Pod Insights DISGRACELAND Billy Idol: A Motorcycle Crash, a Rude Awakening in Bangkok, Sexual Deviancy, and Rock ‘n’ Roll Animals About this episode With his spiked blond hair, perpetual sneer, and gloved hands clenched in defiance, Billy Idol seemed like an avatar of punk rock dreamed up by central casting. But Idol's look, his attitude, and especially his music were completely authentic. He was a pure rock 'n' roll animal. Few rock stars lived a life as hedonistic and debaucherous as Billy Idol, and even fewer lived to tell the tale.
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Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:01 Speaker 00 This is exactly right.
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0:44 Speaker 02 She's been thinking about this sleepover all week, but I think about her food allergies all the time. Fortunately, her doctor prescribed Zolair, omalizumab. It's proven to significantly reduce allergic reactions if a food allergy accident happens.
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1:44 Speaker 04 Disgrace Land is a production of Double Elvis.
2:01 Jake Brennan? This is a story about a rock and roll animal. About the rock and roll animal. It's about debauchery, so debaucherous that listing all of it out here at the beginning of this episode won't do the insanity of it all justice. It's about a rock star we take for granted. He's always been there, on our radios, on our televisions, looking like they contrived his Technicolor punk rock MTV image in Central Casting, but the truth is, that look, that attitude, and that rock star's songs were as authentic as it gets. And his behavior, his transgressions, prove it. High-speed car chases, destroyed hotel rooms, John Belushi overdosed and dead next door,
2:46 Jake Brennan? arrests, accusations of sexual deviancy, military extradition under forced sedation because he was just that fucking unhinged. This is a story about Billy Idol, a man who made great music. Unlike that music I played for you at the top of the show, that wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from my Mellotron called "I Can't Believe How Fucking Hot That Chick In That Video Is" MK2. I played you that loop because I can't afford the rights to "How Am I Supposed To Live Without You" by Michael Bolton. And why would I play you that specific slice of no-talent ass clown cheese? Could I afford it?
3:29 Jake Brennan? Because that was the number-one song in America on February 6, 1990. And that was the day that Billy Idol, after returning from what would go down as one of the most out-of-control rock star vacations of all time, ran a stop sign and crashed his Harley Davidson nearly dying in the process. On this episode, a motorcycle crash, speedballs, a Bangkok bender to beat the band, no-talent ass clown cheese, and Billy Idol. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is DisgraceLand.
4:35 Jake Brennan? Alone and confused, Billy Idol awoke in a hotel room bed. And the rising sun outside shone through the floor-to-ceiling windows violently piercing his eyes. His head was pounding. And the phone started to ring. And there was that voice again. A voice he thought he was just imagining, but now was convinced was somewhere in the room. A voice that was saying, "Out go the light." Billy shot up to his sitting position, so fast that his brain, or what was left of it, sloshed around in his skull. He felt like he was gonna vomit. He looked around the room, and what a mess.
5:17 Jake Brennan? Liquor bottles, pill bottles, empty vials that once contained one illicit white powder or another. Articles of clothing were strewn about, furniture was turned upside down, glass was broken, and blood was shed. Wait, was that really blood? The phone finally stopped ringing. And Billy looked around for whoever was talking but saw no one. Where the hell was he? And where the hell was Harry? Jesus Christ, he needed some dope, something, anything. Again he heard the voice, and again it sounded like it was coming from inside the room. And this time it was saying something different.
5:58 Jake Brennan? And this time it said, "Boom, boom." Suddenly, there was a pounding on his door, and he heard voices on the other side, speaking a language he could not understand. He began to really panic now. It wasn't unusual for Billy Idol to overdo it, to partake in some wild concoction of alcohol, heroin, cocaine, and/or pills that eventually knocked him out, only to wake him up with some big-breasted bombshell at his side. But this was different. Everything was foggy, and nothing was making sense. The knocking on the door intensified, and Billy sprung to his feet and felt his knees wobble. He struggled to stay upright, and as he tried to catch his balance, his hotel room door was kicked down.
