Original subtitles

[crowd cheering]

[gentle guitar melody plays]

[indistinct chatter]

[man humming softly]

[man] Could it be something like...

Like... ♪ Had to get high to write my songs ♪

♪ 'Cause if it wasn't real life ♪

♪ It just felt wrong ♪

- Or something. - Alright, well...

♪ ...just sounded wrong ♪

♪ I... ♪

[Idol] Don't wanna ruin what we had 'cause it was good.

Do we tell the story that...

that the chorus is summing up...

- Right. - ...in a more storytelling way?

Like, start-- starting with...

You can start with "In '81," like...

What were you doing in 1981? [chuckles]

Well, don't know. I was ODing in '84.

- Okay. - [plucks gentle note]

So, I nearly died in '84, actually.

I went back to England.

'Cause you'd moved already?

I'd come to America in March of '81 and...

- Mm-hmm. - ...this was me returning

in triumph with...

[man] Mm-hmm. Gotcha.

..."Eyes Without a Face" on Top of the Pops,

and then you're nearly killing yourself.

[man] Wait, so was it in the news and stuff that--

- No, no. Nobody knew. - [man] Oh, wow.

- That's insane. - [chuckles]

[both laugh]

So that's what was happening in...

- in the '80s kind of thing. - That's wild.

You're like... ♪ In '84 ♪

♪ I OD'd on the kitchen floor ♪

♪ And I woke up and I did some more ♪

♪ I heard death knocking at my door ♪

♪ At the door... at the... ♪

[Idol] Too much too soon.

- [chatter continues] - [dramatic music layers over]

[dramatic music swells]

[music transitions to bright, pensive notes]

I moved to New York myself in October of '80.

I started working for Chrysalis Records.

And so I remember going to pick Billy up

at the airport at JFK

when he arrived into New York.

And pretty much, at that point,

he was my responsibility within the label.

And he was a pretty quiet guy.

He was pretty studious.

He could sit in a corner and read a book

and you wouldn't notice him.

I thought, "I don't know how much fun this is gonna be."

But once he kind of got into that mode of Billy Idol,

he became a completely different persona.

[feedback hisses softly]

[host] All right. Very good. Now, let me run

a-a little, uh, survey here.

If you see an act,

and very often you'll read in the newspaper a critique.

Obviously, you're excited about the fact that this guy is here.

Just tell me, if you were a newspaper critic

or a music critic,

what there is about the guy's music you like.

It's fast and it's great to dance to.

All right, that would be a quote they would take

and they would put in the ad. Give me a one-liner.

Gorgeous.

- [laughs] - [crowd cheers]

["White Wedding" playing]

Get ready. It's Billy Idol.

What am I here for?

- You've got two awards to-- - I'm here for rock and roll.

- Hey! - That's what I'm here for.

[loud cheering]

["White Wedding" continues]

A maker of great videos, a maker of great records,

and a breaker of little girls' hearts

all over the world,

Billy "Bleeping" Idol!

[loud cheering]

♪ Hey, little sister, what have you done? ♪

The first time I ever saw Billy Idol

was when he was on MTV

and he was already a huge rock star.

♪ It's a nice day to start again ♪

I want my MTV.

♪ It's a nice day for a white wedding... ♪

Yeah!

[Armstrong] He's wearing leather

and pumping his fist in the air,

and he's got this snarl.

Just very striking.

["Dancing with Myself" plays]

♪ On the floors of Tokyo, or down in... ♪

That is one of the hottest videos on MTV.

♪ ...and a mirror's reflection I'm dancing with myself ♪

[loud cheering]

♪ When there's no one else in sight... ♪

With this haircut, man, you get seen everywhere.

[loud cheering]

Everybody going, "Hey, you're Billy Idol!

'White Wedding,' MTV."

["Rebel Yell" playing]

[host 1] He's one of the hottest names

in rock and roll, performing before sellout crowds

all over the country.

[host 2] He's been called

the Frankenstein of Rock and Roll,

The Pretty Boy of Punk.

♪ In the midnight hour ♪

♪ She cried, "More, more, more" ♪

[Idol] Look, man, I got more young chicks after me

than half of those other geezers, so...

ha, I just wanna get screwed to death, you know?

♪ In the midnight hour, babe, she cried "More, more, more" ♪

Whoa!

I, like, watch Billy Idol footage like it's porn.

[host] Talking about Elvis Presley,

do you ever consider that you've modeled yourself on him

- in any way? - [Idol] No way, man.

I don't take as many drugs as he did.

[host chuckles]

There's no one hotter

or that radiates more sexuality

than Billy fucking Idol.

["Rebel Yell" continues]

[man] He had women, he had drugs,

and I was like, "Yeah, dude, I'm in."

Too much is never enough.

You know, like, this is like a fucking rock god.

["Rebel Yell" continues]

♪ I'd give you all and have none, babe ♪

♪ Just to, just to, just to, just to ♪

♪ To have you here by me, because ♪

♪ In the midnight hour... ♪

[Bourke] When "Rebel Yell" came out

around late '83,

that's around the time

where I started to see big changes in him.

[discordant guitar riff resonates]

[tense, thumping rock music playing]

To be the persona of Billy Idol,

he needed the booze, he needed the drugs

to deal with the pressure of it.

He wasn't Billy Idol unless he was coked up.

The alcohol and the drugs fueled that persona.

[thumping rock music continues]

[crowd cheering]

[music slows]

[no audible dialogue]

[music fades]

[Idol] A big part of life is luck.

You know, it is a big part.

[dramatic, solemn music plays]

William Broad turning into Billy Idol was huge

and, um...

you were gonna make it stick.

Didn't know if it could hold, if people would get it,

but you were gonna make it stick.

[dramatic rock music playing]

But, you know, that was the fun of punk rock.

And that was almost what it was asking you to do.

It was asking you to go out on a fucking limb

and hope, hope to hell it's not sawn off behind you,

'cause it's probably gonna be.

But by the time it is, you'll probably be dead.

- [siren wailing in distance] - [music fades]

[Bourke] I remember getting a call

at like four in the morning from his dad.

And obviously, I was sleeping, and he said,

"Where's my son?"

"He's in New York City, Mr. Broad."

And he said, "Where's my son?"

And I said, uh, "I am-- I'm gonna assume

he's at his apartment."

"Where's my son?"

[dramatic music playing]

[siren wailing in distance]

[music fades]

[gentle music playing]

[Idol] My dad was William Broad.

Dad could be reserved.

You know, he was quite a reserved Englishman.

He was very English, really.

But he was an incredible salesman.

When he sold,

his whole personality came alive.

I'm sort of like my dad.

'Cause, really, what am I but a glorified salesman?

I mean, really.

But the only difference is,

I make my own product.

[gentle music continues]

[Idol] When I was about 14 and a half,

we moved to Bromley,

which is about an hour away from London.

It was right when

the music scene exploded in England.

My dad didn't really completely understand me

because I wasn't trying at school.

Physics, chemistry, mathematics,

I-I just couldn't do it. I mean, I didn't wanna do it.

Well, there was...

a year or two when my dad wouldn't speak to Billy.

[chuckles]

Billy was going through this sort of phase

that my dad didn't understand.

- Yeah. - My dad always wore

a suit and a tie.

Played golf. He was a businessman.

He didn't understand Billy's world of music.

[Joan] He had John Lennon specs

and long hair in those days.

He looked terrible.

[chuckles]

He wasn't gonna hit him

and he had given up shouting.

His only way to protest

- was to stop speaking to him. - [Joan] Was silence.

Dad would talk to Jane and me,

but ignore you at the dinner table.

We didn't make much conversation

- in those two years. - Wow...

- [gentle music plays] - [train horn blares]

[Idol] At first, I was upset,

but then of course there's a side of me going,

you're like a hop, skip, and a jump from the capital.

You know, you're right there.

You can see everything.

["Blockbuster" by Sweet playing]

[Idol] I saw, you know, millions of groups.

That's just what we did. You know, we loved music

and it was kind of...

It was what was giving us a sense of freedom.

He had some friends, they were--

they were all interested in music.

I kind of ran into, um, Steve Bailey.

He was Steve Severin of The Banshees.

And Steve eventually met Susie Ballion,

who became Siouxsie Sioux.

[Joan] They used to come here

and be upstairs in his bedroom.

And a dozen of them

with drums and everything.

So you can imagine the vibrations in the house.

[chuckles]

Used to rock. It really did shake.

[driving rock music plays, stops]

["Ghost Town" by The Specials plays]

[reporter] For many Britons, these are hard times.

Those without work now account

for six percent of the total labor force.

[Idol] The start of the '70s, Britain's economic problems

were turning the country upside down.

There was fighting on the streets.

There was, like, strikes galore.

[reporter] Forecasts of economic growth

have been revised sharply downwards.

[Idol] By the time we were teenagers,

they were telling you there's no future.

Didn't matter what qualifications you had,

there were no jobs.

I think that young people have got to the end

of their tether, really.

["God Save the Queen" by Sex Pistols playing]

When I was at university, I got a postcard from Steve,

Steve Bailey, Steve Severin,

saying, "Get back up here.

We've seen the group we've been waiting for,"

and he was talking about the Sex Pistols.

♪ God save the Queen ♪

♪ The fascist regime ♪

In the very beginning, there was a small little group

called the Bromley Contingent, and he was part of that.

They got hip to the punk deal

at the early stages,

and Billy was always there.

I remember him when he had black hair.

His haircut was a bit like Spock's.

I had the worst fucking hair, by the way.

It was too thick. I couldn't do shit with it.

I looked like a hairdresser.

[song ends]

[Idol] So, spring of '76,

I came to the 100 Club.

The Sex Pistols were doing a...

a residency, you know,

and it was like, "This is what we were waiting for,"

where somebody challenged what was going on,

the sort of like boredom of everything.

But then people were coming off the street just to, uh,

see what was going on,

and they're shocked, I remember,

'cause the people's expression were like...

"What is this?"

It was incredible, and you're going,

"Now, these guys aren't so different from us."

That was really where you went, "Wow."

["Submission" by Sex Pistols playing]

In a way, the Pistols were telling you,

"All you gotta do is get up there and do it."

♪ Submission... ♪

[man] It seemed like everyone used to come

and see us play. The fans, if you like.

A few weeks later, they'd all started bands.

We're looking around, we're still playing away,

and there's, "Oh, that guy used to come to our gig."

"Oh, so did he. They're in--

Oh, he's in The Buzzcocks now."

"Oh, he's in The Clash."

It's like all these bands just came out of nowhere.

[upbeat punk rock music plays]

[Idol] After the first year of university,

I told my mom and dad, "I'm not going back."

Well, that was a sad day.

[chuckles]

"I'm gonna join a punk rock group."

So they were horrified, really horrified,

that I was leaving university,

but at the same time,

they didn't prevent me doing what I was doing.

Didn't try and stop me or anything.

I encouraged him with it, I think. [chuckles]

[music stops]

But Bill wasn't happy about it.

["Rock On" by Generation X playing]

[Idol] They were frightened to death of me

being in a punk rock group.

I know they were.

We were not thinking long-term.

There was probably 200 people really into it.

The scene was so small

and you kind of had to advertise.

So I put an advert in Melody Maker.

I saw this advert in the paper and I thought,

"Oh, that sounds really interesting."

So Billy and I got together a couple of times,

but then this other band, Chelsea, comes along,

and we'd both gone to audition.

[song ends]

[man] When Billy arrived, I thought, "That's the look."

