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Billy Idol

Billy Idol's Genre:

Contemporary Pop/Rock, Hard Rock, Album Rock, Dance-Rock, New Wave, Punk/New Wave, Punk

Biography

Along with Duran Duran, Billy Idol was one the first pop/rock artists to achieve massive success in the early '80s due to a then brand-new U.S. television network, MTV. Mixing his bad-boy good looks with an appealing blend of pop hooks, punk attitude, and a dance beats, Idol quickly rocketed to stardom, before hard living derailed his career and almost proved fatal. Born William Michael Albert Broad on November 30, 1955, in Middlesex, England, the youngster relocated with his family for a brief spell to New York, before returning back to England. After a stint at Sussex University only last a year, Broad found himself as part of a group of teen punk rockers who befriended and followed the Sex Pistols, known as "the Bromley Contingent" (a member of this colorful group of characters was Siouxsie Sioux, eventual leader of Siouxsie & the Banshees).

It wasn't long before Broad realized that he too could be the frontman of a punk band, and assumed the name Billy Idol shortly thereafter. After a stint playing guitar in a group called Chelsea didn't pan out (interestingly, the group featured future Clash guitarist Mick Jones and future Damned guitarist Brian James), Idol put down the guitar and picked up the mic, and recruited bassist Tony James, drummer John Towe, and guitarist Bob Andrews, forming Generation X in 1976. Named after a 1960s paperback book, the band signed a recording contract with Chrysalis shortly thereafter (Towe was replaced with new skinsman Mark Laff) -- resulting in such releases as 1978's self-titled debut, 1979's Valley of the Dolls, and 1981's Kiss Me Deadly -- before splitting up.

Disappointed with Generation X's demise, Idol relocated to New York City, where he pursued a career as a solo artist. Hooking up with Kiss manager Bill Aucoin, Idol issued the 1981 EP Don't Stop (comprised of a cover of Tommy James' '60s hit "Mony Mony" and a pair of remixed Generation X tracks), which helped the singer score another record deal with his former band's label, Chrysalis. Idol found the perfect collaborator and partner in guitarist/Johnny Thunders look-alike Steve Stevens, and issued a self-titled debut in July of 1982. A pair of eye-catching videos for the tracks "White Wedding" and "Dancing With Myself" (the latter a remake of a Generation X composition) scored major air time on MTV, with both clips focusing in on Idol's spiky, peroxide blonde hair and Elvis-like sneer. The debut eventually obtained gold certification, and set the stage perfectly for Idol's big commercial breakthrough, 1984's Rebel Yell.

Rebel Yell became the singer's best-selling album of his career (eventually going double platinum), spawning such big-time MTV/radio hits as the album's anthemic title track, "Eyes Without a Face," and "Flesh for Fantasy," establishing Idol as an arena headliner stateside. But with massive success came its many distractions, which prevented Idol from issuing a new studio album until three years after Rebel Yell. 1987's Whiplash Smile was another sizeable hit on the strength of such hits as "To Be a Lover" and "Sweet Sixteen," but failed to live up to the lofty expectations set by his previous releases. Stevens jumped ship shortly thereafter to launch his own band, Steve Stevens' Atomic Playboys (and eventually was a member of Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil's solo band), leaving Idol to fend for himself.

An eight-track best-of set, Vital Idol, was issued later the same year, spawning one of the year's most heavily played MTV videos -- a live version of the previously recorded cover of "Mony Mony" -- which helped keep Idol in the spotlight. Idol spent the next few years working on his fourth studio release, but reappeared in the summer of 1989 as part of an all-star rendition of the Who's Tommy, with Idol playing the role of the sadistic character Cousin Kevin. Around the time of Idol's next release, 1990's Charmed Life, the singer was involved in a serious motorcycle accident (in which he almost lost his leg), forcing the singer to walk with a cane for a period of time; the video for the album's lead-off single, "Cradle of Love," featured the singer filmed from the waist up. The ploy worked, as the single (which was also used as the theme song in the failed Andrew "Dice" Clay movie, Ford Fairlane) was another smash hit, making Charmed Life the fourth Idol album in a row to achieve at least reach platinum sales.