6:42 Jake Brennan? And into the room flooded men in military gear. For a split second, Billy had a moment of clarity. This was the Thai army he was looking at. Shit. Was he in Bangkok? And the army men began to surround him like dog catchers cornering a mangy old mutt. And they grabbed his arms and legs and wrestled him onto a hospital gurney. Billy knew he'd really fucked up this time. If only he could remember just how he'd wound up in this situation in the first place. He racked his addled brain, but before he could find any answers, he was being stuck with a long needle and delivered a very powerful sedative, which sent his mind back not to the beginning of this three-week bender, but to eight years earlier, all the way to 1981.
7:31 Jake Brennan? Eight years earlier, it was 1981, and Ronald Reagan was not dead, but punk rock was. The 40th president of the United States had been shot and wounded in Washington DC just days after 25-year-old Billy Idol moved from London to New York City. Years earlier, when Billy was just a little boy and still going by his given name, William Broad, Billy's family relocated from their native England to Long Island for his father's work. Even though they only lived there for four years before returning to the UK, in some ways, this felt like a homecoming. But things were different now. New York, like London, had been forever changed by punk rock. Punk had been Billy's salvation once, too.
8:15 Jake Brennan? The thing that drove his teenage rebellion, that inspired him to cut school, even to stop talking to his father for two years. And Billy remained Punk's avatar, really. His Gene Vincent duck's ass hairdo, dyed shockingly blonde, his leather fingerless gloves, his curled upper lip, his fists clenched in youthful defiance. As the lead singer of the excellent London punk band Generation X, Billy Idol breathed the same air as The Clash, The Ramones, and The Sex Pistols, but even Johnny Rotten had left all of that behind, now fronting Public Image Limited as John Lydon.
8:54 Jake Brennan? In New York City in 1981, the survivors were everywhere. Patti Smith, David Johansson, Debbie Harry, and now Billy Idol, looking at a new world that very much resembled the one that he knew so well. The grime, the dirt, the disgusting bathrooms that smelled like last night's puke, the walls decorated by some spray paint Picasso, stretches of wet pavement that reeked of garbage and piss, the little slots in tenement doors through which the man, once you were done waiting for him, of course, handed you your fix. The fury may have been old news, but the filth remained. Billy Idol was subsisting on a not-so-steady diet of heroin and late-night pizza slices,
9:37 Jake Brennan? living like an animal because that's what he was: a rock and roll animal. Obsessed with what punk music really and truly was when you got down to it, which was just rock and roll, simple music that made you feel great. Simple music made by young, ordinary people about their young, ordinary lives. Add to that the pulsing sounds of Alan Vega in "Suicide," the orgasmic moans of Donna Summer, all of it visceral, all of it as vibrant as punk once was, as essential as oldies but goodies like Tommy James and the Shondells as moany, moany. The music throbbed in his head as he descended into the heart of darkness, the Lower East
10:22 Jake Brennan? Side, and some dude he just met with a 38 stuck in his waistband as his guide, his protection, because scoring dope in New York City in the early 80s was no fucking joke. And with the help of his armed companion, Billy Idol procured that week's smack and snorted it, as was his preference. And the euphoria hit, helping him forget about his girlfriend, Perry Lister, a smoke show redhead who was back in the UK, and also easing the guilt he felt about getting high with and fucking other women in her absence, and then those timeless, oldies but goodies melodies flooding into his brain again. Billy sought out another junkie, a fellow lover of old rock and roll and punk rock
11:06 Jake Brennan? alike, Lou Reed, and suggested they collaborate on some songs for Billy's debut solo album, which he was about to begin recording. Lou was into it, but he didn't come cheap. He told Billy that he charged not by the hour, but by every half hour. It was an insanely high rate, higher than that low-grade A Street junk made you feel. So, fuck that and fuck Lou Reed, too. True, Billy was used to a songwriting partner, which was how he came up with the material for Generation X, including their hit Dancing With Myself, which was technically recorded by his old band, Generation X, and only later re-released under his own name, Billy Idol,
11:48 Jake Brennan? and which also featured cameos from members of The Clash and The Pistols, but I digress. Billy was a solo artist now, with a new path to forge, which meant some things he'd have to go alone, like writing songs. And so, long before he became one of the biggest rock and roll stars in the world, years before he woke up in the luxury hotel room in Bangkok with no knowledge of how he got there, or what he'd done over the course of three very long and debaucherous weeks, with the local military literally knocking down his door, sedating him like his heroes in The Ramones once sang about, and strapping him to a gurney. Billy Idol left his new home of New York City without Lou Reed, without his girl Perry,
12:31 Jake Brennan? without much but a record contract. And he took off for the warmer climes of Los Angeles, California, where the sun was shining, and the birds were singing, and the women were willing, and the drugs were plentiful. In short, it was a nice day to start again.
