Billy Idol

Dimitri: Congratulations on your new EP. It’s fantastic. I loved it. How long did it take you to make this EP?

Billy: It was just a few days, like two weeks or less. It was just a few days, a two-week span at least. [chuckles] It wasn’t very long at all. Just over two weeks or less. It’s just a few days. We were doing a track a day.

Dimitri: Wow. You guys were just jamming in the–

Billy: We almost– we might have only had two three-day sessions. Six days somehow.

Dimitri: That’s impressive.

Billy: Then we would’ve done some additional recording, my drummer tracks– I would say over two weeks. It’s only three tracks. We already had one done.

Dimitri: You kept very similar sound that your fans are very accustomed to, but we’re going through so many decades, and you still manage to capture your audience. You are so consistent with the sound. It feels just as fresh if it was back in the ’80s to these days, it’s impressive. What’s your secret?

Billy: Well, we’re just not thinking too much about what’s on the radio or in the mainstream or anything like that. We’re just staying with what we think is right for us. Yes, I’m not listening to The Weeknd and going, “We need to sound like The Weeknd.” We’re not doing that. We’re saying we’re just going by our own muse, so to speak, and yes, we’re not following a trend or fashion.

I think all of that means yes, we’re making– also too, I don’t know if– there’s a lot of EDM, there’s a lot of rap music, there’s a lot of pop music. I don’t know if there’s a lot of great rock music. It’s a little bit like that’s our MO. It’s like, “Let’s make some great rock music,” because I don’t know if there is tons of it out there at the moment. Mind you, I don’t listen to everything. There may be tons of great rock and roll that I don’t know about, but that’s what I feel. We’re sticking to what we know best and not overthinking.

Dimitri: That’s amazing. You’re right. There’s not that many great rock these days. It’s all turned into some either heavy stuff, but you’re right, it’s filled with EDM and hip hop and rap and everything in between. You’re keeping this going, that’s amazing.

Billy: I’m glad to hear that because I think there are things about rock music that are vital that you can say things with rock music that you may be, in a way, a certain way that you can’t always necessarily say that with pop music or obviously rap music. You can say a lot obviously, but a lot of pop music that I hear these days, it seems to– well, they’re talking about boyfriends that they used to have or something, which is– it’s not teeny bop music. I don’t know.

We’re just following our muse. We’re following what we like, what we’ve always done really. We’re not trying to reinvent Billy Idol or something. We’re just not following fashion. We’re just sticking to what we believe is tried and true, and what was asked really, and having fun doing it, and yes,
somehow, it seems like it’s sounding vital, really. Yes, to me, it sounds alive and doesn’t sound dated, although when people listen to it, they say it sounds like the ’80s. [chuckles]

I think it doesn’t to me sound necessarily like the ’80s, but I think people just say that because I came– a lot of my music was successful in the ’80s. I think it just sounds like great rock music. What we’re trying to do is stuff that we haven’t quite done before in a way. We’re trying to do some things we haven’t done before, exactly. At the same time, not do something that’s nothing to do with what we’ve done before. It’s a little bit like we’ve got one foot in the future, one foot in the past, and one– [chuckles] Right, three feet, one foot in today. That’s a little bit what we’re doing. We’re just keeping true to us really, and it seems to be working.

Dimitri: My favorite track on your EP is Running From the Ghost. Is there a story behind this track?

Billy: Yes, the ghost really is– I was quite drug-addicted back in the ’80s and early ’90s. We spent the rest of the time since then, trying to put that in the rearview mirror, the drug addiction. The ghost is the drug addiction. We’re running from this because it’s always there. It’s like a devil on your shoulder, really. I know Steve Stevens feels the same way because he’s trying to do that. Steve’s been sober for a really long time, whereas I’m not sober, but I’m not going crazy. I don’t drink a lot or smoke. I vape some pot, but Steve’s completely sober.

