Episode Transcript
Hey, it's Jeff Stevens from the eighties show and I
am backstage with the one and only Billy Idol.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
What's up, my man, Jeff?
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Everybody great, great to see you. So, congratulations on the
new album, Dream Into It. It sounds awesome. Seventy seven
sounds good on the radio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Fantastic does sound good?
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yes, So my first question is do you ever get
tired of hearing your songs on the radio after all
these years?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
No, No, it's fantastic. It's it's great.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
I mean it's a knockout that it's doing so well,
and now I'm always excited. It's one of those things
that never gets old.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Do you remember the first time you heard one of
your sides from the radio?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
A Generation A Generation X song?
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yeah, yeah, so maybe you know, ten twelve years ago, right, yeah,
a few years longer than that, but yeah, dancing with
myself obviously. I remember the first time, you know, watching MTV,
you know, seeing that and White Wedding and I thought, man,
this guy just rocks. And then by the time Rebel
Yell came out, I mean, I'm all in on Billy
Idol and Steve Steven's in the band and it's just
(01:02):
so cool that that. I've seen you doing a lot
of promoting obviously for the new album, and it just
seems like you're really having a good time.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yeah, we really are. I think that's it.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
I'm enjoying the record. I think we're proud of the record,
and I think it holds up and next to our
other stuff. You know, it's still not so different from
what we've done before, but it's got a fresh it's fresh,
fresh feeding, so I don't feel like we re tread anything.
All of that is a really good feeding. So you know,
it feels good on stage doing the old stuff. It
(01:30):
feels good on stage and the new stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
I mean, what else? Yeah, Bob your uncle, it is fantastic.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Yeah, how how did the whole Averrol thing come together?
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Was it?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Did you reach out to her.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
While we were sort of looking around for people that
could collaborate with us.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
That's the sort of thing today, that is the thing
that's great in.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
A way, And it was fantastic. She was so into
it and she did a fantastic job. I mean the
harmony on the middle section, that's really difficult, that's not
so easy to Yeah, so she's a really great singer.
And so it was fantastic working with her. And we've
already done that Jimmy Kimmel Show together that.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Was great too. So I've very enjoyed. It's been fantastic.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
You know. I thought you guys sounded like you've been
doing it for a long time. On the Jimmy Kimmel
Show in particular, watching that, I was like, wow, I
mean they're locked in, You're comfortable on stage with each other,
which that doesn't you know, just automatically happen.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
That's right, No, it doesn't. So there's a yeah, I
think we're both coming from the same place and lots
of ways, yeah, you know, and it's just great. She's great,
and I've just I'm just really enjoying. The whole experience
is fantastic. And you couldn't you couldn't really have imagined
this when you were starting out, that this would happen
to this stage, you know, yeah, of your life, let
(02:44):
alone career.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Well, I tell you, the first time I heard seventy
seven and we talked about, you know, all right, we're
gonna we're gonna play this on the radio, and it
just it sounds fantastic. It fits in with everything else
that's going on, and it just it's like Billie Idol's
got another hit.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, unbelievable. Wasn't it really.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
To just outside the top thirty? I think we're number
thirty one or something, but that's the top AC or
something nice. I mean, yeah, who could have imagined that?
So it's it's kind of fantastic. Well, how about if
I played involved with everybody else, you know in.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
This modern night?
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Yeah right right, Well I'll tell you what, I'll play
it a couple extra times this week and we'll get
it inside the top of that. Yes, you're welcome. So,
thinking back to I always like to talk to folks
about the MTV era and obviously that was such a
game changer. It obviously helped your career tremendously. When did
you notice, like from okay our you know, there's there's
(03:41):
a couple hundred people, there's maybe a thousand people coming
to see us, and now it's like, whoa, we're feeling arenas.
When was that tipping point for you?
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Well, it's a rebel yell album.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Yeah, I mean because but really also, really the big
thing that happened was when we did White Wedding, the
other radio had a bit of a attitude about play people.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Whose image was a punk rock image.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
They just believed that a punk rocket image didn't sell
advertising dollars.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
And then MTV proved them completely wrong, you know.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
And once there's once the young people saw us on MTV,
they phoned up the radio stations, and the radio stations couldn't.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
They folded. That's what happened.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
They folded overnight, and all the young artists, it is
in Delobe, Prince Me, we were all.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
We were all on the.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Mainstream radio then. And that's got a lot to do
with MTV. Yeah, it was gave us a platform when
there wasn't any other platform playing the new music.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
So yeah, so it was it was a huge game changer.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Yeah, I and I was and I was the kid
who literally would watch MVV for five or six hours
a day and just you know, that's that's how I
got my That's how I got my new music. That's
how I got my my worthless knowledge of eighties music
and stuff. It's like it's sit there, you know, just
no little things that were going on in videos and whatnot.
I've heard you talk about your upcoming documentary that's out
(04:59):
later this year.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Is that right, Yeah, it's premiery now that's Tribeca on
June the tenth, I think soon, So it's coming out
soon after that at some point.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Yeah, And you said it's it's really true and you
kind of left it all in there and there's.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yeah, really I think that was the point of doing it.
You had to really go there and so own it
all really whatever it was. And as part of being alive,
parts of doing.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
This is you've got to own what you did, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Because you know, to own the music is yeah, it's easy,
but some other parts of my life is not so
easy to own. But yeah, you've got to own it.
And their obstacles overcame and it's all in the in
all the it's all in the Billy Idol Should Be
Dead documentary.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yeah, interesting, interesting title. And here you are thriving, I
mean not not just not just not dead, but you're
also thriving, which I think is pretty awesome.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Absolutely, Yeah, I to think that that's the way it seems. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Yeah, well I can't wait to see the show. And
so cool that you and and Joan are are are
out here giving us all these these thrills of these longs.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Again.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Yeah, it's really a great team a great team up,
and she's fantastic, so it's all coring. Well, I've known
her for ever since nineteen seventier. I met her after
a Germs and Dead Kennedy's concert the Whiskey of Go Go.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
So really wow, some time ago.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
So it's fantastic. We've done shows together, but we've never
done a tour together.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Really well, nice, Well, we're so glad you're hearing Cincinnati
and Dream into It as the new album. And I'm
standing by Billy freaking Idle. Thank you for the time.
Man did this, he did it, he did that.
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