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13:42 Speaker 07 Hi, I'm Jenna Ushkowitz. You might know me from Glee. This is At the Table, the food allergy podcast, a show about food, connection, and what it really looks like to live with food allergies. Each episode, we hear stories from real people like Daniel.
13:57 Speaker 04 People would always think I was lactose intolerant, so I just kind of shortened my explanation to I'm deathly allergic in a big way that defined a lot of my childhood.
14:08 Speaker 07 And while there are challenges, there are moments that remind you you're not alone.
14:13 Speaker 00 One of the best guys that I dated, he made a point to memorize all my food allergies.
14:19 Speaker 07 So join us and hear their stories and more, because living with food allergies isn't just about what you can't eat. It's about still having your seat at the table. Brought to you by Genentech and Novartis. Listen to At the Table, the food allergy podcast, on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow At the Table and start listening on the free iHeart Radio app today.
14:41 Jake Brennan? Billy Idol had a debut album to record. Chrysalis, the British record label, which had previously signed Billy's band Generation X, had it all planned out. Time was booked in early 1982 at Westlake Studios in Los Angeles, where Billy could first hammer out some demos with his signature Epiphone Casino hollowbody electric guitar and a drum machine before presenting them to the band, which was being led by the pyrotechnic guitarist Steve Stevens, who also possessed some of the biggest hair in the game, for what that's worth. But Billy still needed a few new songs for the record, and he still had doubts about his being able to write them on his own. But that was a problem for future Billy Idol to figure out.
15:22 Jake Brennan? Because all that, the writing, the recording, it was happening tomorrow, the day after Billy arrived in Los Angeles. He was just trying to make sure that today, his first day in town, wouldn't be his last, and it wasn't looking good.
15:39 Jake Brennan? Billy braced himself as the car he was riding in rocketed through a busy intersection, wincing as it barely missed getting T-boned by a car coming from the cross street. He turned to give an incredulous look at his driver, a washing machine salesman high as shit on too many Percodans. The guy's cheeks were still puffy and swollen from that morning's wisdom teeth extraction, and his eyes were clearly communicating that, yes, the drugs had taken hold, and no, he was not stopping for the police cruisers that were hot in pursuit with their sirens screaming at full blast. Billy looked back at his friend, G.A., sitting in the backseat, and then at the LAPD squad cars gaining on them now with every second.
16:21 Jake Brennan? Percodan Man cut the wheel hard and, to the tune of screeching tires, motor the very fast-moving vehicle down an alley, again taking another corner at the end of said alley where he suddenly had to slam on the brakes to avoid crashing into someone's fence. The cops were blocking them in now, and the bright lights of their cruisers cutting through the darkness. Then came the piercing squeal of a bullhorn. Put your fucking hands on the fucking dashboard where we can see them! Why was Billy Idol in a car driven by a washing machine salesman high on prescription opioids actively outrunning the police on this his first day in L.A.? Why are you even asking? You'll find no real clarity to this sort of question.
17:04 Jake Brennan? In the lawless 1980s, for a rocker such as Billy Idol, a junkie such as Billy Idol, life was one big blur of scores, fixes, verses, and choruses, and not always in that order. Furthermore, the only true clarity one had to possess was in the recording studio or onstage, where the real work was to be done. So after Billy smoothed things out with the LAPD, and after the cops were satisfied that no one in the car had a criminal record, after Percodan Man agreed to pay a small fine for the damage done, and after Billy's friend G.A. promised he would take the wheel, they were free to go, which, for Billy, meant going to Westlake Studios the very next day.