There’s people around me who are really running from the ghosts, so to speak. So am I. There’s a little bit of that. We frightened ourselves back in the day. That’s what happened. We’re just a little bit scared of that person, we were. That’s what the song’s about. It’s really about, yes, we’re running from this ghost, this thing we did to ourselves a long time ago, which is still affecting us today, and we’re trying to keep it in the rearview mirror, but it haunts you. Yes, it haunts you. It’s scary too.

It takes a lot of willpower. You have to develop that over time. It’s a lot about that. It’s about developing the willpower to keep running from the ghost and not let it get you. Yes, it’s killed a lot of people we know one way or another. That’s what the song’s about.

Dimitri: You decided to call your EP, The Cage. Is there a reason for this name?

Billy: It’s really just that we felt, with the coronavirus, we were in a cage of society. [chuckles] Just with the lockdowns and everything, you just felt like you were inside a cage for the last two or two and a half years. It really is a pandemic anthem. It is a coronavirus anthem. Initially, a couple of years ago, we did a EP The Roadside, and we couldn’t really write about the coronavirus then. It was also new.

Now, we’ve lived with it two and a half years or whatever it is, we’ve been through a million lockdowns, masks, and all the different feelings and all the different ideas about it and everything. It was a little bit like the whole world’s gone a little crazy. It was easy to think about a song about the coronavirus being called something like Cage because we are like– and also too, then it doesn’t have to be just about the coronavirus, it can be any time you feel like society is holding you in or holding you back and putting you in inside a box, really. We just decided that The Cage was a great title for a pandemic anthem, but it can be about any other time in your life when you feel constrained by society.

Dimitri: You’ve been working with Steve Stevens for such a long time, 41 years and you guys still manage to bring the fantastic feel in your music. There must be a story. How did you guys meet?

Billy: Well, it’s just that when I came to America in ’81, I had an American manager, Bill Aucoin. He actually already knew Steve Stevens because he was, I think– I don’t know if he was managing Steve, but he was involved with the band Steve was in, in the mid-’70s or early ’80s, or late ’70s, early ’80s. He was managing me and he knew I was coming to the States and I was going to be looking for people.

He just thought I should meet Steve, and of course, when I met Steve and when I started to realize what Steve could do with the guitar, God, and just how, wow, it can go all over the mat, it just made me go, “This is what I want to do anyway.” We grew up with a lot of artists, whether it’s The Beatles or the Velvet Underground. The Velvet Underground went all over the map.

Lou Reed did crazy songs like Sister Ray, but then he would do something like If She Ever Comes. He would do something crazy like Venus in Furs, but then he’d do I’ll Be Your Mirror. Even Iggy Pop went all over the map with his music and Bowie. It was a little bit of like, when I got to the States, I was after Generation X, so I was in Generation X, we went all over the map.

Even in my punk group, we didn’t just stay with one type of punk. We went all over the map. We did some songs that were seven minutes long. We did some songs over two minutes long. We’re already thinking that way, but my solo career, I wanted to keep hold of the punk rock attitude, but I wanted to go all over the map with my music.

With Steve Stevens, I could see right from the start once we started to play together because initially I just said to him, “I’ve got to put a band together. Why don’t we put a band together for me, and if we like, by the time we’ve done that, if we’re enjoying playing together, let’s just keep on doing it?” That’s what happened. I could just say with Steve– and it’s still the same way, Steve’s guitar breaks or what Steve can do to add to the songs we’re doing, it’s so beautiful and so accomplished that why would I need anybody else? He’s doing it. He’s touching all the buttons.

That’s what it is. It’s still really exciting. That’s the point. He still astonishes me today. I’m standing on stage sometimes going, “I don’t believe what he just played,” and he’s getting better and it’s crazy. Then it means I have to get better. It’s kind of a good thing going on between us.

Dimitri: You came to LA in ’81. Where any special places that you played, like on the Sunset somewhere? Do you recall any special clubs or venues that you played back in the days across the US?

