We are Carole & Dave & we have taken over running the fan club from
Jane.
We have opened it in the form of a Home Page on the Internet & it has been on line
since the end of Oct.
Already it has been accessed over 1700 times & we have over 80 signatures in the guest
book.
On top of this I receive e-mail from fans all over the world every day.
All of them of course have their own questions & I have compiled a few of the most
common ones, which we are hoping you will have time to answer for us today.
If it is okay with you, we would like to tape the interview, so that we can transfer it
onto the home page with accuracy?
The page you used to write for the old fanclub newsletter was always HUGELY
popular, would you consider contributing a little something to our page?
It would be very eagerly received.
We would also appreciate a couple of photographs, as the only ones we have are from 1990~1993
The questions fall into 2 categories, professional & personal.
I will start with the professional.
C : It has been great seeing you back on stage, have you
enjoyed it ?
B : Oh yeah, it’s been great fun.
C : Does it make you feel like doing your own tour again?
B : Oh, very much so, I’m Jones for doing my own show
again.
C : The single most popular question, without doubt is in
relation to a new album ??
B : Well, I’ve tried doing a number of different things,
working with a number of different people & I just don’t feel I’ve done
anything worth putting out yet.
Rock ‘n’ roll is done on such a world wide level, so much promotion is involved
that you don’t want to end up pushing some piece of sh** that you wish you’d
never recorded.
C : We have heard that you already have a few songs put
together & that there is a possibility of a new release towards the end of next year.
Are you able to confirm this ?
B : I was rather hoping for the summer, but that may be
optimistic.
C : Are we allowed to know what ‘style’ it will
be taking?
Will it be the ‘computerised’ style of Cyberpunk, or something different?
B : You see the thing about Cyberpunk is that it was supposed
to be like a home made record, much like these rap bands are doing, all made really on
home equipment. But it was very hard to make people understand that I was sort of making
an alternative record. They don’t allow you to make an alternative record…
C : Well you’re associated with true rock..
B : Big time.
D : I can’t understand the criticism of it myself,
it’s actually my personal favourite.
C : I think it all reflects back to the old proverb,
you’ll never please all the people all the time?
B; Yeah & the best thing about it is that because I did
do that, some chick phones me up & says, Wow, I’ve just been listening to your
version of Heroin & it’s brilliant. There’s always one person out there,
thank God that appreciates why you did it, why you tried to do something different.
But the next album is going to be totally, totally rock ‘n’ roll.
Instant gratification. [laughs]
C : Who have you been working on it with?
B : Well just recently I’ve been working with the
Mexican Robert Trujillo & a few others.
C: Do you have any of the members you had working with you on
the Cyberpunk album?
B : err… no, what I might try & do is play with this
guy from Suicidal Tendencies, the bass player, he’s fantastic. He’s like a power
machine, you know, he’s incredible.
Anyway, I actually jammed with Billy Duffy & that was really good fun, really great
fun. So I dunno, that looked to me like that could be a really great band. It was like a
band kicking on all four cylinders & sometimes when I’ve been on stage
there’s been like a lot of guitar, or not enough rhythm, but this thing had like you
know, a punk rock attitude.
D : What happened to the Neurotic Outsiders, MTV were saying
how you were jamming & rehearsing with them. Was it something that you just
didn’t fancy in the end?
B : Well you know, I was only really getting up at the end, I was
doing like ‘Ready, Steady, Go’, ‘Stepping Stone’, that’s an old
bunkies song that the Pistols did. We stuck mostly to punk stuff & it was really good
fun, but I think I got the idea that they’d all been in bands & really wanted to
sing the songs themselves, they wanted the album to be about them. But it was great fun.
C : There is one particular track which I have been asked
about, I believe you sang it on the ‘Live at the Joint’ in Las Vagas.
Possible title, ‘Eternal Damnation’?
Can you tell us anything about that?
B : ‘Live at the Joint’ ? That must be the Hard
Rock café ? Did you see it ?
C : Yes a friend of mine sent me a copy from Canada.
B : It was called, ‘Sealed with a kiss’
C : Who wrote it?
B : We did, pretty well put it together to try out on the
night.
C : It really is an excellent song.
B : [smiles]
C : Do you have a personal favourite track?
B : umm, Rebel Yell, that’s one of them.
White wedding, Eyes without a face, umm, what else do I like, I like them all really.