17:47 Jake Brennan? With his Epiphone Casino in his hands and the clock on the wall ticking away, he found his favorite key of B, the same key he'd written Generation X's "Ready, Steady, Go" in. His favorite time signature, 4/4 in, a compelling story from which to write a song. And that story was not what had just happened to him the day prior, but instead one inspired by his own sister, who had recently gotten married while pregnant. The lyrics came to him quickly, as did a twist in which he pivoted away from his own life and had the song's narrator hint at some sort of incestuous relationship. It was weird, dark, incredibly compelling. In just 20 minutes, Billy Idol had written the minor-key goth punk-pop smash "White
18:32 Jake Brennan? Wedding." In the fall of 1982, "White Wedding," with its unmistakable hopscotch-ing pickslide intro by Steve Stevens, that song was released as the second single from Billy's debut solo album. It didn't make him a star overnight, but thanks to all the play it received in urban dance clubs, as well as the heavy rotation on the then-new MTV, which had a finite library of videos to choose from at the time, "White Wedding" lifted Billy Idol up a bit, which, most importantly for Billy at the moment, meant that his inner circle of rock and roll friends got bigger, as did his drug budget, and the caliber of place in which he did those drugs with those friends. I'm talking places like the Chateau Marmont on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.
19:17 Jake Brennan? And that's where Billy and Steve decamped when they were kicked out of the Sunset Marquis up the street a bit and around the corner. Armed with a stash of tequila and heroin, Billy did his best to get kicked out of his chateau bungalow as well. And he probably would have. That is, if the cops weren't busy with John Belushi's corpse after the famous comedian, former Saturday Night Live cast member, and fellow hard-partier just so happened to overdose in his own bungalow a few doors down from Billy. Less deadly were the hangout sessions with rock royalty like the Rolling Stones, with whom Billy found himself sharing a bottle at Ronnie Wood's birthday party. Ronnie passed the bourbon to Keith, and then Keith to Mick, and then Mick to Billy, upon which Billy took a look at the bottle's label, which featured a picture of a Confederate
20:02 Jake Brennan? soldier riding a horse next to the bourbon's name. And the name of that bourbon was Rebel Yell. The name stuck with him. And just like the blast of creative inspiration he channeled to write "White Wedding", he did the same with his next big hit, which would also be the title of his next album. Upon its release in November of 1983, Billy Idol's second solo record, Rebel Yell, again with the help of MTV, solidified the one-time punk rocker as one of the most recognizable faces and voices of contemporary rock and roll, in the same way that Madonna or Michael Jackson represented the pop side of the tracks.
20:41 Jake Brennan? Billy set out on a massive tour, and he fucked and drugged his way across North America and then back again, in embarrassment of women, and heroin, and cocaine, and booze. It was all so much. Billy would play, he'd party, he'd pass out, he'd wake up, he'd be strung out, he'd get pissed, he'd fly into a rage, break shit, and then repeat the whole process all over again, pretty regularly. He woke up in Tucson with a sheriff pointing a loaded gun in his face. He woke up in London and his unconscious junkie body being miraculously revived in a freezing cold ice bath. He woke up with a bloody nose, with a throat on fire, naked, the curtains drawn, porn flickering on the TV set, his broken freebase pipe held together with gaffer tape.
21:23 Jake Brennan? In Rochester, New York, he was accused of sexual deviancy by a woman who claimed he kicked her out of his hotel room for not fucking another woman in front of him. His long-suffering girlfriend, Perry Lister, the one who first stayed behind in England. When Billy made the move abroad, she definitely had some idea about Billy Idol's sexual deviancy, even after the charges were dropped. But as long as that idea wasn't flaunted in her face while she was around, which was becoming more frequent as the years went on, that whatever Billy did was all good with her. And that was until Billy got sloppy. First, there was the undercover sting in Washington Square in New York, which landed Billy and a female friend in police custody. NYPD only needed one crackhead in cuffs,
22:06 Jake Brennan? so the friend took the fall, and then immediately gave a press conference in which she introduced herself as Billy's girlfriend.