Billy: We actually closed Max’s Kansas City. We were the second to last band play because we had a drummer in ’81 who was in another band as well and he was playing on the last night of Max’s Kansas City, so I said, “Can we just jump up before you? We’ll use your instruments and we’ll just plug into your setup.” He said, “Yes.” We actually played the last night of Max’s Kansas City. Billy Idol helped shut– unfortunately, I didn’t want to shut Max’s, but it was closing anyway and it’s just great to get in there and play.

Also, we played places like the Peppermint Lounge and the Ritz. We did a show at the Ritz early in the evening, we did one late that same night. We did one when the album came out, I think when Rebel Yell came out or the first– whatever it was, we were putting something out. We did a double show. We did one at the Ritz and one at the Peppermint Lounge.

We played a lot of those places, a lot of the after-hours clubs that were going on AM/PM because a lot of my music was being played in these after-hours clubs. We would get up at some of these, just on a floor, not even on a stage, and just play for half an hour or something. Then coming out here, we played the Roxy and the Wilton and the Forum, and a load of places, Greek, I’ve played the Hollywood Bowl. I’ve played a lot of the venues in New York and Los Angeles now.

Dimitri: Can you imagine– now we’re talking about Rebel Yell, like 40 years later, your track is still one– it doesn’t matter where you go on the planet, you go to any club from Australia to Monaco, it doesn’t matter where you are, you’ll hear your track, especially in the last hour of the night. It’s always going to be Billy Idol, Rebel Yell. How does it make you feel, creating this track? Do you think 40-plus years later people will be still screaming and rocking to your track, especially in the last hours like 3:00 AM,4:00 AM, 5:00 AM, people will be going absolutely fucking bonkers to your music?

Billy: It’s incredible to think that. One thing we were doing was my producer at the time, Keith Forsey was really good, I think he made sure that the songs weren’t just ’80s sounding. Even though we were making them for that moment, for the contemporary time we were playing them, we were thinking a little beyond the ’80s. As I say, we’d grown up with music from the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s. When we were making music in the ’80s, we weren’t just making it with the sounds of the ’80s. We were very sort of influenced by what had come before and where music was going as well.

We were not only using technology that was forward-looking because we were using a lot of stuff that was even difficult to work with because it was so new, the technology, but we were also looking backwards and using some of the older technologies that had happened in the ’60s and ’70s. I think we got this sound that could transcend the time we were making a lot of the music.

Just the fact you’re saying what you’re saying proves what we did was right, that it worked because there’s a lot of bands from the ’80s, you listen to their music and it sounds like it’s only of that era which I don’t think you get that feeling with Rebel Yell. You don’t get that feeling. I don’t get that feeling, it’s just an ’80s track. It sounds beyond that. I think that’s a lot to do with Keith Forsey, in particular, who was very aware of– “Let’s make sure this music can go beyond the time we’re making it.”

Dimitri: How does it feel to get back and perform to the live audience after pandemic?

Billy: Oh, we’ve been playing. We played in ’21. We played September, October, November, December in ’21 and we just played June, July in the States, and we played September in South America, October in Europe, and we played in November in the UK. We’ve been playing back since September ’21.

Dimitri: Oh, that’s amazing.

Billy: We managed to get back rocking.

Dimitri: I have a story from Mike Ruiz, from our creative director / and your photographer. He told me a little story. Back in ’82, it was back in Montreal, he was a young guy and he spent a whole night waiting to get tickets to your concert. He managed to get the front stage, in front of you. It was one of the most memorable experiences for Mike. What can you say to one of your biggest fans, and now he’s photographing his idol, 40 years later, so what can you tell about the experience working with Mike Ruiz, what sort of message can you give him?

