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Billy Idol started smoking crack to stop his heroin addiction, and spoiler alert, it worked.
During an appearance on “Club Random with Bill Maher,” the Idol admitted that smoking crack allowed him to quit heroin.
“When you try to get off heroin, where do you go? You go to something else. I started smoking crack to get off heroin,” said Idol.
“Did you really do it?” Maher asked, and the Idol replied, “It worked. It worked,” laughing.
The Idol opens up about his wild life in the new documentary “Billy Idol Should Be Dead.” (John Parra/Getty Images)
In a new documentary, “Billy Idol Should Be Dead,” the 70-year-old rock legend opened up about his career and the bad boy ways that nearly cost him his music career and his life.
“I had everything, and I lit it with butane,” he told the New York Times.
While building his successful career, the Idol took many risks with his life, fighting heroin addiction while also running the streets on his motorcycle, driving at high speed, saying, “I’m very lucky.”
In an interview with the Associated Press in April 2025, Idol shared that the rock and roll lifestyle “accepted drugs” and that he took his first acid when he was 12 years old. “There was a time in my life when I was addicted to drugs,” he added, later admitting how lucky he was to be alive.
“When you try to get off heroin, where do you go? You go to something else. I started smoking crack to get off heroin.”
“I’m lucky to keep the brain I have, because some people die brain dead and some end up in prison forever. Or they die,” he told the outlet. “Imagine if it was today, if I was doing what I was doing today, I would be dead because I would have overdosed on fentanyl.”
Speaking to the New York Times, Steve Stevens, longtime guitarist for Idol, explained that he “learned a lot” from watching the film, including how bad his addiction was at the time, and the documentary explaining how much of his bad behavior was hidden from the public at the time.
Idol moved to the United States in 1981 to pursue a solo career after breaking up with his UK group, Generation X. His drug use escalated as his popularity grew. According to People, the Idol discussed the near-fatal drinking binge he experienced in 1984 when he returned to England to celebrate the success of his second album, “Rebel Yell.”
Idol moved to the US in 1981 and began a solo career. (Brian D. McLaughlin/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
CHARLIE SHEEN IS BARRINGLY HONEST LONG AFTER ‘LETTING DOWN’ THOSE CLOSED TO HIM.
“I was coming back victorious and I almost ruined it,” he said in the documentary. “We flew to London where we met a bunch of friends we knew. They were high on heroin. Everyone did a line or so and they all nodded except me and this partner of mine.”
He went on to recall his friends putting him in a “cold bath” and later helping him walk off the roof of his building, adding, “I was literally dying. I was turning blue.”
On Maher’s podcast, Idol told the story of returning to England after the success of his 1983 album, “Rebel Yell,” and turning blue after snorting heroin with some friends.
Billy Idol in 1995. (Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images)
“I ended up fainting and when people, other people in the room also came, I became green,” said the Idol. Maher asked why he turned blue after doing heroin and Idol said that’s what happens when you die.
“When you die, you’ll start turning blue,” said Idol.
Idol shared that he only injected heroin into his body “a few times,” but preferred to smoke it.
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In addition to drug use, the “White Wedding” singer’s erratic ways on his motorcycle also cost him career opportunities. A motorcycle crash in 1990, which nearly cost the singer his leg, forced him to turn down the role in the sequel to “The Terminator” as the role involved more running than he was capable of.
“I’m always dating death, by the way. Even riding motorcycles, you’re staring at the concrete,” he told the Associated Press. “Right there, you can walk out of that thing and get really lost. And I did it. It’s bad. You find out what kind of person you are, how vulnerable you are. There are many things about my life, yes, I have called death at times. Not really, but that’s how you lived.”
The idol had a bad motorcycle accident in 1990 that almost cost him his leg. (Angelo Deligio/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)
Idol became a parent in the late 1980s, first welcoming his son, Willem, 37, with his girlfriend, Perri Lister, in 1988, then his daughter, Bonnie, 36, with his girlfriend, Linda Mathis, in 1989.
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A motorcycle accident combined with parenthood led Idol to rethink his lifestyle, telling the New York Times, “There was a voice that told me, you can’t do this forever.”
“I started thinking that I should try to move on and not be addicted to drugs and stuff like that,” he told People in May 2024. “It took a long time, but slowly I got some kind of discipline where I’m not really the same kind of guy I was in the ’80s. I’m not the same person with a drug addiction.”
Now, Idol considers himself “California sober.” He told Maher that he takes “pot pills” sometimes, but has never done a line of cocaine in 20 years.
“Billy Idol Should Be Dead,” premiered at the Tribeca Festival on June 10, and was released widely on Thursday, Feb. 26.
His motorcycle accident and parenthood led him to drink alcohol. (Rebecca Sapp/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
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