Billy Idol: 'I wanted a wide open field with no boundaries'

Now aged 66, he’s back in the UK for an arena tour with Killing Joke and Toyah that ends in Leeds next Tuesday.

Idol admits the past couple of years have been difficult, explaining: “I wasn’t able to go to my mother’s funeral because of the coronavirus. That was really, really hard for me. We also were unable to come over and play in the UK but we were able to release The Roadside EP, my first new music in almost eight years, so something positive came out of those times.

“We now have The Cage EP coming out very soon, so we have a load of new music to play now so that’s really exciting. Now, we really need to play.”

Having played a few acoustic dates in the US last autumn with his longtime guitarist Steve Stevens, Idol is “excited” to return to the UK. “The band is all played in now, so all we have to do is learn some of the new stuff and we’re off,” he says. “It’s been a while since I was last here so I’m really looking forward to it. I have a big connection with the UK and have missed playing there.”

As for the setlist, he says there will be performing several of the new songs, adding: “They’ll be mixed with the Idol classics, so you should get it all. It’ll be a great mixture.”

In keeping with tradition, there will also be a Generation X number in there too. “We usually play a different Generation X song on each tour,” he says. “We did Your Generation recently, so might do that, but we are pretty well played in on most Generation X songs so could throw anything in. A lot of people know the Valley Of The Dolls album so could do anything from that like King Rocker.”

With a catalogue packed with classic crowd pleasers such as Rebel Yell, Dancing With Myself and White Wedding. Idol says he still gets a buzz out of playing them after so many years.

“I have a killer band who have been together now for over seven years, with Erik Eldenius on drums, Billy Morrison on rhythm and lead, Steve McGrath on bass, Paul Trudeau on keyboards and, of course, Steve Stevens on lead guitar,” he says. “We are like a real band, not just a collection of musicians. We are all really played in together and sound really tight. We’re all ready to go and we love to see the reaction of the crowd when we play those songs.”

In the 80s Idol also made the Tommy James and The Shondells song Mony Mony his own. Explaining why he chose that song to cover, he says: “When I first got to America, I didn’t know what I was going to do. I knew who Generation X were but I didn’t know who Billy Idol was. I went into a club called Hurrah’s on the West Side in New York and the bar was packed and I couldn’t get a drink. The DJ put this song on and the bar suddenly emptied and everyone was running lickety spit to the tiny dancefloor, knocking tables and chairs flying.

“I thought it was fantastic, as I could get a drink. As I was drinking it, I wondered what the song was and it was Dancing With Myself and I knew then that I didn’t need to change anything as it was already happening. I knew the music I was doing was the right thing and the producer I was working with, Keith Forsey, was the right man.

“I just had to follow up Dancing With Myself, as there was this underground New Wave happening. I needed something people could dance to and thought about Mony Mony as I’d remembered being in a club years before being on the dancefloor to that song. I suggested doing it to Keith and he thought it was a great idea so we met up and recorded it and wrote a couple of things like Hot In The City and Baby Talk. A few years later I put out the Vital Idol compilation and we needed a single so we put out a live version of Mony Mony and it went to Number One, so it was a good choice.”

Idol has worked with Steve Stevens for more than 40 years. He says they work so well together because “I think that it’s whatever I imagine, he can do. If I want to do a really weird song and describe what I’m after in vague terms, he can do it. Steve likes a lot of music that I grew up with, like Yes. He likes a lot of prog rock and blues music like John Mayall, Cream and Jimi Hendrix. I loved all of that too and then segued into Bowie, Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground and The Stooges. Putting those two worlds together you get a whole different thing. I wanted a wide open field with no boundaries and Steve allows me to be able to do that.”

The EPs The Roadside and The Cage are out now. Billy Idol plays at the First Direct Arena, Leeds on October 25. https://billyidol.net/