We looked at him and it was like,

"Yeah!"

[Idol] You know, I was a bit nervous.

They were really nice and helped me tune my guitar up.

[chuckles]

Gene October said,

"He may not be able to tune up,

but he's got the right attitude.

He's got the right look.

He knows the scene. He's in."

["Trouble is the Day" by Chelsea playing]

And so, Billy and I became the guitarist

and bass player of Chelsea

with Gene October as the singer.

[indistinct shout]

[song ends]

[interviewer]

No.

[interviewer]

No.

[interviewer]

[interviewer] Okay.

[bright punk rock music plays]

[James] Billy and I, we were both clearly middle class.

This worked against us because punk rock was seen

as a very working-class movement,

and it was always difficult for Billy and I

because we couldn't pretend to be something different.

But that bonded us together.

Instantly, Billy and I felt

compelled to write songs together.

♪ Ready, steady, go ♪

♪ Ready, steady, go... ♪

As children, I'd watch Ready Steady Go!,

this show that was on a Friday night,

and it always began with the catchphrase...

"The weekend starts here.

Ready, steady, go!"

♪ Go! ♪

[James] I mean, we're talking me and Billy

first meeting through the advert in August 1976.

By October, we're playing gigs with Chelsea.

And we've already written half a dozen songs ourselves.

From that moment, we suddenly went...

[exhales] ...you know,

"We should do our own group."

[Idol] So we decided to leave Chelsea.

And within a couple of weeks,

we'd already settled on calling ourself...

"Generation X."

[woman] Generation X,

where did you get the name from?

It came from a sort of a... a book in the '60s.

It's about what young people thought then.

- Right? - [woman] Right.

And we felt it meant exactly the same for us today.

You know, the futility and things, things around us.

[high-pitched feedback squeals]

[traffic droning]

[Idol] In 1977,

I'd found Derwood playing guitar in a cover band.

He was doing Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple,

Black Sabbath numbers.

[James] And we both went...

"He's our guy."

["Your Generation" by Generation X playing]

All of a sudden, shaved me head off,

put some clothes that Billy gave me...

and I was in a punk band.

The group was really explosive.

Everybody just meshed together perfectly.

Billy was fantastic as a singer.

[Andrews] And Mark Laff was the drummer.

♪ Might take a bit of violence... ♪

Billy and Tony were a little bit up there, you know,

not only in age but in social standing.

So me and Mark really bonded, and what that did

is kind of split the band into two camps,

the leaders

and the followers.

♪ Your generation ♪

There's Covent Garden, Neal Street.

The Sex Pistols, uh, there'd been a bit of violence

at the Nashville and the Marquee,

so there was kind of like an unofficial ban,

and they-they weren't letting us play in Inner London.

So we decided, "Let's start a club,"

so there was somewhere for us to play,

and also we could rehearse there.

So we began The Roxy.

[Andrews] The Roxy was brilliant because

it kind of felt like we owned it.

We built the stage.

All of us had chipped in and built the stage.

We put up the black drapes

and made these simple flyers.

But then at one of the rehearsals,

Billy turned up and he went,

"I'm thinking of calling myself 'Billy Idol.'"

[soft rockabilly music playing]

[Idol] A teacher at school had written

on my third form report, I was about 13,

had written in big letters, "William is...

I-D-L-E," you know?

And I knew my dad is gonna fucking kill me.

How am I gonna show my dad that?

[laughs] So I started to think about it

and I went, "Could it be Billy Id...

Idol?"

[laughs] But it was just a fun thing.

There was already Iggy Pop, you know? So, uh...

why not be Billy Idol sort of thing, you know?

You're your own hero.

It was kind of fun, you know? It was fun.

We were having fun playing

with this new world we were creating, really.

All the punk rockers

were kind of having fun with it.

[music fades]

[host] They are punk rockers.

The new craze, they told me.

- [indistinct chatter] - Their heroes?

Not the nice, clean Rolling Stones.

You see, they are as drunk as I am.

They're clean by comparison.

They're a group called the Sex Pistols.

[Idol] The Sex Pistols... [laughs]

They'd actually got signed a record deal with EMI

and put out "Anarchy in the UK."

And because of that, they went on this TV show,

and the presenter, Bill Grundy,

he was a bit drunk, and so he was deliberately

winding them up, you know?

And, um, under his breath,

Johnny-- John Lydon, John Rotten, said "shit."

[Grundy] It's what?

Nothing. A rude word.

Next question.

No, no. What was the rude word?

- Shit. - [Grundy] Was it really?

- Good heavens. - [Idol] Bill Grundy then

started to talk to Siouxsie Sioux,

who was one of the Bromley Contingent

who was standing behind the Pistols,

and started to say sort of sexual things to her.

[Grundy]

He's like your dad, isn't he?

[Grundy]

Enjoying myself.

Yeah.

[Jones]

You dirty bastard.

[Grundy] Go on, then. Go.

You dirty fucker.

- [Grundy] What a clever boy. - [laughter]

What a fucking rotter.

Well, that's it for tonight.

The other rocker...

The next day, all of this was on the front page

of every newspaper in England.

All the dailies and the evening news had,

"The Filth and the Fury!

Sex Pistols Swear on Television."

Punk just went kaboom.

♪ I'm walkin' in the street ♪

♪ With the latest on my feet ♪

♪ And the hair that makes the people stop and stare ♪

[male host] A whole new teenage cult

that seems to be on their way to being as big

as Mods and Rockers were in the '60s.

♪ Wild, wild, wild youth ♪

[female host] The cult is called "punk."

The music, "punk rock."

Basic rock music. Raw, outrageous, and crude.

Go on! Tell 'em about punk.

♪ My records are so loud ♪

♪ I gotta hang out with the crowd ♪

[Idol] Overnight, every kid in England

had a leather jacket

and wanted to look like the Pistols.

And we were right there, you know?

We were right there.

♪ Because it gets you in the end... ♪

We started The Roxy, and then--

where there was only room for 250 people,

we had a thousand people in there

the first night, you know?

♪ Wild, wild, wild youth ♪

♪ Wild, wild, wild youth... ♪

At The Roxy, there was definitely that sense

that people were coming to learn how to be punks.

- [Idol] Probably, yeah. - Yeah.

- 'Cause it was ground zero... - Yeah.

- ...for punk rock. - Absolutely.

♪ Wild youth ♪

[Townshend] You were really brash

and confident and charismatic.

I remember thinking that you were gonna be fucking huge.

[song ends]

Whoo! It's Billy Idol in the nude!

[indistinct]

Hey! Yeah. [chuckles]

You can film me when I have pants on.

[indistinct]

[James] When I look back, it seems extraordinary,

but it's like one of those moments

when the planets align and it's meant to be.

["Heavens Inside" by Generation X playing]

♪ He came down like a star tonight ♪

♪ He's in love with his lonely life... ♪

[Andrews] We were on tour quite a lot in England.

You know, we'd do the gig and the road crew would come back

and we'd all just trash the room.

♪ Heaven's inside somewhere... ♪

You know, spill stuff and burn sheets.

Not on purpose, but... you know.

♪ Heaven's inside somewhere... ♪

We had a club in Birmingham called Barbarella's,

which was the club for-for punk.

Gen X came up and did a weekend,

and I was right up against

the front of the stage when they came out.

It was like a gob fest, you know? [laughs]

I mean, spitting at the bands

was the way that you showed appreciation,

which was really bizarre.

[song ends]

[crowd cheers]

Sometimes, when Generation X played,

it was, uh, frightening.

It was frightening.

It was, for a young kid.

[lilting, whimsical music playing]

[interviewer] What happened at your gig last Sunday?

Something strange going on there, wasn't there?

It was just a bit of, uh, kind of aggravation.

The violence aimed towards us by skinheads and punks,

you know, they all came to our gigs

with the mutual hatred for us

because they looked at the qualifications of all of us

and came to the conclusion these guys were posers.

[no audible lyrics]

[Jones] Billy stuck out 'cause he's beautiful.

He was like a pretty boy

and I don't think a lot of people took him seriously.

[Idol] We did get a bit of stick.

People did take exception,

but you had to not care about things like that too much

because people were gonna find something about you

they didn't like

even if you were working class.

I still would've been good-looking, so.

[music ends]

So there was loads of little barriers you came across,

but then something would happen

and they would fall away.

- [static hisses] - [audience cheering]

Alright.

Welcome to a new show called Marc.

Could be a lot of new sounds, a lot of new experiences.

[Idol] We met Marc Bolan at The Roxy.

[Andrews] He was really into the punk

because he was the first punk, really...

["Bang a Gong (Get It On)" by T. Rex playing]

...you know, four or five years earlier.

♪ Well, you're dirty and sweet ♪

♪ Clad in black, don't look back ♪

♪ And I love you... ♪

I find the Pistols very believable.

I find The Ramones are beautifully unbelievable.

I mean that in the nicest way.

I love The Jam. Uh, The Damned,

I love their songs.

[Taylor] He invited Generation X

onto the Marc Bolan show,

which, you know, in pop culture

is a really famous show

because Bowie did the same show.

[traffic humming]

So we drove there, and our wonderful road crew,

their van broke down

with all our equipment.

[mellow music playing]

We got there, but our gear didn't.

So we were standing next to Marc

when the producer came out.

She said, "That's it, Marc. I mean, their gear's not here.

They can't be on the show."

And, you know, from what I understand,

Billy kind of got Marc a little stirred up.

You know, Billy was a little too cute.

Marc said, "Well, if they're not doing it,

I'm not doing it."

And she went, "What? What do you mean?"

And he started to say, "Look. Calm down.

I can lend them my guitar.

I'm sure one of the other bands would lend them

a bass guitar or something

and we can hire a drum kit."

[Andrews] And then we played on his TV show.

But after we'd done our thing, they started filming

Marc and David.

Go!

[playing "Sleeping Next To You"]

And I'm like, I was there.

I'll never forget that feeling of,

"Oh my God, there's Marc Bolan and David Bowie."

You know what I mean? It was beautiful.

[traffic humming]

[Idol] We were waiting a couple of weeks

for the show to come out.

Well, in the meantime...

Marc has his car accident where he dies.

[reporter] Six o'clock news.

We've just heard that controversial rock star

Marc Bolan has been killed in a car crash.

His Mini, being driven by girlfriend Gloria Jones,

has careered off the road into a tree in South London.

Gloria's detained in hospital with serious injuries...

[Idol] That was a terrible shock.

He never drove a car because he...

because he didn't wanna die in a car accident.

[solemn music playing]

A week or so after he died...

15 million people or something saw that show.

[audience cheering]

This is a new group called, uh, Generation X,

who have a lead singer called Billy Idol,

who's supposed to be as... [sniffs]

...pretty as me.

We'll see now. Generation X.

One, two, three.

[playing "Your Generation"]

♪ Well, I'm trying to forget your generation ♪

♪ Usin' any way I see ♪

♪ Well, the end must justify the means ♪

♪ Your generation don't mean a thing to me! ♪

♪ Your generation don't mean a thing to me! ♪

♪ Your generation don't mean a thing to me! ♪

[cheering]

[dramatic rock music playing]

[James] It was the most extraordinary time.

We knew something was happening.

There was a queue around the block when we played.

[audience cheering]

[James] Once we're on the covers of magazines,

everything kind of changes and suddenly it becomes real.

["Your Generation" playing with gentle music layering in]

[Andrews] My mum was so proud, you know?