22:15 Jake Brennan? Perry wasn't gonna take any of that. And Perry responded by giving her own press conference to make sure the world knew that she, and not the coke-smoking harlot on Billy's arm on that fateful day in Washington Square Park, she wanted the world to know that she, Perry, was Billy's one and only girlfriend. And Perry further proved it by moving with Billy to Los Angeles, to the Hollywood Hills, where, after Billy Idol's live version of the Tommy James classic "Monny Monny" went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100, and after Billy used the money from that huge hit to buy himself a Harley-Davidson Wide-Glad motorcycle, and then joined a local motorcycle club called Rude Dude, and after the couple welcomed a son in the summer of 1988, Perry's
22:58 Jake Brennan? suspicions of the depths of Billy's sexual deviancy were confirmed when she heard him talking to his side piece "I Shit You Not" over the baby monitor.
23:11 Jake Brennan? One year later, in 1989, this memory, this colossal fuck-up by Billy Idol and how his girlfriend Perry responded to it by moving out and taking the baby with her, all of it was flooding Billy Idol's head like an old rock and roll melody as he began to regain consciousness inside of a Bangkok airport. The Thai soldiers who'd busted into his hotel room forcibly removed him and sedated him and had dumped him here with a one-way ticket on the first plane leaving so that they could get him the hell out of their country. This pain, this emotional pain now that was occupying Billy's head, was the reason
23:51 Jake Brennan? Billy came to this country in the first place, to cast out this grief by snorting and smoking and fucking the pain away. But the pain was back now, and so was his memory. And now, Billy Idol could remember everything.
24:12 Speaker 06 We'll be right back after this. Word, word, word.
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24:46 Speaker 07 Hi, I'm Jenna Oshkowitz. You might know me from Glee. This is At the Table, the food allergy podcast, a show about food, connection, and what it really looks like to live with food allergies. Each episode, we hear stories from real people like Daniel.
25:00 Speaker 04 People would always think I was lactose intolerant, so I just kind of shortened my explanation to I'm deathly allergic, in a big way that defined a lot of my childhood.
25:11 Speaker 07 And while there are challenges, there are moments that remind you you're not alone.
25:16 Speaker 00 One of the best guys that I dated, he made a point to memorize all my food allergies.
25:22 Speaker 07 So join us and hear their stories and more, because living with food allergies isn't just about what you can't eat, it's about still having your seat at the table. Brought to you by Genentech and Novartis. Listen to At the Table, the food allergy podcast, on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow At the Table and start listening on the free iHeartRadio app today.
25:47 Jake Brennan? Three weeks earlier, Billy Idol and the leader of his rude dude motorcycle gang, his friend, Harry Johnson, no, that is not a joke, that's actually his name, look it up. Billy and Harry flew from Los Angeles to Bangkok in search of escape. In the short time between when Perry left him and when he left on this trip, Billy had managed to father another child, a daughter, with another woman. But his failure to hang on to Perry, it still hung over him like a dark cloud. So drowning his sorrows in untold amounts of hedonism halfway across the world sounded like just what the good doctor, Dr. Feelgood, that is, ordered. Billy was also in need of a break from recording his fourth solo album, Charmed Life. He wasn't sure if that title was wishful thinking or whether it was the
26:32 Jake Brennan? truth. But seeing as though he could pick up stakes at the drop of a hat and fly 8,000 miles to Thailand for a boondoggle, he was doing all right, all things considered. The making of Charmed Life was, even by Billy Idol's standards, a degenerate affair in which recording sessions were regularly punctuated by doses of ecstasy and GHB, lines of cocaine, and scores of naked women at whose arrival Billy and the crew would just strip down to their biker boots and scarves. So I guess in a rare show of abstinence, Billy and Harry agreed that once they got to Bangkok, it would be alcohol only. Furthermore, they planned to spend as much time in the brothels as they could handle, and they did.
27:16 Jake Brennan? The women were beautiful, and the sex was mind-bending. They had to drag themselves away to retire to their presidential suite on the top floor of the Oriental Hotel, with incredible views that competed with Bangkok sex workers when it came to taking Billy's breath away. But this self-imposed alcohol-only rule got old real quick. All that drinking just made them pass out earlier, and they wanted to go all night. So they hailed the cab and asked the driver if he could score them some blow. He was more than happy to oblige, but he did them one better. He procured for Billy and Harry not cocaine, but China-white heroin. This defeated the whole purpose in a way, which was to get some drugs that would keep them awake and alert, but once a junkie has that little
28:01 Jake Brennan? vial in his hands, there's no way he's giving it back. And a little of this stuff went a long way. Within minutes, the two friends were stratospherically high. And when I say "high," Billy wrote in his memoir, "I mean zombie high." And pretty soon, the hotel staff was asking questions. Why are these two American gentlemen buying so many chocolate bars from their minibar? Why? Well, because they couldn't find any tin foil at the local stores to cook their heroin in. Another question: Why are there so many scantily clad women from the brothels running through the lobby and hallways of our respectable establishment at all hours of the night? Well, obviously, because those two American gentlemen are screwing their brains out six ways to Sunday.
