Now drug free Billy Idol goes to YouTube to see how he lived in the eighties

BILLY Idol is free of drugs and Botox yet his memories of the ‘80s are hazy. Guess how he looks back at his life and those good times?

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 09: Billy Idol speaks onstage at CBGB Music & Film Festival 2014 HQ Kickoff event with Keynote Speaker Billy Idol on October 9, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for CBGB)

BILLY Idol’s first visit to Australia in 1984 included one particularly infamous appearance.

During that year’s Countdown Awards, host Molly Meldrum casually asked Idol what he’d been doing since arriving in Australia.

“I’ve had some really heavy sex,” Billy Idol replied.

Then repeated it just in case nobody heard.

The incident features in Molly’s new book, but is absent from Idol’s freshly-released memoirs Dancing With Myself.

“Ah, I don’t quite remember that, it’s all a bit of a blur these days,” Idol said. “But I’m sure I was having as much sex as I could possibly find down there!”

BOOK, NEW ALBUM: Billy Idol to tour Australia

Written before his mind forgot his career ... Billy Idol’s memoirs.

The White Wedding hitmaker’s last Australian tour in 2002 was best remembered for an unfortunate power shortage during his NRL Grand Final performance.

“That was a shame but the whole crowd sang Rebel Yell anyway, so it was fantastic,” Idol recalled.

Billy Idol for Sunday papers

The autobiography (Idol refreshingly didn’t use a ghost writer) redefines the phrase ‘sex, drugs and rock and roll’.

Even before he found fame as part of London punk band Generation X, Idol was already indulging in chemicals. By the time the band split and he relocated to New York in 1981 (where he shared a manager with Kiss) Idol had developed duelling heroin and cocaine habits.

“I was a functioning drug addict,” Idol says. “A dysfunctioning drug addict maybe. At least I was doing my job, carrying on doing what I love. It was par for the course back then. A lot of people were living that life in the `80s.

“There was a feeling of ‘It’s the end of the world, there’s no future’, Party like it’s 1999, Prince said. There was that element about people’s lives in that decade and I was very much a part of living like there’s no tomorrow. It was fun, a lot of fun, but I’m really glad I’m alive today to tal

In his prime ... Billy Idol in 1984. Picture: Headpress

k about it and not dead, or brain dead or in prison.”

Much like Motley Crue’s jaw-dropping The Dirt, Idol goes into graphic detail about his copious sexual exploits, many behind the back of his long-term girlfriend. The recording budget of 1990s Charmed Life album included paying for class A drugs and the company of women.

“That was part of the job back then,” Idol says. “An amazing part of the job. And great fun. But it all got very over the top in the end. It’s difficult to disengage from that debauched lifestyle.

“Back in the `80s AIDS and hep C were only just coming along, a bigger awareness of these super diseases created by human conduct were a bit of a wake up call. But it didn’t strike the majority of people until the `90s.

“We were living in this window from the late `50s to the late `80s, you could live this free love life of sex drugs and rock and roll without too many consequences. People used to tell you you couldn’t get addicted to cocaine. People were in a fantasy land about a lot of things.”

You won’t read any rehab stories from Idol, apart from a stint in Alcoholics Anonymous in the ‘90s he’s dealt with his addictive personality himself.

“ I’m not someone who’s completely sober but I’m just not going apesh — anymore,” he admits. “I don’t go stark raving bonkers like I used to. My dad always said ‘William, your eyes are bigger than your stomach’ and that was part of my problems with drugs. My appetite was so much bigger than what I could take. I do have a self destructive side which can drag me down.

“I’m lucky my talent is intact to a certain degree and my voice and I can physically do what I’m doing and enjoy it, that’s a gift in itself. I’m sure it’s just by the skin of my teeth, I just about scraped through. I know how lucky I am.”

Still alive and kicking ... Rock singer Billy Idol.

When his memory failed him, Idol was able to YouTube his own history.

“Some of those interviews in the early `80s I was so loopy it’s hilarious,” he says.

“But I’m 58, the memories are fading, it’s nearly 40 years since punk rock. It’s all getting very much into the fog of time. I wanted to write the book while I have some semblance of recall.”

Idol worked on his memoirs while also making his comeback album, the surprisingly strong Kings and Queens of the Underground, with iconic producer Trevor Horn.

“Some of the album is autobiographical,” he says. “Making the book and the album rubbed off on each other.”

Idol is expecting his son and daughter to read the book, “but they already know about my life, maybe just not in the depth this book goes into!”

And while he’s no stranger to chemicals, Idol insists his fresh face is Botox free.

“I haven’t really done too much at all,” he says of his skin. “I’ve been lucky. Anyway, how can I do the lip sneer if my face is frozen? I need that rubbery face!”

Last time in Australia ... Singer Billy Idol and band during a sound check at the then-Telstra Stadium, Olympic Park, Sydney, prior to the 2002 NRL Grand Final.

Kings and Queen of the Underground (Kobalt) out now.

Billy Idol, with Cheap Trick, Kings Park in Perth for A Day on the Green on March 14, Wollongong’s Win Entertainment Centre on March 18, Sydney’s Qantas Credit Union Arena on March 19, A Day on the Green at Rochford Winery in the Yarra Valley on March 21, Adelaide’s Leconfield Winery for A Day on the Green on March 22, Melbourne’s Margaret Court Arena on March 24, A Day on the Green at Bimbadgen Winery in the Hunter Valley on March 28 and A Day on the Green at Brisbane’s Sirromet Winery on March 29. Tickets on sale October 23

Originally published as Now drug free Billy Idol goes to YouTube to see how he lived in the eighties