She could tell all her friends,

"My son's on Top of the Pops."

♪ Ready, steady, go! ♪

♪ All things she said... ♪

[Idol] This explosion on television,

that's the last thing we were seriously expecting.

We were doing this thing that we thought

was a completely out-there thing,

it'll never get big.

We were not thinking, "This is going to be huge."

'Cause it was not on the horizon.

[gentle, pensive music playing]

But after that, I never had to turn back.

It just went on from there, you know.

[music fades]

["Eyes Without a Face" playing]

- [man] Get ready! It's... - Billy "Bleeping" Idol!

[Idol] There was a moment there where... [laughs]

...you know, I'd done what I set out to do.

I was coming back to England.

I'd done it, you know?

So I was coming back in triumph

and, uh, I nearly ruined it.

[droplet plunks]

So we flew to London

when we met a load of our pals that we knew.

They had some of the strongest heroin.

Persian Brown, I think it was.

[song fades]

- [sniffs] - Everybody did a line or so.

And, uh, they all nodded out

except for me and this mate of mine,

and we kind of went, "Well, that's funny."

So we did a few more lines, really. [laughs]

[synth music plays, distorts]

I was basically dying.

[music further distorts, slows]

I was turning blue.

So, um, they put me in a bath, in an ice-cold bath.

And I remember them walking me around

on the top of the building, you know, on the roof.

[music fades]

- [church bell tolls] - [footsteps plodding]

- [solemn music playing] - [car brakes squealing]

[indistinct chatter]

[James] You know, when I'd met Billy,

he didn't smoke, didn't do drugs, didn't drink.

So he was totally clean, you know?

Sure fucking changed that quick, didn't he?

I think he felt a pressure from people to be Billy Idol.

To somehow be credible.

And maybe that-- I don't know

what he would tell you were his reasons

for starting to take heroin,

but the thing that changed everything

or that changed mine and Billy's relationship

was that we'd gone out one night together

and we'd met the girls from Hot Gossip.

[mellow rock dance music playing]

I was in this punk rock dance group called Hot Gossip.

The choreography was very aggressive,

modern ballet, sexual, ooh.

We danced to the latest music.

[Idol] Perri initially had been basically a bigger star

than me in England.

You know, yeah, I was on Top of the Pops,

but they were on regular TV, you know?

[Lister] We were performing in a nightclub

but in the corner was Billy and his bass player, Tony.

We just walked towards each other

and we started chatting, and...

"Oh my God, this guy is perfect."

He was such the life and soul, and so was I.

So together, we were like a firecracker.

I mean, we hardly ate, we hardly slept,

but we just... we were always out having fun.

[music continues]

[James] Billy did start going out with Perri.

The biggest problem was that

heroin was involved in that.

[psychedelic rock music playing]

You know, for me it was something

I was really scared of.

[Idol] That's what was going on.

The scene had embraced hard drugs, really.

A number of people were on them, you know.

But, you know, you're wide open for it.

You know, a lot of the people we loved

were all heroin addicts.

Lou Reed wrote the song "Heroin."

You know, The New York Dolls

were all heroin addicts, practically.

So you weren't thinking how dangerous it was.

In fact, you're thinking quite the opposite.

"Maybe this could unleash something," you know.

- [music fades] - [airplane engine whines]

[dramatic rock music playing]

[James] We were touring Japan.

You know, we're playing really big places,

people are going nuts.

And, um, one night after the gig,

Billy and I went to a club

and we were standing having a drink,

and we were watching this kid dancing with his reflection

in the mirrored walls in this club.

And Billy went, "Wow, look at that kid. Look.

He's, like, dancing with his reflection."

Right? And I went, "Yeah. Dancing with myself."

I went, "Billy, that's gonna be a great name for a song."

[traffic buzzing]

When we were recording back home,

Billy came in one morning and he went,

"You know that song,

'Dancing With Myself' we've got?

I've got a bit of a tune for it."

And he went, "Look, it goes like this."

[hums song's melody]

And literally in the space of like two minutes,

we wrote all the lyrics, just the two of us,

and by the afternoon we'd recorded the demo.

[gentle, dramatic music playing]

[Idol] We'd been a part of this music revolution...

and we wanna push it, push it onward.

The first initial wave of punk was ending

and a lot of people were morphing their music

into different areas.

Some people were leaving the initial group,

or the initial group had broken up.

And, um, eventually, one way or another,

Derwood and Mark left.

They left me and Tony on our own.

[James] So I went into, um, Chrysalis Records

and said, "Look, I've got this idea.

Why don't we see if we could get

Bill Aucoin to manage the group?"

[Idol] Tony, I think as a joke, sort of said,

"What about the guy who manages KISS, Bill Aucoin?"

'Cause I thought, look, here's the manager

of one of the biggest groups in the States.

He's going to understand what Generation X is about.

[Idol] So I said to Bill Aucoin,

"What we need is a rock and roll,

for want of a better word, 'disco producer.'

We need someone who knows dance music."

'Cause I was listening to just as much disco music

and disco remix as I was punk rock,

and I was starting to think,

what about if you put the two musics together?

- [applause] - Alright.

And the winner is...

Wow.

The winner is Giorgio Moroder

for Midnight Express.

[bright disco beat playing]

[Idol] Giorgio Moroder worked in the disco world.

[funky synth instrumentals play]

He was a producer who was huge,

and he'd written some songs for Donna Summer.

- ♪ Lookin' for some ♪ - ♪ Hot stuff ♪

♪ Baby, this evening ♪

- ♪ I need some ♪ - ♪ Hot stuff ♪

♪ Baby, tonight ♪

- [song ends] - [waves crashing]

[man] The first time I heard Billy,

I was in, um, Los Angeles.

I worked for Giorgio Moroder.

I used to screen all of the material

that came to the house.

We'd just get records, cassettes, everything,

'cause Moroder was huge at that time.

And I'd never seen-- I'd never seen Gen X,

I'd never seen Billy, I just got the cassette.

["Dancing with Myself" playing]

It was a lucky break.

I think it was just the fact that I'm in the States

and I'm not paying attention to punk rock that much,

but the voice from Idol was like,

wow, you can't deny it.

♪ Or down in London town to go, go... ♪

[Forsey] So I said, "Hey boss, maybe you should do this."

He didn't wanna do it.

I said, "Well, maybe I can do it?

Maybe I can produce it for your company?"

I'd never been a producer.

He called Bill Aucoin

and, uh, they said, "Yeah, let's do it."

[laughs]

First gig ever.

[dramatic rock music playing]

It was a little scary at first.

The scene in London was a lot of heroin everywhere.

[James] We recorded at AIR Studios,

which is above Oxford Circus.

We had the idea that we should get Steve Jones

to play the rhythm guitars.

I had a seizure 'cause I'd just come back from Thailand

and I was strung out.

Everyone thought I was joking

'cause I'm a joker, you know?

But next thing I know, I'm carted along Oxford Street

on a stretcher.

Anyway, that was what I remember of that.

[James] Steve New played the lead guitar parts.

He was a heroin addict as well.

Keith Forsey is in the control room, thinking,

"What the fuck am I letting myself in for?"

There are three large bottles of methadone

on the top of the control desk.

One for Steve, you know, one for everybody.

In the States, we were into different kind of drugs.

[slow tense music plays]

[James] The hardest part was Billy's...

you know, doing heroin and hanging out with Perri.

The monster comes out...

- [guitar riff plays] - ...and it changes everything.

The closeness that we had as best friends,

we couldn't be that anymore.

[slow discordant music plays]

It made us drift apart.

[music intensifies, fades out]

[slow pulsating music plays]

[Idol] It's easy to say it's the drugs.

But what about if it's me?

What about if it's really Billy who's doing this?

[slow dramatic music plays]

I didn't know who Billy Idol was

when we started Generation X or Chelsea.

But by 1981, I know who Billy Idol is.

Your music has changed, isn't it?

You're not the same Generation X you were

when you first broke in on the scene.

Um... Don't know. I feel pretty much the same.

Okay. That's quite interesting.

- It's kind of more you? - I think so, yeah.

So what do you think it was in the beginning?

[Idol] I've got five years being in the public eye.

[fast-paced music plays]

It's five years being on television.

[crew] 51-1.

[Idol] It's five years honing your act.

So now I know who Billy Idol is.

And now I'm finding out where I wanna take him.

What if, suddenly, you did take off

and you were number one in America,

you were number one in England?

What would you do with the money, then?

I'd spend it on drugs.

The drugs just happened to come along with a time

where Tony's kind of rule

of Generation X was faltering, really.

And now it's time to take over.

I hijacked Generation X, really.

That last Gen X album was really

the first Billy Idol solo album, really.

[dramatic music plays]

[Forsey] We kept "Dancing With Myself."

We did the whole album.

The album wasn't very successful.

But "Dancing With Myself" hit in New York.

[tense music plays]

[Bourke] This track was like

this feature of New York clubs,

so everywhere you went, no matter where you went,

you heard that.

I think, in some ways, it gave him a lot of hope.

[bass guitar plays]

[Idol] The record company said to me, um,

"Mate, you can't have done it here."

Things were faltering in England, you know.

Punk rock was basically over.

"Why don't you come to America? You know...

Come to New York. You know, it's bankrupt.

Anything goes." [laughs]

♪ New York is just a great big stage ♪

♪ Where everyone has a part to play ♪

♪ You'll find everything you might need ♪

♪ From one to ten From A to Z ♪

♪ And from side to side From place to place ♪

♪ New York is full of every race ♪

[music abruptly stops]

[tense music plays]

[Idol] When I first came to New York,

I had a mattress, some sheets,

and my guitar.

The record company had given me a certain amount of dollars

and, uh, I'd pay the rent and buy pot and stuff,

and a little bit of weak smack.

["Rapture" by Blondie playing]

And I'd go out to dance clubs.

["Rapture" continues]

The New York underground club scene

was pretty exclusive,

so when Billy and I met,

we could always get into the same clubs.

And, man, we vibed so hard together as soon as we met.

I was a real party animal.

Be it on the coke or the booze

or the what-have-you.

We partied almost every night.

[synth music playing]

I have to tell you about the day

that I thought Billy Idol was the coolest dude in the world.

We walk into the club.

David Bowie was wearing a suit

and he's in the back of the club

sitting all by himself.

And I never met him.

Bowie was our symbol of sophistication

and we were like... [laughs]

We were lit. I mean, come on.

We were totally lit.

And Billy went...

[in English accent] ..."Bloody hell!

That's David fucking Bowie!"

[in normal voice] And as he said "Bowie,"

he barfed.

[laughs] He went,

"Bloody hell! That's David fucking Bowie!"

[synthesizer playing]

And then he went,

"Hello, mate." [laughs]

That was the night that changed my life

because David and I, we became good friends.

And I produced his record, Let's Dance.

[Idol] We all wanted to be David Bowie.

[Bourke] Billy was out at the clubs

and there was a little notoriety around him.

People started to recognize who he was

and he'd put no new music out here in America.

So we wanted to get something out pretty quickly,

so in '81,

decided to put out a four-track EP.

Just put together four songs.

[Forsey] They presented him all these producers

and he said, "I wanna go with Keith."

[laughs] Yeah. He covered my ass.

It was really good. [laughs]

So I could see that "Dancing With Myself"

is in all these clubs.

How do I follow it up?

I've just got to figure out

something that Keith Forsey can produce.

Now, Keith Forsey's a drummer.

[up-tempo drumbeat playing]

I gotta find something that's kind of a drum thing.

