try expanding his acting chops.  He made his screen debut in director Oliver Stone's 1991 biopic, “The Doors,” which also starred Meg Ryan, and Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison.  The film did fairly well, despite mixed reviews.  He also did a brief cameo as himself in Adam Sandler's 1998 flick, “The Wedding Singer.”  However, Billy had a few appearances before the camera that were far less entertaining...unless you are a gossip monger, that is.  In 1992, He plead guilty to assault after punching then companion Amber Nevel outside a Hollywood restaurant.  He was ordered to appear in a series of anti-drug commercials, and ended up paying more than $2,700 in fines.

Once the legal obligations were taken care of, Billy began work on his next album in 1993.  He had adopted both a new look and sound, trading in his platinum spikes for dreads, and his screeching guitars for synthesized techno beats.  He had hoped that this would move his career in new directions, but sadly, this was not to be.  The album, titled “Cyberpunk” when it was released, was a disastrous flop.  The kindest reviews that it received referred to it as a steaming, stinking pile of...(well, you get the idea!).

But as Billy had proven many times in the past, you can't keep him down for long.  In no time, he managed to get his career back on the upswing.  He teamed up with Steve Stevens once again, and in 2001, released a more extensive greatest hits package with a brilliant cover of the eighties classic “Don't You Forget About Me,” which had originally been done by Simple Minds.  Then in 2002, he gained more exposure from appearances on two popular VH-1 shows: Behind The Music, and Storytellers.

Finally, in 2005, he released his most current album, “Devil's Playground.”  Although the record was considered a commercial failure, it did allow Billy to tour extensively, earning him a whole new generation of fans.  He continues to perform today, always playing to packed houses.  While he has not released any new material in over 7 years, he does continue to write, and when asked about the future, he replies with a wink: “Never rule out anything as a possibility!”