You know Axle Rose used to have to f*** Eron Everly to ‘The Dead next
door’.[laughs] He told me that. I think it’s incredible that. It’s great to
think that Billy Idol is torturing other rock stars because they have to screw their
girlfriends to the music, because their girlfriends like it!
[laughs]
C : Who do you listen to musically at the moment ?
B : I like that Garbage album. I think she’s really
sexy.
D : Do you like the way Brit pop’s going at the
moment?
B : I think it needs to be a bit harder edged myself, especially for
the Americans, if you want my opinion on that level.
D : It’s getting really mid-sixties.
B : That’s it, Americans I think are still used to power music.
I think that Oasis let the ball drop just as Garbage, No Doubt & Bush were there to
take over from them & they were playing harder edged music.
They were going over really well, we played with them, this acoustic gig, with No Doubt,
Garbage, Sonic Youth, Billy Idol & Oasis headlined it. They were totally, they had it.
And who’s number I now, a year later, they’ve dropped out & Garbage & No
Doubt… It’s kind of interesting, it shows you have to be persistent. You
can’t drop the ball with the Americans, it’s too big. They’ll loose it.
Once you’ve stayed up there for a bit, you can drop the ball, they don’t mind
because they know you. If you drop it right at the start, I don’t know. That can be
very hard work.
And that other stuff about saying you’re better than the Beatles, I don’t know,
who gives a sh**.?
Punk rock to destroy!!!!
(The Beatles & people who like them.)
C : What’s missing Billy is a good, a new Billy Idol
album, basically.
Wouldn’t you agree? [laughs]
B :[Laughs] yeah, I do agree, I wouldn’t mind something
to listen to[laughs]
C : Do you have any other projects in the works, or are
you just concentrating on the album ?
B : yeah, I really want to get the next record out, now
I’ve had a taste of…
C : Being back up there?
B :Yeah, coz, I get the feeling, that a few years ago, people
had kind of had it with the 80’s, obviously. I can understand that’s what
happened to me. We got glutted with Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, all went off to America
& got so huge, you could never see them. I know that’s what happens, times change
& new things get popular.
I always thought it was great, because I was on MTV so much, that people could recognise
me by just my lips.
[Laughs]
And if you’re in a Miller High life T-shirt & sandals & someone recognises
you , you think "Why the f*** am I in a Miller High life T- shirt & a pair of
sandals?
I should be Billy Idol & I couldn’t be, I couldn’t be me. I had to be
somebody else for a bit. And now I’ve stopped being on MTV, I can now walk around as
Billy Idol & my fans can see me as Billy Idol.
And that’s really nice, because the pressure of people, & I know that’s one
thing that’s good about the Internet, is that you can deal with the pressure of
people that way, of meeting people, but when your face gets…
No wonder Kurt Cobain killed himself, coz now I can see how if you’re a bit
depressed, it could take you all the wrong way, that’s what he wrote in his letter,
he said:
"I don’t get excited up there any more, I can’t do it any more"
[shouts] :-
But don’t kill yourself over it mate!!
Just take a few years off!
C : Talking about taking a few years off, that’s
actually my next question, how have you been spending your time over the last couple of
years?
B : Having as much sex as I can. They’re still having
sex in LA, believe it or not. Actually I’ve noticed it seems like it’s catching
on everywhere.
[laughs]
C : Which is your proudest achievement (professionally)?
B : Oh, I don’t know really, having a really great
time…
C : Still being here?
B : yeah, yeah, I mean you’ve gotta laugh, when you can
still go to bed with 2 girls at 41. That’s pretty incredible.[laughs]
I can’t help it, it’s terrible, I’m a sex addict now. I suppose I always
was a sex addict.
C : Probably [laughs] & you’re only just realising
it.?
B : Yeah, [laughs]
C :Do you have any regrets ? (professionally)
B : No, none at all.
C : You wouldn’t do anything differently?
B : No.
C : OK, that’s the professional questions over,
B : Oh, OK.
C : Now for the personal questions :
C : Will you be spending Christmas at home with Willem?
B : Yeah, & my parents, we’ll have a tree…
C : How is Willem?
B : He’s fine, he’s great, he’s 8 years old,
baseball crazy.
C : I was going to ask actually, does he have any hobbies or
pastimes ?
B : yeah, he wants to be a professional baseball player.
C : Is he showing good signs ?
B : yeah.
He’s in perfect health, anyway.