28:45 Jake Brennan? And, oh, excuse me, sirs, would you mind moving to a different room so that a very special guest, the president of Cambodia, can use the presidential suite? It is, after all, called presidential for a reason. Well, the answer to that question was: Fuck no! Fuck the president of Cambodia, and fuck this really good heroin which Billy and Harry had finally run out of. They replaced the smack with bottles of cocaine and such, purchased at a nearby pharmacy, so that their withdrawal from the China White wouldn't be too much of a bitch to conquer. And they chased the pills with more liquor. And once again, Billy Idol collapsed, and everything went black.
29:29 Jake Brennan? He woke up on the floor of the hotel's elevator, half of his body inside the elevator car and half of it in the hallway. The elevator doors were trying to close, but they kept hitting his motionless body and then reopening. "Billy, come on, man, get up." Harry was standing there, trying to rouse him. And Billy opened his eyes to see multiple pairs of feet navigating their way around what appeared to be his pretty corpse. It was a family. And Billy looked up at the father and thought, "Wait, is that..." Mel Gibson was ushering his children past the very fucked up Billy Idol and towards another elevator bank, all while giving Billy a look that was part sympathy and part pity. Clearly, this was a sign that it was time for a change. And I don't mean as in time to go home.
30:14 Jake Brennan? Billy and Harry checked out of the Oriental and made their way to the seaside resort town of Pattaya, Thailand, some ninety miles away, where they moved into the Royal Cliff Hotel. There, they took more pills, tranquilizers this time. And the result was more of the same. Billy passed out. And Billy woke up hours later, in the middle of the night, to find Harry gone, and two new sex workers by his side. And Billy pulled that old chateau marmont bullshit again. He picked up the hotel room's table and launched it through a sliding glass door. And that little outburst cost him $20,000 to ensure that the hotel management didn't call the cops. This on top of the 25 grand that he'd already paid for a jet ski he'd rented and crashed
30:59 Jake Brennan? while high as fuck. And so, once again, it was time to move on. Back to the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok. And it was there where all the transgressions of the last three weeks were beginning to pile up and inflict real damage on Billy's body and mind. And that mind of his was cramped with smells, tastes, and sounds. The music of ecstasy and indulgence. Some cut-up tapestry of orgasmic shrieks and butane lighters and crumpled-up chocolate bar foil and jet ski motors and that Vietnamese woman Harry had picked up and was dragging around, the one that only knew two phrases in English: "Out go the light" and "Boom boom." And now, on top of it all, the phone was ringing.
31:44 Jake Brennan? America was calling. His record label was pissed. He of the rebel yell was rebelling a little too much. And the only way to curb such rebellion, to get the rebel back on track, to get him back to yelling in the recording studio and onstage, back on schedule, was to tap the big guns, literally. As in Thailand's very capable and very efficient military, who quickly overpowered Billy Idol and, despite urban legend, did not shoot him with some huge tranquilizer gun, but instead injected him with a sedative. And then drove him to the airport, where he woke up puking his brains out, and put him on a plane back to Los Angeles, where he returned to the recording studio to put
32:27 Jake Brennan? the finishing touches on his Charmed Life album while continuing to do more drugs, not just cocaine and heroin. But now ecstasy and GHB as well. All while more naked women paraded into the studio's control room to get Billy off again and again, right there on the floor, on the couch, on the chair, as a rough mix of Billy's cover of The Doors' "L.A. Woman" thundered through the studio speakers. The music, the sex, the drugs, the friends, strangers, vacation, work, home, away, there was no differentiating one thing from the next. It was all decadent, all depraved, all encompassing, and never ending.