What about an old '60s song, you know, some cover?

♪ Here she come now sayin', "Mony, Mony" ♪

We had "Mony Mony," "Dancing With Myself,"

"Baby Talk,"

a cover of a Gen X song, "Untouchables,"

which I had written.

But it gave us the four tracks.

♪ ...love, and I feel all right ♪

[Bourke] We got something out, something released,

and I felt like he was on a mission.

He knew there was an audience

that was ready for something new.

- ♪ I said, yeah ♪ - ♪ Yeah ♪

- ♪ Yeah ♪ - ♪ Yeah ♪

- ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ - ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

- ♪ Yeah ♪ - ♪ Yeah... ♪

Wasn't quite the same reaction as "Dancing With Myself,"

but it was a great follow-up

and it kept me in the New Wave dance chart.

["Mony Mony" continues playing]

So I had to get a band together quite quickly.

[man] I was in a band

that was managed by Bill Aucoin.

He said, "Do you know who Billy Idol is?"

And I said, "Oh, yeah. He's the Generation X guy."

He said, "Well, he's moved to New York

and we're managing him.

You guys should meet."

Steve is not so much the punk guy.

He's the American... [imitates guitar riff]

He's that guy.

- ♪ Yeah ♪ - ♪ Yeah... ♪

I said, "Look, I may not be the guitar player for you,

but just give me a shot, you know."

[music continues]

♪ Come on ♪

♪ Come on, come on ♪

[Idol] Bill Aucoin had come out of television originally

and he told me very early on, like in 1980,

that there was gonna be this new platform

that was gonna be there for the new musics

that were gonna happen

and I'd be perfect for it.

[MTV theme playing]

Welcome to MTV, Music Television,

the world's first 24-hour stereo video music channel.

You'll never look at music the same way again.

[reporter] One of the hottest things

on television these days

is a cable station

that plays nothing but rock music.

Music Television. MTV.

["Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits playing]

MTV came around in August of '81.

MTV, which is not in every city,

claims an audience of ten million

ranging in age from 12 to 35.

All those people that now were tuned in to MTV

were expecting something different.

The video, you have all the visuals

that just really stick in your mind.

Especially artists I haven't liked before,

if I see them on the videos sometimes,

it turns me on to their music and what they do.

I think there's this new visual music

hitting now in the '80s,

and I think MTV is ushering that in.

You've got people that grew up with rock and roll

and they grew up with a television set.

And MTV is the first marriage of those two forms.

[Idol] It was kind of the future, really.

This TV channel that was 24 hours

needed content, and we were gonna provide it.

[ambient traffic noise]

- [Idol] Hey! - [laughter]

- Oh, back at work. - Miss you, mate.

Hello! Good to see you!

In the studio, Billy's really a man of the moment.

He's on or he's not.

The magic's gonna be there or it's not.

So we're in Westlake Audio.

We're kind of beavering away,

but, you know, we didn't-- it's not there.

So I said, Bill, "We're gonna set you up in a studio."

Right? So he goes in, sits down.

We set him up, he's got play, stop, and start.

Thing there, and you sat in there for, like, ten minutes.

He comes out and says, "Teacher!"

- [laughs] - I've done my homework.

Said, "Teacher!"

I go in there and he's like...

♪ Hey, little sister ♪

It's like, "Fuck!"

♪ Hey, little sister, what have you done? ♪

- About 15 or 20 minutes... - Yeah!

...or something and I'd somehow got the pieces.

- Oh, yeah. - I got the verse.

- I got the chorus. - Yeah.

I had the...

[hums "White Wedding"]

Yeah.

I had those pieces.

We kind of had the kernel of the song.

["White Wedding" playing]

The first time I met Billy, there was a sort of a crisis

because there was this video called "White Wedding"

that had to be shot, like, tomorrow.

And Billy came running in and he said,

"I got this great idea to be the Invisible Man

and to take all these shrouds off."

And then I fired off that and somebody else fired off that.

Then we said we'd have this punk wedding

with a wedding ring which is made of barbed wire.

And then literally the next morning, we shot it.

♪ Hey, little sister, what have you done? ♪

♪ Hey, little sister, who's the only one? ♪

♪ Hey, little sister, who's your... ♪

"White Wedding" really was his breakthrough song in America.

♪ ...only one ♪

♪ Hey, little sister, shotgun ♪

♪ It's a nice day to start again ♪

This is what is currently doing very, very well.

♪ It's a nice day for a white wedding ♪

[interviewer] Congratulations on your album,

Billy Idol. Good name for an album.

Yeah, well, it's easy anyway, put it like that.

Everybody's all talkin' and talkin' and talkin'

- about "White Wedding." - That's right.

♪ Hey, little sister, who is it you're with? ♪

[Lister] People see "White Wedding" 'cause MTV starts.

Billy was one of the first people on it, really.

♪ Hey, little sister... ♪

[Lister] They didn't have that much to play.

So when they said, "Your video is on heavy rotation,"

they played it every half an hour

basically 'cause they didn't have much else.

♪ ...start again, ow! ♪

Billy Idol put MTV on the map.

That David Mallet "White Wedding" video

was a game-changer.

The visuals, it was the angst of punk rock

that we really didn't see in America before that.

We'd come by, we'd hang out by the studios.

We were a small business,

and we were grateful

that here's a guy who helped us

launch this network that could've very easily failed.

[commentator] You have to be demented to take these videos

for more than one night.

Or you have to be a teenager.

["White Wedding" continues]

♪ Pick it up! ♪

♪ Take me back home, yeah ♪

He understood the power of visuals.

It broke through via MTV

and it really moved into pop culture.

[reporter] Video rock is fast becoming

the music industry's marketing miracle.

Some California record stores

are noticing sales up 10% to 20%

for albums by groups who appear on MTV.

But a good video can't make a bad song good.

A good video can make a good song great,

and that's what Billy had.

He made great music

and his videos just took them even higher.

And playback!

["Dancing with Myself" plays]

[Idol] I wanted to get movie people

who've already done films

so you had somebody thinking widescreen almost.

[fast-paced music plays]

Even right from the start with "Dancing With Myself,"

I got Tobe Hooper,

who'd done The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,

Jeff Stein, who'd done The Kids Are Alright,

and David Mallet.

[projector clicking]

It was all imagery.

We could project how we wanted to look,

and be in control of it, really.

[clicking]

[funky dance music playing]

[Bourke] The great thing about New York City at that point

was that it seemed everybody went out to clubs.

So Billy, by going out and being visible,

we bumped into these MTV VJs.

They saw the swagger, they saw the charisma.

They liked Billy.

We are here with Billy Idol.

Isn't tonight your birthday, Billy?

[laughs] Oh, Christ.

I kind of thought that it was.

And just in the nick of time,

it's J.J. Jackson with a cake for you,

compliments of MTV.

Billy, how old are you tonight?

[Bourke] They were kind of rooting for him

because he had all the ingredients

of being a massive star.

["Rebel Yell" playing]

[Idol] I know a lot of people,

they want rock and roll to be dead.

But, uh, rock is dead.

Long live rock, you know.

♪ Last night, a little dancer came dancin' to my door ♪

♪ Last night, a little angel came pumpin'... ♪

[reporter] Ever since the rock anthem "Rebel Yell"

hit the airwaves late last fall,

kids everywhere have been lining up

to watch Billy Idol in action.

[Bourke] He was now playing nationwide in more cities.

MTV was starting to become available in more homes.

♪ In the midnight hour ♪

♪ She cried, "More, more, more" ♪

♪ With a rebel yell ♪

♪ She cried, "More, more, more" ♪

♪ "More, more, more" ♪

[Stevens] The audience was starting to dress like Billy,

mimicking the fists and doing all this stuff.

[chuckles] We thought that was great.

♪ ...sit and beg ♪

You know, you get up in front of 15,000 people,

and the crash afterwards

is just horrendous.

We didn't know how to deal with that.

So we'd get on the bus

and, you know, continue to party,

drink and whatever else,

and check into the hotel,

get three or four hours' sleep and then the cycle continues.

♪ In the midnight hour ♪

♪ She cried, "More, more, more" ♪

♪ With a rebel yell ♪

♪ "More, more, more" ♪

[song becomes muffled]

[man] Let's hear it for Billy Idol!

And Steve Stevens!

[tense music playing]

[crowd cheering]

[Idol] You get pretty burned out.

But I always backed off the heroin

and then drank on tour, you know. [laughs]

I just drank a lot.

I just felt terrible.

["Flesh for Fantasy" playing]

♪ Well, there's a change in pace ♪

♪ Of fantasy and taste... ♪

Do you think people expect rock stars

to be outrageous still?

Yeah, I guess they do.

I'm only here for fun, really.

I gotta have fun, you know?

We barely saw each other, you know, like once a week

for a while and then two months off.

And then a month together.

So it was very erratic, our relationship.

♪ Back to back... ♪

When you have that kind of mass adoration,

it would be very, very hard not to change.

Sing it.

♪ Flesh, flesh for fantasy ♪

There are literally women

throwing themselves in front of you.

Literally throwing themselves,

prostrate, on the ground, you know.

♪ Flesh for fantasy ♪

Of course he wasn't faithful to me.

I wasn't faithful to him either.

But, you know, we got along, we got by.

["Flesh for Fantasy" continues]

[Idol] She did say to me,

"Why do you have to be Mr. Rock and Roll..."

- [song stops] - "...24 hours a day?"

And it's a bit like, "Yeah, but that's the job."

You know, "I know what you're saying, love,

but the job is to be Billy Idol."

It's like... [laughs]

Billy, how are you?

Alright, really.

- Um, Billy-- - Having a great time.

I've had some very heavy sex while I've been in Australia.

[laughs]

["Eyes Without a Face" playing]

[interviewer] What you got coming up next?

Where's Billy Idol heading?

Uh, to the bank.

[laughter]

♪ I'm all out of hope ♪

♪ One more bad break ♪

♪ Could bring a fall ♪

[Bourke] That Rebel Yell record,

I think, produced four hits on it.

And not just in North America.

He broke through everywhere.

I know he had great joy in it

being successful in the UK

'cause I think that was his big point.

He wanted to prove that he was a valid

and an authentic musician.

♪ Eyes without a face ♪

[interviewer] Are you anxious to be taken seriously?

[smacks lips] Well, I'm anxious,

at least, to feel that, yeah, that my songs are good

and they're exciting.

And that's why I'd like to be taken seriously, yeah.

♪ Les yeux sans visage ♪

♪ Eyes without a face ♪

For a guy like me, a composer,

Billy's songs are more interesting

than just the typical rock and roll songs.

It's sort of like the precursor

to Nirvana.

["Eyes Without a Face" continues playing]

There's dynamics.

It's a totally different style,

but Billy's songs would have sections and interludes,

and I'm sure a lot of it had to do with Steve...

[guitar solo playing]

...because they're really interesting guitar parts.

Very different than a lot of formula songs

where you just, you know, like, thrash through the song.

♪ Eyes without a face ♪

♪ Got no human grace ♪

Billy Idol was... He was our Frank Sinatra.

He kinda had the whole thing, you know?

♪ Eyes without a face ♪

- [song fades] - [audience applauds]

[Idol] Obviously, there's a lot of stress

that comes along with success.

When I came to America,

my dad wrote to me.

He thought that taking drugs was all to do with me

combating stress.

He sent me these letters.

[intriguing music plays]

Or he sent them to Brigid a lot of times.