C : Is he showing any of his father’s traits yet ?
B : He’s got a touch of the lip. [laughs]
But I know that man & I know that woman !
That’s the thing I discovered, one day I was looking at him & I thought, I know
that man & then I thought, & I know that woman too !!
C : What is your proudest achievement (personally)?
B : umm, I dunno really, I suppose one great thing was,
through rock ‘n’ roll & the motor bike, one way & another, we’ve
ended up making quite a lot of money for Muscular Dystrophy & things like that, so
that’s another thing I’d never thought about when I got in a rock band, I never
thought, you know I’d still be f****ing chicks at 41 or making a load of money for
Muscular Dystrophy.
And the other day I played at that Bridge concert, that Neil Young holds.
They are so crippled, it makes me feel….
D : Humbling isn’t it?
B : oh yeah…
B : It was great, I played White Wedding, My baby left me &…
something… what was it, um, f*** it.. [grins]
See STML short term memory loss ? It’s turning into LTML, long term memory loss,
that’s a good one for the Internet, coz they like new phrases.
[laughs]
Idol suffering from LTML & STML, at the same time.
[laughter]
C : How long have you been a vegetarian?
B : Since I was 18, everyone told me I looked like sh** at
30, I feel like sh**, but I still look pretty good.
[laughs]
C : You do look very well actually Billy.
B : Thankyou…
C : We only ever hear detrimental reports in Britain, we only
ever hear of the bad things you’re supposed to be doing & it’s really nice
to see you looking so good….
B : & they always over-dramatically, over-report them
& make them more exciting than it truly is.
C : Well it sells the papers doesn’t it,
B : But I can only tell you that if I wake up one more time
looking at that same hospital ceiling, coz you always wake up & you go [clasps head in
hands ]
Oh no !! Not again. [laughs]
It’s that same f***ing, it doesn’t matter which hospital, it’s the same
ceiling.
C : Is it your choice for health reasons, moral reasons,
or just because you don’t like meat?
B : It’s just that when I was 14 or 15, David Bowie was
all the rage & the only way to get that look was to not eat. [laughs] You had to stop
eating meat.
So rock ‘n’ roll & food do not go together.
C :What is then your favourite meal?
B : umm, cheese & Branston sandwich or bananas &
custard.
C : How do you relax?
B : Masturbation, usually, masturbation.
D : That’s relaxing is it?
[laughter]
B : it takes the edge off, you know if you’re feeling a
bit rough , you know what I mean?? [laughs]
C : You are obviously very settled in America, is there
anything you miss about England? Like the weather maybe ????
[laughs]
B : I love England, you know, England’s made me. I mean
I am a product of 2 cultures, England & America.
I read books about England & history. I love history books & biographies & so
I read books about English heroes & that’s what , when I was a little boy growing
up, that’s what you read comics about, like The Victor, they were always about
English heroes.
C : Have you ever been back to any of your childhood
haunts since you left?
Do you think you would enjoy the experience of maybe returning to say Worthing for a
picnic on the beach & reflecting on your life ?
B : Don’t go back, [laughs]. Donot go back.
[laughs]
No, I don’t know, maybe I will, although I have no reason to go back, there’s
nobody down there.
I go to Bromley to see my parents sometimes, but then they come to America.
C : Do you think you would find the experience enjoyable ?
B :Hmm, I think it was someone like Lenin or Marx or someone
like that who thought that history is bunk, but ….
Actually Ford said that, history is bunk.
No, I don’t know, maybe, maybe, but what would drag me down there. ? You’d have
to lure me with something…
C : Yes,
B : If there was a load of chicks down there or…
C : How about a picnic on the beach with me, I mean I work in
Worthing…
B : Are you going to be nude , naked & willing to do
anything…?
C :[laughs] Well if it’s not too cold…
[laughter]
B : I don’t know, maybe I would, maybe I would.
I mean I lived in Dorking too, I lived in the Running horses, the pub there.
C: I have just 2 more questions, one,
What annoys you ?
And please don’t say amateur interviewers asking stupid questions !
[laughs]
B : um, um…
Inefficiency actually, people purporting to be something they’re not. Yeah.
C : Finally, is there any chance of a hug from you before
you go [blush] & a photo?
B : Yeah, oh course….
Administrator Carole Page.
Copyright © 1997. The Billy Idol Fan Club. All rights reserved.
Revised: April 28, 2008.