33:35 Jake Brennan? February 6th, 1990, Los Angeles. The morning sun reflected off the black and chrome of the Harley-Davidson Y-Glide as Billy Idol, his belly lined with booze and pills, steered his bike away from his house in the Hollywood Hills and down a steep canyon road toward what was certainly main drag gridlock on Sunset Below. The wind whipped through his spiky bleached blonde hair, just the way he liked it. No helmet, no safety net, not back in London in 1977, not in the Lower East Side in 1981, and not in Bangkok the year prior, certainly not now, on the streets of his second adopted American home. Clutch, throttle, the Y-Glide lurched forward, giving Billy that thrill in the process,
34:20 Jake Brennan? the same thrill that sex, drugs, and rock and roll gave to him. Pure euphoria. But this euphoria, like all the others, had a tendency to be too much, too distracting. The Harley kept up its fast clip, gaining speed even. And Billy was oblivious to the world, and to his troubles, and to the stop sign he'd just blown through.
34:47 Jake Brennan? The UK press broke the news that Billy Idol was dead. But unlike the rumor that he was subdued with a tranquilizer gun in Bangkok, the rumor about Billy Idol's death took only hours to debunk. Because although he was not wearing a helmet, and was also admittedly intoxicated and thus very easily could have died, Billy Idol was in fact very much alive, and the truth was much gnarlier than fiction. Billy had indeed been hit by a car, and upon impact, he was thrown from his bike, and his right leg took a beating. Pieces of bone had shattered inside his shin, leaving a gaping hole in his flesh the size of a baseball. His forearm was broken, as were his clavicle and some ribs. But it was his leg that was the real issue.
35:32 Jake Brennan? He nearly lost it. It took seven surgeries over the next month to put him on the mend. A brand-new walking cane now helped him get around. And this is why, if you remember, 1990, the music video for his number-two Billboard Hot 100 single at the time, Cradle of Love, you know, the one with that chick who strips down and seduces an uptight businessman in his apartment? That video features Billy only in occasional shots, and only from the waist up, working his ass off to sell the song in the video. Even though he was no longer on hospital morphine to dull his pain and keep him high, but once again relying on the copious other recreational drugs he continued to take on the regular. Hold up. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Wait a minute, Jake. Shouldn't this be the part of the story where our hero Billy Idol
36:17 Jake Brennan? has a near-death experience after years of destructive behavior, which immediately serves as this monumental wake-up call to get clean and sober?" Well, you're not wrong. Read any recent interview with Billy Idol, and he'll point to this very incident as the moment when he realized he had to do something about his reckless devil-may-care behavior if he wanted to be around to watch his two small children grow up. The thing is, it didn't happen overnight.
36:42 Jake Brennan? Asking Billy Idol to immediately stop being Billy Idol is like asking Mr. Rogers to stop wearing that red cardigan. Billy is the manifestation of what we talk about when we talk about the rock and roll animal. Today, in 2025, he may seem like an overblown caricature of this ideal, but that's only because Hot Topic became a thing and anyone with a few bucks could suddenly buy a bunch of quote unquote "edgy punk swag" and pretend they were a fraction of the badass that Billy Idol is. Billy Idol is and was authentic to his core, and so, in 1990, learning how to alter the way that an authentic rock and roll animal lived while also maintaining that authentic image was gonna take a minute.
37:26 Jake Brennan? But for the moment, he remained a version of the animal he'd always been. In 1992, that animal went feral, when Billy Idol pleaded no contest for punching a woman in the face while in the back of a car, and was fined $2,000 for the offense. A less deplorable and more mischievous example of the continuing rock and roll animalism came on the final show of the US leg of the Charmed Life Tour in Seattle on Halloween night, 1990. As the opening band, the Incredible Faith No More, played their alternative rock hit "Epic," they were pelted with 600 dead fish by the road crew upon Billy's instruction.