'Cause Brigid Waters,

she worked for Aucoin and Chrysalis at one point.

[Idol reading letter] "Dear Brigid,

it has been quite a year for us all,

and without you, things would've been

much more difficult.

Billy is entitled to run his own life

exactly as he chooses.

His money is his own.

He can spend it, save it, squander it,

give it away, make silly deals,

be over-generous.

Joan and I think we have to hang in,

have to try to protect his finances

and hope he will allow that."

[music turns ominous]

Please welcome Billy Idol.

[cheering, applause]

[Idol] But my dad just couldn't imagine, you know.

Nice to see you. Come on over here, sir.

[Idol] 'Cause I was traversing this unknown world.

I didn't go to somewhere where they teach you

how to be on television.

It was all just off the top of your head.

[Letterman] Uh, you're interested in films?

I know you would like to be in a Star Trek movie.

I'd really like to do something tacky like that,

- yeah, you know. - [laughter]

I wouldn't mind being in something like that.

I mean, Tobe Hooper,

he asked me to be in this film he's done called

Space Vampires.

- Uh-huh. - That would've been great

to have been in something like that.

[Letterman] Yeah. Yeah.

I'm sure-- I would think that you have

a really nice career ahead of you.

If you want to do films, that's great.

[Mallet] Did I see an actor there?

No, I didn't, but I didn't

because I wasn't looking for it.

And at that time, I wonder

whether he would've been disciplined enough

to be a real proper jobbing actor.

[bright, dramatic music playing]

[reporter] Only a few short years ago,

the release of a movie soundtrack album

was received with indifference or audible groans.

Now the record industry is singing a different tune

as top-grossing movie musicals are spinning off albums

that sell long after

the conventional publicity campaign

for a movie is over.

[Idol] Bill Aucoin had met Joel Silver.

I think Joel Silver had just done Streets of Fire

so he thought he could make a Billy Idol film.

[reporter] Streets of Fire is an example of good marketing

over poor movie-making.

With bad reviews and negative word-of-mouth,

Streets of Fire should have disappeared

from the theaters long ago.

That it didn't is further proof

that any popsicle can survive

if its music is exposed on MTV

and on radio playlists.

[tense music plays]

[man] Joel and I were friendly at the time,

and Joel's career was just starting.

He was getting well-known in all the studios

and he said we should do a movie with Billy.

He's perfect for it.

[Idol] So we went out to LA to talk about making a film,

and on the plane ride out there,

I read this Nik Cohn book, King Death.

The character is actually,

he's performing death on television.

[Diaz] It's really an allegorical tale

of, like, Elvis, but he's an assassin.

[gunshot ricochets]

Rock and roll assassin.

Where could that go wrong?

Remember, this is the mid-'80s.

I really didn't think it would fly at all

but, uh, Joel Silver loved it.

The potential in soundtrack sales

was first seen with Saturday Night Fever

at 15 million and then Grease at 11 million.

[Idol] Nik Cohn had written Saturday Night Fever.

He had that. When you mention his name,

and just mention Saturday Night Fever,

he had all that kind of behind him.

[Diaz] Joel Silver has a series of meetings lined up

with the heads of each studio.

And Billy comes in in full Billy regalia.

We sit there with the big guy at 20th Century Fox.

And Billy is just,

"Yeah, it's this allegorical tale."

It's the same rap that we worked out on the plane.

As we're leaving 20th Century,

they're offering a development deal.

And as we're going into our next meeting,

I think it was at Universal,

they're on the phone when Joel gets there,

saying, "Look, we might be able

to do more than a development deal."

[intriguing rock music plays]

[Idol] The more we went around these film companies,

the next place we got to, there was already a deal.

[Diaz] We go in and do the same exact pitch to Universal,

and they go, "Yup. We'll give you ten million.

Right there.

And we'll work out something

on the soundtrack with Chrysalis."

Never have acted in my life.

But I'm getting money for a film and stuff.

I've probably got more control

than most actors have. [chuckles]

Which is ridiculous. Ridiculous.

Yet that's what I got.

So I'm gonna take it.

[Bourke] King Death took Billy out to LA

for I don't know how many months.

You couldn't get him on the phone

and yet there was an album that was to be delivered

and was great expectations behind it.

[ominous music playing]

[Idol] About halfway through

trying to do the King Death movie,

Bill Aucoin started smoking crack.

He took the movie idea away from Joel Silver

and started to try and do it as an independent movie.

So basically it never got made.

Joel Silver said, "You'll never work in this town again!"

Exact... I swear.

Used that exact trite Hollywood phrase

when the whole thing went down.

[ominous music plays]

[Stevens] Bill just kind of lost his way.

You know, and it's no secret that Bill liked to party.

And, um...

And, you know, Billy and I used to always say,

"Yeah, but we're the ones that are supposed--

We can't be responsible for the manager.

You know? We're the ones that are supposed

to be getting fucked up."

[Idol] I don't know if it's something about him

fucking up that movie and it not working,

but after that, Bill Aucoin disappeared

from my life basically.

[Bourke] So Billy eventually came back to New York,

but I could tell that the drugs had really...

it made it difficult for him to function.

[Idol] Yeah, I was getting pretty fucked up.

And it was getting more obvious. [laughs]

[Bourke] I was then informed by his attorney

that Freddy DeMann, who was Madonna's manager,

was gonna be taking over.

[DeMann] I was kind of perplexed

because I was more of a pop guy at that time.

I managed Michael Jackson, Madonna.

And I know that Billy had severe drug problems

and that's probably why I was called in.

[Lister] I think the drugs really put that thing

into the mix that you don't need.

It just makes life hell.

[tense music playing]

You know, sometimes Billy would become a demon.

He would just lash out at anybody.

[Lister mimicking incoherent blabbering]

He turned into...

[monstrous voice] Zuul!

[Lister] ...what we called Zuul.

I think that's the monster in Ghostbusters.

Does anybody want to play Parcheesi?

[Zuul growls]

[Lister] It's some kind of demon.

Okay, who brought the dog?

- [growls] - [screams]

[clamoring]

And he would eventually slide down to the ground

and end up in a corner and we'd just leave him.

And then he'd be going...

[grunts] ..."Pick me up."

- [growls] - [people screaming]

To anybody that walked past...

[slurred speech] ..."Oi! Pick me up."

[normal voice] Nobody would pick him up,

because we didn't want him around us.

He was in his demon mode. [chuckles]

[growls]

[crowd cheering]

I actually caught Billy in a hotel once with two girls.

[laughs] I knocked on the room and said, "Room service."

He opened the door and there's two naked girls behind him.

He was so furious that he got caught.

Slammed the door in my face, called security on me.

They escorted me out of the hotel.

And when I got back to our apartment,

Brendan was there with a guy changing the locks on me.

I said, "Wait a minute.

I'm the one that caught him with two birds,

not he didn't catch me with two guys,

and you're changing the locks on me?

How dare you!"

I was so furious. [sniffles]

I could never see anything wrong

in hanging out all night long with people.

I could just-- and listening to music in dance clubs,

rock clubs.

Uh... I go to the pictures, I have sex with people.

I don't see what's wrong with being a social person.

And then the worst thing that could possibly happen,

his drug dealer moved into the apartment next door.

So he didn't even have to go anywhere.

He would just bang on the wall

and the guy just came in and brought it.

I mean, you know, talk about death.

So he was cooking up coke in sauce pans.

It was exploding all over the place.

He was spending a fortune

and the management just kept on giving him money.

And I thought, "Nobody cares."

I thought, "This is not gonna get any better.

I've got to go now."

While I'm still young enough. [laughs]

[Bourke] I remember going to the studio,

and Billy, he'd never be there.

And I was finding it more and more difficult

to get hold of him.

[Forsey] Sometimes Billy and I, we got crazy.

I'm supposed to be the producer and the guy in charge

and I kind of went down the road with him a bit.

And, uh, I lost the reins a couple of times.

[ambient traffic noise]

One day, I went down to try and get hold of him.

This is after now a few weeks where I hadn't seen him,

hadn't heard from him.

[horn honks]

And, um, I had a key to his place.

So I remember going into his apartment.

There was a New York sort of local paper

called The Soho Weekly.

And I remember it was opened up at the back

where there was like escorts, you know...

and there was one big phone number that was very obvious,

so I remember I called that number,

it was the Parker Meridien, which was a hotel up Midtown.

So I said, "Is William Broad there?"

And that was obviously his real name.

And they said, "Yes, sir. Putting you right through."

I thought, "Alright. I know where he is."

[Idol] What I was trying to do,

I was trying to get off heroin.

[fast-paced music playing]

And, um, it was only when I really tried to give up heroin

that I did start to smoke crack.

[music intensifies]

And, um, yeah, it was a nightmare, really.

I mean, it was horrible

'cause I was seeing and hearing things.

[indistinct distorted voices]

Like people in the next room talking about me

or above me.

[distorted voices continue]

So I actually called up this friend of mine,

said, "Man, there's all these voices next door.

Would you come around?"

[distant distorted voices]

I open the door to him, you know.

Went, "Come on, man. Let's do a fucking hit."

[imitates smoking]

[muffled dance music plays]

And I was going, "I'm hearing all this stuff

and seeing all these things."

And as we were talking,

I was kinda going...

"Hey, man, can you see that shadow underneath the door?"

- And he went... - [ominous music plays]

..."Yeah, I can see it."

"Fuck, there's gotta be someone standing outside the door."

[music intensifies]

He went, "There can't be anybody there."

[whispers] So I said, "Come on.

Let's tip-toe towards the door

and fucking pull it open."

So we got to the front door and...

[inaudible]

[music intensifies]

[normal voice] Pulls open the door,

and fuck me stiff if there wasn't a bloke

six foot fucking tall standing with a beard

kinda going like that.

You know what I mean?

And I went, slammed the door and I went,

"Fuck! Don't ever tell me

there isn't fucking someone out there

fucking listening to what we're doing!

That's it! Give me the stuff!"

[imitates smoking] "I'm not stopping!"

[music fades]

[Bourke] So the next day,

I went up to the hotel

and I went up to the room and I knocked on the door.

And he was really surprised to see me.

He looked like a guy who hadn't slept in weeks.

[tense music plays]

He said, "Listen!"

And he had me listen to the wall.

And I guess he was hearing things

and I remember thinking, "This guy is off his rocker."

Shortly after that,

we convinced him that he needed to go

into Beth Israel Hospital.

It was basically a detox.

And essentially, for like three or four days,

he just slept.

I remember going in there every day

just to check in on him.

He was never awake when I was there.

But as long as he was there, I felt like

at least he wasn't in any trouble.

And then I remember going in there,

I think it was the fourth or fifth day,

as I got off the elevator,

as soon as that door opened,

he came straight in.

So I didn't recognize who he was.

But as the doors closed on the elevator,

I realized it was him.

[tense music playing]

So I'd had a bit of a...

basically a psychotic break.

They put me in hospital.

Once, after a few days,

you started to be normal, you just said to yourself,

"I was just doing a bit too much."

And so I...

And I went and ran for it. [laughs]

- [indistinct chatter] - [distant car horn honks]

[Bourke] Someone in that hospital knew Billy's mother...

[dog barking in distance]

...and had put a call in to the Broad household,

his parents in London.

[gentle piano music plays]

That's really where, um,

his parents caught wind that he was in trouble.

[piano music continues]

And his dad called at four in the morning,

and he said, "I'm flying out today.

I'll see you later on tonight."