Expectedly, several years passed before the release of Idol's next album, during which time he tried his hand at acting with a bit part in Oliver Stone's motion picture The Doors. By the time 1993's Cyberpunk surfaced, Idol had dropped his spiky peroxide hairstyle in place of dreadlocks, and experimented with techno beats. The move proved to be an unwise one, as the album tanked and sank from the charts. At the same time, Idol was knee deep in drug addiction, resulting in another close brush with death when he overdosed and had to be treated in a Los Angeles hospital in 1994. Not much was heard from Idol until 1998, when he made a cameo appearance (as himself) in the hit Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore comedy The Wedding Singer, which resulted in renewed interest. Idol teamed up once again with Stevens, was the subject of a VH1: Behind the Music special (as well as a Storytellers episode for the channel, which was ultimately issued as a CD), and issued a more extensive Greatest Hits set in 2001; the latter of which sold 500,000 copies in the U.S. alone. Next up was his first studio album since Cyberpunk, Devil's Playground, released on Sanctuary in 2005. ~ Greg Prato

AOL Radio Stations Billy Idol is Featured on (15)

Bonnaroo 2013

Celebrating it's 12th year, Bonnaroo is a must-see festival. The four-day camping and music festival happens from June 13–16, 2013 on a beautiful 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee, 60 miles south of Nashville. Bonnaroo 2013 on Slacker Radio features all of the artists from this year's amazing lineup including headliners like Paul McCartney and Mumford & Sons, crowd favorites like Wilco, and indie acts like Passion Pit and The Lumineers. You'll also hear selections from Bonnaroo's comedy lineup- including Daniel Tosh and Mike Birbiglia.

'80s Rock

The '80s was the decade of decadence and music was no exception. From bands like Poison and Cinderella who celebrated excess to U2 and R.E.M., that rebelled against it, '80s Rock on Slacker Radio covers the best rock the ‘80s had to offer.

Sondre Lerche Showcase

This is the Sondre Lerche Artist Showcase station on Slacker Radio. Tune in to hear music hand-picked by Sondre as well as commentary about the songs that influenced his music and his life.

'80s Hits

80's Hits takes the biggest hits from the decade of big hair and music videos and puts it together on one station. From the new wave of Duran Duran, to the arena rock of Def Leppard, from the end of disco to the beginning of hip hop (remember Tone Loc?), it's all on 80's Hits.

'80s Alternative

If you remember skinny ties, shrink-to-fit jeans and Molly Ringwald then '80s Alternative on Slacker Radio is for you. The '80s saw the birth of "Modern-Rock" and bands like Duran Duran, The Cure and R.E.M. were producing their best work. You’ll hear your favorite hits, deep cuts and one-hit wonders only on ‘80s Alternative.

Party Rock

Party Rock on Slacker has your party tunes covered with classics from AC/DC, Metallica, and The Stones. You'll also hear the latest from the Foo Fighters, Korn and System of a Down to keep your party rocking for hours. Have a few drinks, and party hard. We will rock it for you.

Rock

Rock on Slacker Radio is a tribute to all things rock, from AC/DC to Disturbed. You'll hear everything that rocks with no filler and no acoustic guitars.

Eclectic Holiday

Sometimes the holidays aren't all chestnuts and tinsel. That's why Eclectic Holiday on Slacker Radio showcases the best in non-traditional, left-of-center and unheard songs that celebrate the most wonderful time of the year!

Soft Rock

Soft Rock on Slacker is a true rock station that showcases the lighter, more contemplative side of the biggest names in rock-n-roll. No sappy love ballads or lame pop songs here...just great soft rock from Coldplay, U2, Bruce Springsteen, John Mayer, Snow Patrol, Dave Matthews Band, Train, and more!