38:08 Jake Brennan? And then, during Billy's headlining set, five men, naked from the waist down, their swinging dicks just swinging away, danced a conga line across the stage as Billy sang his 1986 song "To Be a Lover." And that little stunt summoned Seattle PD, who showed up to the Seattle Coliseum, ready to make some arrests for indecent exposure and perhaps even put this curled-lip rebel in his place once and for all. But by the time they arrived, Billy Idol and his crew had already hit the road. And besides, since those five mostly naked dudes have been wearing paper bags over their heads, no one can say for sure just who had gone streaking onstage. For the Seattle Police Department, that was that, but for Billy Idol, it was
38:51 Jake Brennan? the start of a new era, a new day, to start again. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is DisgraceLand.
39:14 Jake Brennan? All right. Thanks for hanging out with me and Billy Idol on this episode. I hope you guys dug it. Apple Podcast listeners, make sure you have automatic downloads turned on so you don't miss any episodes. All right. This week's question of the week is, who is the most debaucherous rock star you've heard about here in DisgraceLand? And why? Is it Billy Idol, or is it someone else? 617-906-6638 to let me know via voicemail or text at disgracelandpod to let me know via Instagram, Facebook, or X. And you'll be able to hear your answers on the after-party bonus episode coming up right after this one. If you want more stories from me, like this one, but about actors and actresses and not about musicians, then check out Hollywood Land, our Hollywood and Crime spinoff podcast. Search and follow Hollywood Land wherever you get your podcasts. We're releasing episodes
39:59 Jake Brennan? every week on John Waters, David Lynch, James Dean, Patty Hearst, and more. Leave a review for DisgraceLand or Hollywood Land on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and win some free merch. Okay, here comes some credits.
40:13 Jake Brennan? DisgraceLand was created by yours truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be found on the show notes page at disgracelandpod.com. If you're listening as a DisgraceLand All-Access member, thank you for supporting the show. We really appreciate it. And if not, you can become a member right now by going to disgracelandpod.com/membership. Members can listen to every episode of DisgraceLand ad-free. Plus, you'll get one brand-new exclusive episode every month, weekly unscripted bonus episodes, special audio collections, and early access to merchandise and events. Visit disgracelandpod.com/membership for details. Rate and review the show and follow us on
40:55 Jake Brennan? Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook @disgracelandpod, and on YouTube at youtube.com/AtDisgraceLandPod. Rock-a-rola.
41:07 Speaker 02 Bad, bad man.
41:10 Speaker 02 She's been thinking about this sleepover all week, but I think about her food allergies all the time. Fortunately, her doctor prescribed Zolair, omalizumab. It's proven to significantly reduce allergic reactions if a food allergy accident happens.
41:23 Speaker 03 Zolair 150mg is a prescription medication used to treat food allergy in people one year of age and older to reduce allergic reactions due to accidental exposure to one or more foods. While taking Zolair, you should continue to avoid all foods to which you are allergic. Don't use if you are allergic to Zolair. Zolair may cause a severe, life-threatening allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. Tell your doctor if you ever had anaphylaxis. Get help right away if you have trouble breathing or if you have swelling of your throat or tongue. Zolair should not be used for the emergency treatment of allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis. Zolair is for maintenance use to reduce allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, while avoiding food allergens. Serious side effects such as cancer, fever, muscle aches and rash, parasitic infection, or heart and circulation problems have been reported. Please see zolair.com for full prescribing information. Ask an allergist about Zolair. This is an advertisement for Zolair,
42:07 Speaker 03 paid for by Genentech and Novartis.
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42:40 Jake Brennan? Hey, guys. Time to dust off your detective skills while unwinding in the Caribbean on Virgin Voyages' second true crime voyages. Back by popular demand, this five-night, adults-only escape sets sail March 20, 2027, to Grand Turk in the Beach Club at Bimini. The difference between this year and last will be that I will be on the cruise this year, along with Zeph, and he and I will be taping a live version of Disgrace Land, along with podcast hosts from Exactly Right's Buried Bones, Podcast of the Year Award winners, Wyscrack, and other fan favorites. Get on this cruise with us, guys, and enjoy live podcast recordings, behind-the-scenes storytelling, exclusive meet-and-greets, and immersive true crime programming throughout this one-of-a-kind voyage.
43:24 Jake Brennan? Head over to www.virginvoyages.com/truecrime to secure your spot.
Previous Bonus Episode: JFK, Watergate, and More From Seattle Next Bonus Episode: 2025 Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame Nominees and Helter Skelter Page updated November 3, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated