Billy Idol Still Has Some Rebel Yell To Give

Biyll Idol isn’t slowing into retirement. The 70-year-old “pretty boy of punk” — still rocking a full head of peroxide spiked hair — is making a comeback, touring the United States this summer and cementing his legacy.Mr. Idol released a new album, “Dream Into It,” in April. A documentary about his life and career, “Billy Idol Should Be Dead,” hit theaters in February and is now streaming on Hulu. He shortly will be playing a five-date residency in Las Vegas. The “White Wedding” singer will be inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in November.“I want to thank you for making my life so fucking great,” Mr. Idol told a packed crowd at the BankNH Pavillion, an outdoor amphitheater in Gilford, New Hampshire.Mr. Idol recycled this line from other shows, but it felt genuine. Many 1980s bands have reunited to tour in the last fifteen years, a byproduct of the collapse of record sales. Yet he seems to be enjoying himself and the renewed attention from his documentary and live shows. For a guy who, by his own admission, “should be dead,” Billy Idol is seizing life and thanking his fans by giving them what they want: the hits, and a dose of nostalgia. The set list for his current tour includes a couple songs from the new album, but it’s stacked with fan favorites from the 1980s: “Rebel Yell,” “Eyes Without a Face,” his 1981 cover of Tommy James and the Shondells’ “Mony Mony,” and “Flesh for Fantasy.” For the encore, he sings “Dancing With Myself,” “Hot in the City,” and “White Wedding.”Billy Idol pictured in 1987. Barry King/Sygma/Sygma via Getty ImagesIf Billy Idol is slowing down — he told Bill Maher this spring that he uses a teleprompter at concerts — it wasn’t apparent to the New Hampshire audience. The New Wave icon strutted on stage in a leather jacket, black jeans, and combat boots, with a giant LED backdrop showing the outline of his face. He crisscrossed the stage with a cocky swagger, hit his notes, changed his outfit at least twice and, for the encore, came out bare-chested with a patent leather trench coat. It felt more like a Las Vegas revue at times than a punk show.The audience was largely Gen Xers in their 50s and 60s, but many probably didn’t know Mr. Idol first made a name for himself as the lead singer of a band called Generation X. The middle-aged couple next to me had never heard of Devo, the opening act. These Gen Xers were teens when MTV launched in 1981. Mr. Idol was one of MTV’s first stars, utilizing his good looks on screen to boost record sales and become a mainstream heartthrob.Born William Broad and raised in a suburb south of London, Billy Idol emerged from the late-1970s English punk scene, along with the Sex Pistols and Siouxie Sioux. He and bassist Tony James formed Generation X, and then later split with their bandmates to form Gen X. In a nod to these roots, he played Generation X’s breakout, “Ready Steady Go.”“This explosion on television — that’s the last thing we were seriously expecting. We were doing this thing that we thought was a completely out there thing, it will never get big,” Mr. Idol said in the documentary, recounting how punk exploded and he got his first break. “But after that I never had to turn back. It just went on from there.”In 1981, Mr. Idol moved to New York City and rereleased Gen X’s “Dancing With Myself” on his first solo EP. He followed that up with a full-length eponymous record in 1982, which featured “White Wedding” and “Hot in the City.” In 1983, he released “Rebel Yell,” the album that later yielded the hit title track.This two-year burst produced hit after hit. He became a household name but struggled with heroin addiction. In 1990, shortly before the release of the album “Charmed Life,” Billy Idol almost lost his life in a motorcycle accident. The album’s single, “Cradle of Love,” rose to number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. This was his last big hit.Though Mr. Idol never retired or disappeared entirely from the music industry, he did step back following the flop of his 1993 experimental album, “Cyberpunk.” He’s released three albums in the intervening 30 years.Billy Idol’s new album includes a duet with Avril Lavigne called “77,” which he played at the concert. The song is supposed to be a battle cry for the 1977 punk revolution, but it falls flat. “People stare when we walk by / ‘Cause they’re scared of you and me,” Lavigne sings. Yet who fears a punk rocker these days? Blue hair, leather jackets, and piercings are mainstream. Billy Idol may be a cool guy, but he isn’t pushing against societal norms like, for example, another 1980s New Wave icon, Morrissey. Mr. Idol’s chorus, “Fight back like 77,” is pure nostalgia for a fight that’s already been won. Billy Idol pictured with Avril Lavigne in April 2025. Photo: Skyler BarbarioMr. Idol is receiving rave reviews for his latest tour, and I can see why. Yet I enjoyed seeing him more in 2010 at Hammerstein Ballroom in New York. The venue was comparatively intimate. There was no elaborate light show. I stood in the front. Everyone was fifteen years younger and danced. Perhaps I’m stuck in nostalgia.As I drove away from BankNH Pavillion, I spotted three teenage hitchhikers on the side of a dark country road. I pulled over. They told me they’d just come from the show and needed a ride to a motel a few miles away.“What did you think of the show?” I asked. They said they loved it. They’d bought the cheapest “seats” on an uncovered grassy knoll at the back of the outdoor amphitheater. Billy Idol probably looked the size of a Lego minifigure from that far away. Yet the crowd there was likely younger than the $150-per-ticket section where I sat. They told me they stood the whole time and danced.

Billy Idol Still Has Some Rebel Yell To Give

Billy Idol Still Has Some Rebel Yell To Give

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