Classic Alternative

Call it "Alternative," "Modern Rock," "College Rock" - call it whatever you like. Classic Alternative on Slacker Radio is all of those things and more- from the golden age of Alternative. Spanning various decades, this is radio for people that were raised on 120 Minutes. David Bowie, The Clash, The Smiths, Erasure, Depeche Mode, New Order, INXS, Midnight Oil, R.E.M., 10,000 Maniacs, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, Weezer, and many more!

Classic Hits

Classic Hits on Slacker plays the greatest pop and rock hits of the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s.

Rock The Halls

Get the edgier side of holiday music with a great mix of holiday favorites from Rock, Alternative and Indie artists. Hear a wide range of holiday tunes from Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Presley, U2, Coldplay, Sarah McLachlan, Death Cab for Cutie, Sufjan Stevens and many more.

'90s Alternative

90's Alternative on Slacker Radio highlights one of the most profound decades of Alternative Music. You'll hear the powerhouse artists of the Seattle grunge movement including Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden and the Screaming Trees. You'll also get a heaping helping of non-Northwest classics like Stone Temple Pilots, The Smashing Pumpkins and Sublime as well as recalling the Punk resurgence with classics like Green Day's "Dookie" or the Offspring's "Smash" and the offbeat sounds of The Flaming Lips, Beck and Cake.

'90s Hits

Are you nostalgic for flannel shirts, girl power, and the days of Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake as an item? '90s Hits on Slacker Radio takes you back with all your favorite Soft Rock, Pop, Hip-Hop and Alternative songs that made the decade hella sweet!

Billy Idol

This station plays the best music from and music from related artists like Def Leppard, Journey, Bon Jovi, The Cars, Van Halen, Pat Benatar, Aerosmith, The Police, Heart, Foreigner and more.

All Stations

Billy Idol's Selected Discography (25)

Best Of Billy Idol: Idolize Yourself Album Cover

Rebel Yell

19839 Songs

Artists Related to Billy Idol (50)