Billy: It’s just fantastic that we’ve both done the thing we love. I think that’s what it looks like, that there I was doing what I loved, and then he was going to do photography or be involved in the arts in whatever way he is and become someone who’s so good at shooting. He takes a very short amount– I think he spends time setting up the shot, but once he’s got what he’s looking for, he’s very quick and he just seems really fantastic.

I think it’s just great that his artistry is such that we’re both enjoying something 40 years later, it’s pretty wild that we’re now, I expect, he is in his 50s and I’m pretty late 60s. [chuckles] It’s great that we’re still grooving on– we’re still both around and we’re still grooving on what we love. I think that’s probably why we are still here because we really enjoyed what we’re doing. That’s why we did it in the first place. It was really because it was something we love. [chuckles]

Dimitri: What do you do these days to unwind and just relax? What makes you Zen?

Billy: I like watching movies and stuff, old movies, and sometimes I read about directors and stuff. I watch– at the moment, I’m reading Quentin Tarantino’s Cinema Speculation book and then watching– reading what he’ll say about a certain movie because a few of them I haven’t seen, or if I saw them, it was a long time ago, and then I’ll check out what he is talking about. I do things like that.

I do the same thing with music, I’ll read about certain artists and I’ll listen to– I do that as a– check out what other people are– I’m really enjoying Quentin Tarantino’s book and enjoying kind of watching some of the movies. I hadn’t seen The Outfit or Rolling Thunder. It’s kind of fun seeing what he sees in something and then how I see that he sees in something a lot more than what’s necessary– not what on the surface is necessarily there, but then later on you realize, “Oh, these funny B movies, those stick with you.”

There’s something about– and I see he likes some of the second– somebody who’s always a supporting role in the movie become the main guy. [chuckles] He loves that. I think he does that in his films. Jackie Brown, he put in Robert Forster, and they’re all really good actors, but they just don’t get that– they don’t get a chance to play a major role. They’re always usually a second-stringer or something. I think he likes doing that.

It’s been interesting. I do that with people like Orson Welles or whoever. I went through a period of reading about John Ford and Howard Hawks, and now I’m doing Quentin Tarantino in a way. Maybe that’s what I do. I investigate things, but I enjoy things like that, and I think it all backs up my music because somehow I’m reading about other people doing something artistic, and then that all helps to keep your mind going in terms of your own artistry.

I can see they’re following their muse, and that’s what’s exciting to me. Yes, in a weird way, doing something like that helps me to relax, but at the same time, I’m feeding what I do somewhere.

Dimitri: Quentin is my favorite. I had the pleasure to meet him after he received an Award for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Actually, still feel what he did in Once Upon a Time, he corrected the past events. Some people refuse to believe or understand but he put the history in the right way. You lived through that time…

Billy: Yes, I enjoyed that movie a lot. He’s great. It’s fun reading his book partly to understand how he came to do what he did. It’s a little bit like that in his book Cinema Speculation.

Dimitri: If you could give your younger self an advice, what advice would you give?

Billy: Well, thank God, I feel in lots of ways I’ve done a lot of things correctly. Obviously, there are some things that you go, “Oops, I wish I hadn’t done that,” sort of thing. In general, I’ve done a lot of the right things because life and your artistry, it doesn’t go in a straight line. There’s nothing linear about it. I think all people have in their lives have ups and downs, and it’s just a natural thing.

I probably would tell myself not to worry so much about things, but you can’t tell yourself that when you’re younger and that you don’t know if what you’re doing is going to last or anything. Of course, you’re a little bit– but there again, I believed in myself somewhere. You just go back to that all the time. I would tell the younger me, yes, keep believing in yourself because there’s times when you do lose your belief in yourself and I think that’s something you have to keep on believing because look what’s going on. We’re still enjoying what we do. We’re still making the music you’re digging.

Dimitri: Absolutely.

Billy: That’s fantastic for us. Just even feeling that we are vital at this age is pretty exciting. I would tell myself just believe because look, it’s all going to work. It’s going to work in the end one way or another.