[Idol] Dad came to New York

in the last stages of the Whiplash Smile album.

He came off the plane with a big stick, you know.

And I said, "Hello, Dad. Why have you brought that?"

He said, "I'm gonna beat you with it."

[laughs]

'Cause he was here to, you know...

[laughs]

...take command of everything. I don't know.

I needed him to come, really.

And sort of, you know, maybe wake me up a little bit.

'Cause I did need somebody to...

to show they cared, you know.

More than just about what record I was putting out.

But there's a big part of me fighting it as well, you know.

The William Broad part of me

probably wanted him to come.

The Billy Idol part of me

probably didn't want him to come.

[Bourke] Mr. Broad was in New York for three weeks,

and in that three weeks, Billy straightened up.

I think while his father was here,

I think he stopped doing

the amount of drugs he was doing.

I'm not gonna say that he stopped completely.

I think he tried to put a good facade on it.

I think being around his son, Mr. Broad started to realize

that things were happening that he had no idea.

[Idol] My dad is really the reason

I'm in New York in the first place.

In fact, my first memories are really of America.

When I was a little kid,

my dad had got a job as a sales manager of a laundry.

They serviced hotels and everything.

It was quite a big deal.

So we moved to Patchogue, Long Island.

[bright orchestral music playing]

I was tiny. I was three or four.

I was that little and I remember

being knocked out, you know.

Because America's booming, everything's technicolor.

It's like Walt Disney a bit, you know.

Like the cars with the fins.

I saw the young Elvis.

They showed his television performances.

And that was it. I went, "Wow."

I mean, the thing was, I was born in 1955,

and really, Elvis made his first record in '54.

So you're kind of growing up with rock and roll.

Another big thing that was happening in America

when I was there was Kennedy.

He was on the campaign trail.

My mother followed him. My mom and dad.

We went and stood at these crossroads

and he came by and he actually waved at us.

Kennedy showed you the man with charisma

could rule the world.

[crowd cheering]

[crowd cheering]

- [music stops] - [ambient traffic noises]

[Bourke] When Mr. Broad was in New York,

he sat down with me and said,

"Brendan, you're no longer gonna be involved

in Billy's management."

[melancholy music plays]

"From what I understand...

you're his drug dealer."

That was, to me, a little bit of a betrayal.

All I'd ever done was help him in any way I could.

They didn't want me involved going forward.

So I was paid a little bit of money

to go away, and I signed this agreement

that I wouldn't go to the press

or, you know, tell stories.

And to this day, I've held my side of the bargain.

This is the first time I've spoken anything about this

since like 1986.

[Idol] My dad believed everybody was a drug dealer.

[laughs]

So-- 'cause he got involved in my business

and everything, which was great, actually.

That was the fun part of it,

'cause he's frightening all these

business people to death.

[DeMann] His father was a very, very difficult guy.

And I realized that that contributed to Billy's...

instability, let's say.

[Idol] I had to kind of put a little break

on what I was doing,

enough to where I was surviving.

And then carrying on.

You know, so my dad helped me

and I was able to carry on, you know.

It is a long time since we heard something new from you.

Why has it taken so long for Whiplash to come out?

I think... it's 1986,

we've had, what, 30 years of rock and roll.

I think if you want to make a great album these days,

you gotta take time to do it.

You were supposedly, according to the press reports,

dead through drugs or dying through AIDS.

Yeah, that's right. A-Y-D-S.

Another year of dodgy sex.

I disappeared for a while

because I wanted to make a good album.

And in the States, sometimes people think

that means you're dead.

But I'm very much alive and kicking.

["To Be a Lover" playing]

[man] Billy Idol's new album Whiplash Smile is here.

And it's hot.

♪ Forgot to be a lover ♪

♪ Have mercy ♪

♪ Forgot to be a lover ♪

[song continues]

[speaking German]

[in English] ..."To Be A Lover." Here's Billy Idol!

♪ Well... ♪

♪ When I realize that you need love too ♪

♪ I'm gonna spend my life making love to you ♪

♪ Forgot to be a lover ♪

- [song fades out] - [dynamic music playing]

[Idol] The Whiplash Smile Tour was a massive success.

["I Don't Need a Gun" playing]

We played places like the Forum

and Madison Square Garden.

Oh!

♪ Wop bop a lu bop ♪

♪ Yeah, you gotta move up ♪

♪ Flip flop fly ♪

Everything just went more mega, that's what happened.

♪ Oh, what a story Dreams to buy ♪

It really did. It went more mega.

[engines droning]

[somber music playing]

I was very cavalier about drug-taking.

And I started to realize it was changing my personality,

perverting me, in a way.

And destroying reputation, maybe.

And destroying my personal relationships.

But it takes a lot...

to sort of let your real personality take back control.

It takes a lot more than you think.

That's the trouble.

And so, I started to look around New York and think,

well, maybe it's time to go somewhere else.

[somber music continues]

And maybe putting a bit more distance between

me and the drugs.

And you know, when you start to think about it, you go,

"Yeah, if we just move to Los Angeles..."

[rock music plays]

You know, 'cause a lot of people I knew,

Jonesy, Steve Jones,

he was cleaning up and had moved to Los Angeles.

Hi, my name's Steve Jones.

I used to play guitar with a band called the Sex Pistols.

A good friend of mine, Sid Vicious, died from drugs.

I nearly died from drugs.

Drugs suck.

[tense music plays]

[Idol] They were all riding cycles,

you know, living in the daylight,

as we were living a vampire existence at night, you know.

So we decided to move to Los Angeles

and let's have a child.

[people cheer]

Feel it! Feel it!

[Lister] When we moved to California, we changed.

[Idol] My business changed. I got a new manager.

Tony Dimitriades, who was, for a start, British.

Tony had a massive effect on my career.

And still does, really, to this day.

We wanted to have a baby, so I got healthy.

Billy got healthy. He got a trainer.

He got really fit.

And then she said to me, "I'm pregnant."

And that's what we wanted, so it was perfect.

I was so happy when I was pregnant,

because Billy treated me like an absolute princess.

And all I did was eat and look for a house to buy.

The perfect nesting job, you know.

So we found this fabulous house.

It was in the middle of the Hollywood Hills.

And as we went through the gates, I went... [gasps]

..."Billy, this is it. This is the house.

This is what we've been looking for."

And it's got that little cottage across the bridge

from the pool.

So we moved in

when Willem was a week old.

[soft music plays]

[Idol] Willem was born in '88. So that was exciting.

It was a nice side of things.

It sort of brought a bit of normality into our lives.

When Willem was little, he was such a great dad.

He really was.

Some great pictures of Billy just looking at Willem.

Like, mmm! You know, just-just adoration.

[Idol] Having a child,

it's like changing complete direction.

Instead of just being about yourself,

you know, you really did have to think about

how your life affects them.

I mean, it was great, but it wasn't so easy

as time went on.

[revving]

Because I was kind of one week being Willem's dad,

and one week being Billy Idol, if you know what I mean.

Hey, buddy! We're here at Tropicana.

It's Billy Idol's party and it's gonna be stunning.

[rock music plays]

He's a wild man, and he's for real.

- He's got style. - He's Billy.

He was staying out for four days at a time.

And his roadie, Art, had a house in the Valley

that he used to fill with groupies and drugs.

[man] Yeah!

Billy's just like a machine

'cause we would party all night, almost every night.

Part of my job was to let him party close to the edge

but be able to pull him back and bring him home safely,

which I did.

[music ends]

[birdsong]

My mother was in town

and Billy said, "What are you doing today?"

I said, "I'm gonna take my mum for lunch

as soon as Willem wakes up."

We had put Willem in the crib

and we'd put the baby monitor there.

So he knew that there was a baby monitor

sitting next to me,

we were sitting out by the pool.

So he says, "Oh, I think I'll go on a bike ride

with the boys then. You don't mind?"

I went, "No, of course not."

So he said, "I'll go and call Art."

So he goes into the house and... what possessed him?

There's eight telephones in the house

and he uses the one in the room

with the baby monitor and the sleeping baby.

I hear the whole conversation.

"Yeah, hi, baby. It's okay.

She's going to lunch with her mum.

Okay, I'll pick you up around 1:30. Okay, okay, baby."

And I'm like... [clears throat]

So he comes out of the house and I went,

"So you called Art?"

And he went, "Oh, yeah, yeah."

So I said, "Oh, you call Art 'baby' now,

do you, you lying motherfucker!"

So we had a screaming fight

and I get Willem out of the crib and he's crying.

I'm putting him in the car.

[dramatic orchestral music plays]

And Billy comes over and he says, um,

"I've got to tell you, it gets worse."

And I went, "It gets worse? How can it get any worse?"

[funky upbeat music plays]

[Idol] Yeah, well, I was, uh, seeing other people.

The baby monitor thing and all that.

I sort of put a few of the girls together

as if it was all one person, you know.

I did kind of go out with this lady

for a few weeks, you know,

and she got pregnant, really.

And then, of course, um,

I had to sort of tell Perri about it eventually.

[Lister] I thought, I just gotta get away from him.

So I got Willem and I decided to go to New York.

So, of course, I come to find out

Billy and Art, they'd gone to Bangkok.

I went, who does that?

[Idol] Art... [chuckles]

...I think it was his dream to go to Thailand.

- [music fades] - [faint chatter]

We weren't gonna take drugs or anything.

We started out just drinking and stuff,

but after a week or so of that,

we asked a cab driver if he could get us some coke.

But he brought back this long, thin vial

of this white stuff, which...

which when-- Art sort of looked at me a bit like...

[whispers]

[trippy rock music plays]

It was so strong. It was like probably China White.

You only needed a-a pinprick...

and you were just as high as a kite.

I looked like I was a ghost, you know, like I was a zombie.

I had some film with us and I destroyed the tape, you know,

because it was too-- it was too-- too disturbing.

[elevator dings]

We were out of our minds, really, and, uh...

at one point, I'd passed out in the elevator

with the elevator doors closing on me

and Mel Gibson was there with his family on holiday,

horrified.

[elevator dings]

[trippy rock music continues]

[Natoli] He was so bad, I called the doctor to come,

you know, because now I'm worried.

I said, "Can you give him a sedative

so he won't wake up?"

He goes, "Oh, he's not gonna wake up.

He's not gonna wake up."

Sure as shit, ten minutes later,

they got him on a stretcher and in an ambulance.

He wakes up and starts flipping out,

realizing what's going on.

[Idol] Once we started taking this really strong heroin,

we had to get off of it

before we could get on a plane to come back.

You know, you were so ill

because this stuff was so strong.

[low growling]

The Bangkok pharmacies have got

every kind of pill you could--

so we were just getting pilled up.

[low snarling]

[Natoli] At one point, he would start drinking

and he would turn into that monster...

and start smashing up the hotel rooms.

[roaring]

It got to the point where I was wanting him to go down.

He was being such a crazy person.

I would crush up, you know, Valiums and Xanax

and put them in his drink and give it to him

to help him get knocked out,

but I couldn't knock him out.

[dramatic rock music playing]

[Idol] They'd given me a ton of downers or something,

but of course it didn't last long.

And there was this great big log,

so I picked up this great big log

and threw it through the glass window.

[glass shatters]

[intense rock music plays]

The guy, next day, came in and went,

"I'm calling the police," or whatever.

We said, "It's okay, we'll pay you for whatever it was."

I think it was 20,000 or something.

[Natoli] Three hotels he wrecked. Three of them.

They said they were going to throw us in jail.

I think the bill was $75,000 in damages.

[music fades]

[Idol] The silver lining was I did put heroin behind me.

It was too horrible. The whole experience was--

It actually really put me off.

[downbeat rock instrumental playing]

That's probably a turning point...

'cause I didn't like who I was anymore.

[glass clinking]

And that was the final straw.

I haven't done heroin since.

Getting off heroin is one of the most

awfullest experiences in the world.

Boy George said it right when he said

it's like your skeleton trying to get out of your body.

There's no quick fix. It's such a long time.

You're counting the days, the seconds, the hours.

Even after six months, you still feel lousy.

[Lister] He came back. I heard what happened.

He's definitely had nearly nine lives.

He's OD'd a lot, but he always comes back.

[birdsong]

[up-tempo rock music plays]

[man] Hey, Billy! Yeah!

[Idol] I thought kicking heroin would save me.

[people shouting] Billy!

That this would all be easier.

["Cradle of Love" plays]

♪ Well, ow! ♪

♪ Rock the cradle of love ♪

♪ Rock the cradle of love... ♪

Billy Idol's new album, Charmed Life, is aptly named.

He's been rocking the charts

for almost a decade, of course.

But ironically, the day he finished the album,

he was in a near-fatal accident.

[intense rock music plays]

We literally had just mastered it.

And we were in the studio that night getting ridiculous.

You know, doing our ridiculous '80s stuff.

Billy didn't get any tapes,

'cause we left before the tapes were ready.

[Forsey] We were just finishing up the mixes.

He took off, went home,

and on his way back, he got, uh-- he got dinged.

- [crash] - [distant siren wails]

[Kurt Loder] Singer Billy Idol was seriously injured

in a motorcycle accident in Los Angeles

early yesterday morning

when the Harley he was driving

collided with another vehicle.

His injuries were so severe,

his doctors weren't sure they could save his leg.

[melancholy music plays]

[Lister] So we get to Cedars-Sinai.

I run into the ICU,

and he's lying there and he looked terrible.

I mean, he was gray,

and his leg, I couldn't even look at it.

It looked like it was in like a few pieces, you know.

And, uh, I held his hand and I went,

"You're gonna be alright. You're gonna be alright."

Really, they didn't know if they could save the leg

for about ten days.

They were thinking of amputating.

He was in quite a lot of pain, you can imagine.

The bones were sticking out of the leg, it was horrible.

[monitor beeping]

[Idol] I was on morphine in the hospital

and I was on this pain box.

You know... [imitates long beep]

[prolonged beep]

I wouldn't ever take my finger off

so it had a lockout that every 12 minutes I could do it,

because otherwise I would have been...

[imitates long beep]

And even the pain doctor came to me and said,

"Mr. Broad, um...

the pain medication, how can I put it to you?

You're drinking it in.

Is there anything you want to tell me?"

But he said, "Look,

when the day comes and we say you don't need it anymore,

will you get off it?" And I said, "Yes, I will."

And so that... that was kind of it.

[music fades]

[gentle music plays]

My mum and dad came to help me recuperate.

Came while I was in the hospital,

and then Mum stayed to sort of help me.

[Joan] Fourteen weeks.

[Idol] And my mum, because she was a nurse,

it was fantastic.

Who better than your mother

at such a horrible-- at such a horrible time.

[Joan] And Dad got fed up of being on his own,

so he said, "You better come home."

- [both chuckle] - Right!

Oh yeah!

Fourteen weeks.

Yeah.

You can see the... it looks quite nice today.

It used to look like-- this was all purple

and it had veins in it.

It used to look like my brain was coming out.

I'll show you what it looks like.

[woman] Let's have a look.

- It's really horrible. - [winces] Ooh!

For a while in hospital,

I could look into it and see my bone.

Yeah, but then it didn't-- the break didn't heal.

So they took some-- they put a steel rod into my leg

right through the middle of the bone.

It's about-- it's about that thick.

It's quite thick. It's really amazing.

They're really-- Ten years ago,

I would have had to have my leg chopped off.

[woman] Amputated.

[Idol] I'm always thinking,

well, shouldn't it all collapse?

I don't even know what the next thing is.

I'm trying to prepare myself

for the unknown, even, you know. [chuckles]

[crowd cheering]

And the winner is...

Billy Idol, "Cradle of Love."

- [cheering] - ["Cradle of Love" plays]

♪ Well, ow! ♪

♪ Rock the cradle of love... ♪

[reporter] Rock star Billy Idol is on the comeback trail

after a motorcycle accident

that nearly killed him last February.

His latest effort is the single "Cradle of Love."

Rock and roll forever!

[reporter] His Charmed Life Tour

will take him to more than 50 US cities

and will help promote his new album by the same title.

- ["License to Thrill" plays] - [crowd cheers]

[Idol] I did the biggest tour of my life with a cane.

You're trying to keep momentum going

so things stay on a roll, you know.

And you gotta keep it rolling.

Moments before he hit the stage tonight,

it was clear, Billy was back and better than ever.

And just like his album title,

he was now leading a charmed life.

["311 Man" plays]

[Diaz] Billy was still a, you know, mega, major star.

He almost lost the leg.

So that was a big hiccup.

♪ 311 man, oh yeah ♪

[Diaz] But where it really hiccupped Billy

was not in his music career,

it was in his film career.

- [exclaims] - [crowd cheers]

[Diaz] Because Billy would have had movie on movie.

I mean, the worst thing about it for me was

that it prevented me from actually

fulfilling my original role in the film,

Oliver Stone's film The Doors.

So I was pretty hurt about that.

Oliver, tell us why you cast Billy

in the role that you cast him in.

Because he's anarchic.

He's the spirit of rock and roll.

Who is the character that he's playing?

A wild man.

Yeah, mornin'.

Pour me my breakfast, Dolores.

[Idol] Oliver Stone wanted me to play

a friend of Jim Morrison's.

I originally would have done the Michael Madsen part.

...two-fisted fucking drinking guys

in the same movie together.

Yeah, man, I'll direct the shit out of it.

Dennis Hopper can do it, I can do it.

But because of the motorcycle accident,

I couldn't do that, so, uh,

I ended up playing Cat, a roadie.

[mellow music plays]

And then I did do a screen test with Jim Cameron

for Terminator 2.

[James Cameron] And action.

[Idol] Jim wanted me to play the T-1000, the real bad guy.

- Where's John Connor? - I don't know.

Holy shit. [laughs]

[Idol] And it went really well.

[Cameron] T-1000 lives.

[Idol] But there was a point in the movie where,

you know, the T-1000 has to run.

And he said, "I can't trick that up with CGI.

You have to be able to run." And I went, "Well..."

I just had a really bad limp, so I couldn't do it.

But I wish I could have done it.

It would have been incredible.

And you never know where that would have led.

- [camera beeps, shutter snaps] - [mellow music plays]

Around that time, Perri was trying to be an actress too,

which she was.

She was really good,

but it never quite took off.

It really upset her a lot, you know.

And I think it upset her with me.

Because I was carrying on with my rock and roll career

and it just wasn't quite happening for her

in the same way.

It's like we just sort of grew apart, really.

[mellow music continues]

[Lister] So I understand why we ended,

but it's kind of a shame

because we were such good friends

as well as being lovers.

We were always great friends, you know.

I think we should have been together all our lives.

We're perfect for each other.

He was the love of my life.

[Idol] Once we did break up, me and Perri,

I didn't kind of know what I was gonna do, you know.

[crew] Sound speeds.

We have Patrick. Take one.

Color marker.

[tapping on legs]

[Stump] I was born in '84, right?

And so, you know, those early formative years,

Billy Idol was kind of just everywhere.

♪ Rock the cradle of love... ♪

I vividly remember "Rock the Cradle of Love"

being, like, this thing that was in our house a lot.

And obviously "White Wedding" and stuff like that.

Listening back to those records,

there was something that stood out about them.

They kind of became like tentpoles for culture.

If you were gonna describe what a rock star is,

it's Billy Idol.

But then he made Cyberpunk.

I found that so surprising in this weird way, you know.

Like this little puzzle.

[Idol] After the motorcycle accident,

this guy, when he saw this machine on my leg, he said,

"Oh, you're a cyberpunk."

And that's kind of made me go, oh.

[futuristic ambient music plays]

Cyberpunk was more than a science fiction writer's fad.

Virtual reality holds a key

to the evolution of the human mind.

[woman] It was literature's first real response

to the Information Age.

Cyberpunk was a concept album

that took a lot of kind of influence from

William Gibson's novel, Neuromancer,

about the ultimate high-tech dystopian future.

Kind of like, you know, your Blade Runner,

your Ghost in the Shell, all of that.

I'm calling this album Cyberpunk because, uh,

we made it through joining together with computers.

Man and machine.

♪ Discovered love in the rancid days of ruin... ♪

He made this really bold choice to make a concept album

that was kind of prescient

in the way that technology was going to impact music

and the world and culture and everything.

[reporter] It spans the globe like a superhighway.

It is called internet.

[Idol] Cyberpunk turned me on to this idea

about the internet,

that the internet was coming.

But the normal public didn't know about it at all.

It was just certain people knew about it.

[Bryant Gumbel] What do you mean?

You write to it like mail?

Allison, can you explain what internet is?

[modem dialing, beeping]

I used to say, "Billy, how many people have computers?

Maybe 2,000 people?"

And he used to say to me, "Art,

one day everybody will have a computer."

I go, "You're out of your mind, dude.

You're out of your mind."

[electronic drumbeat plays]

[Idol] And then I started to know about this

do-it-yourself kind of thing coming into music.

[electronic music plays]

It was the early version of the Pro Tools.

[Stump] Pro Tools, for people who don't know,

changed the way that recording happens.

First off, it made your studio able to be your house.

And it made the whole process so much faster.

[Idol] The do-it-yourself record,

it just seemed really punk to me.

It seemed like it was revitalizing that side of me.

[electronic music continues]

And then I could make the record at home.

That was the other thing too.

I was trying to heal myself from the drug addiction.

And we made the whole record without over-partying.

You know, the Charmed Life record

we'd made with strippers dancing to the music

and, you know, getting high and fucked up.

This record to me was about self-healing.

[camera shutter clicks, whirs]

Good.

[camera whirs]

[Idol] Well, the direction of this album is cyberspace,

cybernetic, rock and roll dance music.

And I think you can tell from this gear,

I'm definitely creating my own reality.

[reporter] For a few lucky fans,

a limited edition of Cyberpunk

will be released with a special computer disc.

[man] This is Billy Idol's Cyberpunk floppy disc

and it's set up like a magazine.

There are three different sections:

concept, song lyrics, and digi art.

[Idol] Just trying to introduce people

into this idea that

the music and the computer all went together.

[Stump] Looking back on the record,

it's a wild bet, it's a wild choice.

It's interesting because I feel like Cyberpunk

is where you see the artist that's behind the '80s icon.

["Shock To The System" plays]

♪ Aw, yeah! ♪

♪ Yow! ♪

♪ You can rock this land, baby ♪

♪ Yow! ♪

♪ Like a shock to the system ♪

♪ It feel good, well, alright ♪

♪ Like a shock to the system ♪

♪ It feel good, well, alright ♪

♪ Like a shock to the system ♪

♪ I say yeah, say it louder The world still burns ♪

[song ends]

[Idol] The album didn't do very well.

It obviously didn't have a hit single on it.

It was too soon, it was too early,

people didn't understand it.