	Def Leppard	In many ways, Def Leppard were the definitive hard rock band of the '80s. There were many bands that rocked harder (and were more dangerous) than the Sheffield-based quintet, but few others captured the spirit of the times quite as well.
	Journey	During their initial 14 years of existence (1973-1987), Journey altered their musical approach and their personnel extensively while becoming a top touring and recording band.
	Bon Jovi	After ushering in the era of pop-metal with their 1986 blockbuster Slippery When Wet and its hit singles “You Give Love a Bad Name,” “Wanted Dead or Alive,” and “Living on a Prayer,” Bon Jovi wound up transcending the big-haired ‘80s, withstanding changes in style and sound to become one of the biggest American rock bands of their time, selling over 120 million albums worldwide, and sustaining their popularity well into the new millennium.
	The Cars	Blondie may have had a string of number one hits and Talking Heads may have won the hearts of the critics, but the Cars were the most successful American new wave band to emerge in the late '70s.
	Van Halen	With their 1978 eponymous debut, Van Halen simultaneously rewrote the rules of rock guitar and hard rock in general.
	Pat Benatar	Pat Benatar's polished mainstream pop/rock made her one of the more popular female vocalists of the early '80s.
	Aerosmith	Aerosmith were one of the most popular hard rock bands of the '70s, setting the style and sound of hard rock and heavy metal for the next two decades with their raunchy, bluesy swagger.
	The Police	Nominally, the Police were punk rock, but that's only in the loosest sense of the term. The trio's nervous, reggae-injected pop/rock was punky, but it wasn't necessarily punk.
	Heart	Sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson are the creative spark behind Heart, a hard rock group who initially found success in the mid-'70s only to reach greater heights after engineering a major comeback a decade later.
	Foreigner	While quite a few arena rock acts of the '70s found the transformation into the '80s quite difficult, several acts continued to flourish and enjoyed some of their biggest commercial success: Journey, Styx, REO Speedwagon, and especially Foreigner.
	Queen	Few bands embodied the pure excess of the '70s like Queen. Embracing the exaggerated pomp of prog rock and heavy metal, as well as vaudevillian music hall, the British quartet delved deeply into camp and bombast, creating a huge, mock-operatic sound with layered guitars and overdubbed vocals.
	Whitesnake	After recording two solo albums, former Deep Purple vocalist David Coverdale formed Whitesnake around 1977.
	Genesis	Genesis started life as a progressive rock band, in the manner of Yes and King Crimson, before a series of membership changes brought about a transformation in their sound, into one of the most successful pop/rock bands of the 1980s and 1990s.
	Duran Duran	Duran Duran personified new wave for much of the mainstream audience. And for good reason, too. Duran Duran's reputation was built through music videos, which accentuated their fashion-model looks and glamorous sense of style.
	Poison	In a decade fueled by party anthems and power ballads, Poison enjoyed a great amount of popularity, with only Bon Jovi and Def Leppard outselling them.
	Guns N' Roses	At a time when pop was dominated by dance music and pop-metal, Guns N' Roses brought raw, ugly rock & roll crashing back into the charts.
	INXS	INXS hailed from the pubs of Australia, which is part of the reason the band never comfortably fit in with new wave.
	Scorpions	Known best for their 1984 anthem "Rock You Like a Hurricane" and the 1990 ballad "Wind of Change," German rockers the Scorpions have sold over 22 million records, making them one of the most successful rock bands to ever come out of Continental Europe.
	ZZ Top	This sturdy American blues-rock trio from Texas consists of Billy Gibbons (guitar), Dusty Hill (bass), and Frank Beard (drums).
	Tom Petty	Upon the release of their first album in the late '70s, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers were shoehorned into the punk/new wave movement by some observers who picked up on the tough, vibrant energy of the group's blend of Byrds riffs and Stonesy swagger.
	John Mellencamp	Throughout his career, John Mellencamp has had to fight, whether it was for the right to record under his own name or for respect as an artist.
	Mötley Crüe	Mötley Crüe were one of the most influential hair metal bands of the '80s, boasting a striking visual presence and hedonistic reputation rivaled only by Guns N' Roses.
	Bryan Adams
	Loverboy	One of the most popular North American rock bands of the 1980s, Loverboy scored a string of multi-platinum albums and hit singles with their canny blend of pop hooks and polished but energetic arena rock.
	AC/DC	AC/DC's mammoth power chord roar became one of the most influential hard rock sounds of the '70s. In its own way, it was a reaction against the pompous art rock and lumbering arena rock of the early '70s.
	Phil Collins	Phil Collins' ascent to the status of one of the most successful pop and adult contemporary singers of the '80s and beyond was probably as much of a surprise to him as it was to many others.
	Joan Jett	By playing pure and simple rock & roll without making an explicit issue of her gender, Joan Jett became a figurehead for several generations of female rockers.