[dramatic music plays]

[music darkens]

[Stump] I simultaneously totally understand

why it didn't work, but also don't get

why it didn't work.

'Cause it's not really all that different

than a lot of music that was working in the '90s.

You know, it wasn't like it was terribly left field.

It was as if the world just decided

they didn't want it from him.

When you are an artist, you put yourself out there.

You know, your music is so much of you

and who you are, right?

And then to have millions of people reject that,

that's a bummer, man, that's a really big bummer.

[somber music plays]

[Idol] I was a bit disappointed

that people didn't get what I was doing.

But you know, I kind of get it.

People who were just digging "Cradle of Love"

or "Mony Mony," you know,

they're just not going to quite get that.

If we'd done a follow-up to Charmed Life

and made sure there was a hit single on it

and partied in the same way as we did,

you know, like Mr. Rock and Roll 24/7,

I don't know.

I probably wouldn't be here.

[music fades]

Eventually, after Cyberpunk,

me and Steve Stevens, we started to write songs

for a Billy Idol album.

We made demos for a couple of years,

but it didn't quite happen.

[static crackles]

[gentle music plays]

And then I was kind of enjoying

being Willem's dad by that time.

And, uh, driving him to school.

- Dad? - [Idol] Yeah?

You're supposed to play,

you're supposed to put that somewhere.

[Idol] Doing the soccer with him.

[grunting]

[Idol] Then the baseball and stuff.

By that time, my daughter had come back into my life.

Back during the baby monitor thing,

Bonnie's mum was the lady who got pregnant.

When she was pregnant, her mother had gone to Oklahoma.

So I didn't really meet Bonnie until she was

a little over two, you know.

Bonnie lived with her mother full-time,

so I didn't see her as much as Willem.

But I enjoyed all of that. I really enjoyed being a dad.

[gentle music continues]

I always wanted a boy and a girl,

and I finagled my way into a boy and a girl.

In your own daft way,

you've achieved what you set out to do.

And I actually have a son

that I didn't realize

who, uh, I fathered

on the Rebel Yell Tour

without knowing it.

So, uh... I somehow finagled this as well.

[chuckles]

- [girl] Look. - [Bonnie] That's a turtle!

We have a two-year-old and an infant,

and we were like trying to figure out

our entire family tree.

So my husband just surprised me with

a 23andMe-- with a DNA, um, test

as a Christmas present.

[ad announcer] With 23andMe,

you can discover where in the world

your DNA comes from.

You can even learn how you are connected to others.

[Bonnie] And then a few weeks later,

I get the results back on the app and open it.

And I'm like, who is this? This Brant?

And it says, you know, his info is like,

"New York, 1985, looking for my bio dad."

[laughs] And I was like, what?

[Willem] My sister calls me

and she says, "Hey, Willem, I did 23andMe

and, uh, we have a brother."

[mellow music plays]

Growing up, I actually, uh, thought

another man was my biological father.

My dad, Mark, I actually got him a DNA test

and, uh, we didn't have any matches.

And I was just like, what's going on here? You know?

Like, this is a little weird.

So I was like, "Mom, is there a chance Mark

might not be my biological father?"

And she's like, "Well, you know, it's pretty crazy,

but back in the day, we broke up.

And I actually, you know,

spent a weekend with, uh...

with Billy Idol."

[jaunty country tune playing]

[Idol] Once I saw Brant with Bonnie and Willem,

they've all got the same quirky sense of humor.

And once I saw that,

I could see he's my son, really.

[laughter]

[woman] Okay, just hold on.

Let's see this tongue.

Now make it pointy.

Let's see your hands.

[Brant] Oh yeah, those are right.

[woman] That's crazy.

As I get to know him more, I get to know him more

as a man who loves his family.

He's definitely showed me a lot of love,

so I'm blessed.

[child exclaims]

[Idol] So now I've got four grandchildren,

two by Bonnie

and two by Brant.

And so it's all drawn us very much together.

- Yeah! - [woman] Whoo-hoo!

That's it. Yes, well done.

- [girl babbling] Come here! - [Idol] Ooga-booga!

[Brant] There's a funny thing. We were at my sister's house

and he's laying on this bed,

and my daughter runs,

jumps on this bed,

and then jumps right back off and lands

right on his private areas.

[Idol screams]

Wow!

And in my head I'm like,

"My daughter just crushed Billy Idol's nuts."

[indistinct chatter]

Oh!

You hit Granddad with a block. That's not nice.

It was just a funny story, but, uh,

he loved 'em up.

He loved my wife and my daughter,

and he's a good man.

[tender music plays]

- [chomping loudly] - [girl squeals]

[laughing]

[Bonnie] He is just the best grandfather,

and, oh, my babies love him so much.

[Willem] My pops is a legend. He's a diva.

He's a punk rock god,

and I love him, you know?

Alright, come on. [grunts]

[Idol] You know, I was really just, uh, doing

what I wanted to do, and that's what started to be

more important than Billy Idol. Thank God.

["Rebel Yell" playing faintly]

[performing "Rebel Yell"]

♪ More, more, more, more ♪

- [Idol yells] - [song ends]

[poignant music plays]

[producer]

He did later on in life, uh, towards the end of his life.

He started to listen to some of the older stuff.

When he got sick from the cancer,

he started to listen to the older music.

And he said to me, he said, uh...

"Did I upset you, Will..."

[breathing deeply]

"...I didn't care about your music?"

I said...

"Dad, I was crazy to think I could do it."

Because I could see at that moment...

[sniffles]

...that's what he needed.

He didn't need me saying,

"You didn't understand, you piece of shit.

Look who I am. Look what I did.

I've had these hit records. You don't care."

He didn't need that right at that moment.

What he needed me to say was the truth,

which is, I was crazy to think I could do it,

because I was.

I was a bit crazy to think I could do it.

[poignant music continues]

I could understand, really, that they didn't understand,

because I didn't really know if I had the ability.

Because you had to be crazy.

[rock guitar layers over music]

[Joan] It was good that they made up.

They became quite good friends.

[laughs] Complete change.

You know, it was sad, but there we are.

That's life.

[laughs softly, sighs]

[music intensifies]

[crowd cheering]

I can say I didn't know what the hell was gonna happen

when I came to America.

A lot of weird things have happened to me,

but, of course, it was an experience.

And the other thing was, I came here,

I came here really because I wanted to make music.

I wanted to continue being in groups.

I wanted to continue singing.

[crowd cheering]

I'm a songwriter, you know.

[crowd roars]

It's lovely being here in Mexico.

I'm having a fantastic fucking time! Yeah!

[crowd cheering]

Thank you, London. Thank you. Yeah!

[crowd cheering]

Listen, wherever you're from in this world,

I want to thank you.

I want to thank you for making my life

so fucking great. Thank you.

[cheering]

[emotional rock instrumental plays]

[Idol] A big part of life is luck.

But an even bigger part is what you do with that luck.

Most people probably think I should be dead.

- [cheering] - [woman] Love you, Billy!

[Idol] So I'm living every day like it could be my last.

This is for you, Dad!

Yeah!

[music fades]

["Dream Into It" by Billy idol plays]

♪ Late night conversations ♪

♪ With past life hesitations ♪

♪ Once when I was younger ♪

♪ Back when I knew hunger ♪

♪ I was just bored with a life to live ♪

♪ All I knew was to dream into it ♪

♪ Naive motivations ♪

♪ Heightened expectations ♪

♪ The door was open, calling ♪

♪ They said I was foolish ♪

♪ I had to walk through ♪

♪ Didn't think of the price ♪

♪ With a twinkle in my eye ♪

♪ I dreamed into it ♪

♪ And the records turn ♪

♪ Like they did when I was young ♪

♪ And I still don't know ♪

♪ If I've only just begun ♪

♪ And the records spin ♪

♪ As the soundtrack to my sins ♪

♪ Baby, I'm dying, dying, dying, dying to live ♪

♪ So I dream into it ♪

♪ Ooh, ooh ♪

♪ Dream into it ♪

♪ Ooh, ooh ♪

♪ Feel it in my soul ♪

♪ I've been running so long ♪

♪ Regrets are flowing fast An imaginary storm ♪

♪ Gripping at the branches and I'm trying to hold on ♪

♪ So many memories made ♪

♪ Wish I was there for them all ♪

♪ I'm still at the beginning ♪

♪ Though I feel like it's the end ♪

♪ I'm begging for a chance to see the sunrise again ♪

♪ 'Cause I'm dying, dying, dying, dying to live ♪

[echoing]

♪ And the records turn ♪

♪ Like they did when I was young ♪

♪ And I still don't know ♪

♪ If I've only just begun ♪

♪ And the records spin ♪

♪ As the soundtrack to my sins ♪

♪ Baby, I'm dying, dying, dying, dying to live ♪

♪ So I dream into it ♪

♪ First came luck, then pressure ♪

♪ One-man rollercoaster ♪

♪ Around the world like phantoms ♪

♪ I didn't care what would happen ♪

♪ See, I was kicking at the stars ♪

♪ With the wind at my wings ♪

♪ Kid to a king All I wanted was everything ♪

[music swells]

[song ends]

["Kings & Queens of the Underground" plays]

♪ Born in a time that wasn't made to last ♪

♪ In 1977, it went fast ♪

♪ Johnny told us to rise, not to give a shit ♪

♪ And then "Kiss Me Deadly," and we had a hit ♪

♪ Last night in the Roxy, we made love on the floor ♪

♪ We shot up in the bathroom ♪

♪ And said we were bored ♪

♪ If you are here tonight ♪

♪ And you hear these sounds ♪

♪ We are still kings and queens of the underground ♪

♪ I don't mean to be profound ♪

♪ But if I'm still around ♪

♪ We are still kings and queens of the underground ♪

♪ Oh, yeah ♪

♪ 1984, and "Rebel Yell" had the floor ♪

♪ All we said was, "more, more, more" ♪

♪ Well I touched you with my "Eyes Without A Face" ♪

♪ I was "Hot in the City" ♪

♪ Yes, I thought I was ace ♪

♪ I didn't know then ♪

♪ When I was in your front room ♪

♪ On MTV, baby, I was high as the moon ♪

♪ If you are here tonight ♪

♪ And you hear these sounds ♪

♪ We are still kings and queens of the underground ♪

♪ I don't mean to be profound ♪

♪ But if I'm still around ♪

♪ We are still kings and queens of the underground ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ Golden years ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ Golden years ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ Golden years ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ Golden years ♪

♪ Sold all my vinyl, it went up my arm ♪

♪ And I thought rock and roll couldn't do me no harm ♪

♪ Now I'm rolling a joint ♪

♪ And I'm dressed in black ♪

♪ If we lose the music, baby, we can never go back ♪

♪ But if you are here tonight ♪

♪ And you hear these sounds ♪

♪ We are still kings and queens of the underground ♪

♪ I don't mean to be profound ♪

♪ But if I'm still around ♪

♪ We are still kings and queens of the underground ♪

♪ Jonesy said, "Bill, don't be profound" ♪

♪ "If you are still a king of the underground" ♪

♪ If you hear my voice ♪

♪ And you dig these rebel sounds ♪

♪ Still kings and queens of the underground ♪

♪ Here tonight, I wanna dig these sounds ♪

♪ I'm still a king of the underground ♪

♪ If you hear my voice ♪

♪ Dig these rebel sounds ♪

♪ Still kings and queens ♪

♪ Of the underground ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ Golden years... ♪