	Eddie Money	Eddie Money arrived in the late '70s at the height of album rock's popularity. While Money didn't have a remarkable voice, he had a knack for catchy, blue-collar rock & roll, which he delivered with a surprising amount of polished, radio-friendly finesse.
	Men at Work	Men at Work were one of the more surprising success stories of the new wave era, rocketing out of Australia in 1982 to become the most successful artist of the year.
	Cheap Trick	Combining a love for British guitar pop songcraft with crunching power chords and a flair for the absurd, Cheap Trick provided the necessary links between '60s pop, heavy metal, and punk.
	Styx	Although they began as an artsy prog rock band, Styx would eventually transform into the virtual arena rock prototype by the late '70s and early '80s, due to a fondness for bombastic rockers and soaring power ballads.
	Cyndi Lauper	Cyndi Lauper was one of the biggest stars of the early MTV era, selling five million copies of her debut album, She's So Unusual, as well as scoring a string of four Top Ten hits from the record, including the major hits "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and "Time After Time.
	REO Speedwagon	Three bands were the undisputed arena rock kings of the early '80s -- Styx, Journey, and REO Speedwagon -- yet all weren't overnight success stories (in fact, each group began pursuing different musical styles originally -- prog rock, fusion, and straight-ahead hard rock, respectively, before transforming slowly into chart-topping mainstream rockers).
	Huey Lewis	Huey Lewis & the News were a bar band that made good. With their simple, straightforward rock & roll, the San Francisco-based group became one of America's most popular pop/rock bands of the mid-'80s.
	Billy Joel	Although Billy Joel never was a critic's favorite, the pianist emerged as one of the most popular singer/songwriters of the latter half of the '70s.
	Kiss	Rooted in the campy theatrics of Alice Cooper and the sleazy hard rock of glam rockers the New York Dolls, Kiss became a favorite of American teenagers in the '70s.
	Billy Squier	Many point to Billy Squier as early-'80s rock personified -- an era when he and many of his peers tempered hard rock with pop melodicism -- and by adding just the right amount of posing and posturing for the newly constructed MTV set, he scored a string of arena rock anthems and power ballads.
	Bangles	The Bangles combined the chiming riffs and catchy melodies of British Invasion guitar pop with a hint of the energy of new wave.
	Quiet Riot	For a very brief moment, Quiet Riot was a rock & roll phenomenon. Famously described as the first heavy metal band to top the pop chart (a claim that greatly depends on one's exact definition of heavy metal), the Los Angeles quartet became an overnight sensation thanks to their monster 1983 smash album Metal Health.
	Boston	The arena rock group behind one of the fastest-selling debut albums in history, Boston was essentially the vehicle of studio wizard Tom Scholz, born March 10, 1947, in Toledo, OH.
	U2	Through a combination of zealous righteousness and post-punk experimentalism, U2 became one of the most popular rock & roll bands of the '80s.
	.38 Special	Initially, .38 Special were one of many Southern rock bands in the vein of the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd; in fact, the band was led by Donnie Van Zant, the brother of Skynyrd's leader, Ronnie Van Zant.
	Cinderella	Hard rock band Cinderella gained success in the mid-'80s, turning out a series of million-selling albums and hit singles while placing music videos in heavy rotation on MTV.
	Culture Club	Few new wave groups were as popular as Culture Club. During the early '80s, the group racked up seven straight Top Ten hits in the U.
	Bruce Springsteen	In the decades following his emergence on the national scene in 1975, Bruce Springsteen proved to be that rarity among popular musicians, an artist who maintained his status as a frontline recording and performing star, consistently selling millions of albums and selling out arenas and stadiums around the world year after year, as well as retaining widespread critical approbation, with ecstatic reviews greeting those discs and shows.
	David Lee Roth	In the eyes of countless hard rock fans, David Lee Roth is the prototypical frontman. With a flamboyant, larger than life stage presence and a party-hearty surfer dude persona (not to mention his acrobatic leaps, long mane of blond hair, and skintight spandex outfits), Roth was an integral part of Van Halen's meteoric rise to global dominance from 1978 through 1984.
	Ozzy Osbourne	Though many bands have succeeded in earning the hatred of parents and media worldwide throughout the past few decades, arguably only such acts as Alice Cooper, Judas Priest, and Marilyn Manson have tied the controversial record of Ozzy Osbourne.
	Fleetwood Mac	While most bands undergo a number of changes over the course of their careers, few groups experienced such radical stylistic changes as Fleetwood Mac.
	Stevie Nicks	Famed for her mystical chanteuse image, singer/songwriter Stevie Nicks enjoyed phenomenal success not only as a solo artist but also as a key member of Fleetwood Mac.
	Rush	Over the course of their decades-spanning career, Canadian power trio Rush emerged as one of hard rock's most highly regarded bands; although typically brushed aside by critics and rarely the recipients of mainstream pop radio airplay, Rush nonetheless won an impressive and devoted fan following, while their virtuoso performance skills solidified their standing as musicians' musicians.