Few rock ‘n’ roll stories
are more unlikely than that of a spiky-haired punk rocker from a suburban
residential district in northwest London who became an MTV darling. The rise was all but meteoric for William
Broad, who changed his name to Billy Idol and enjoyed a degree of success as
lead singer for Generation X before going solo and becoming an eighties
pop/rock icon. Riding on a string of Top
40 hits highlighted by “White Wedding”, “Eyes Without a Face”, “To Be a Lover”,
“Sweet Sixteen” and the #1 “Mony Mony”, Idol became one of the most
recognizable commodities in popular music by the end of the decade.
As the nineties dawned,
Idol seemed poised to continue his streak into the new decade. Despite a breakup with longtime bandmate
Steve Stevens and a motorcycle accident that nearly cost him his leg & did
cost him a potentially successful movie career (he had been cast in major roles
in “The Doors” and “Terminator 2”, but lost both due to his injury), his
“Charmed Life” album was well-received and enjoyed an enormous amount of
airplay on radio and MTV. “Cradle of
Love” even earned a Grammy nomination.
Unfortunately, his luck
was about to run out. At a time when his
contemporaries were struggling to find their place amid the new grunge
movement, Billy found himself at a fork in the road. Had he continued along the bluesier path down
which he had started on “Charmed Life”, he might have enjoyed a degree of
success similar to that of Bon Jovi.
However, he took a calculated risk by embracing the new digital technology
of the time and recorded a concept album.
“Cyberpunk” was released in 1993 and was touted as being one of the
first by a major artist to be recorded completely by computers.
The album was panned by
critics and shunned by fans. It was
around that time that Billy suffered a near-fatal drug overdose. With his life AND career in shambles, he
would shy away from public life to focus on being a father.
Over the next decade,
Idol’s output was minimal. In 1994, he
and Stevens reunited and contributed the title song to the movie “Speed”.
In 2000, he appeared on
Tommy Iommi’s solo album, co-writing and singing “Into the Night”. A year later, an appearance on VH-1’s
“Storytellers” prompted a hits compilation that included a remake of Simple
Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget about Me)” (which was actually written for Billy in
the first place, but he refused it).
During this period, he also played himself in “The Wedding Singer” and
lent his voice to the animated film “Heavy Metal 2000”.
It wasn’t until 2005, though, that
he would release another full album of all-new material. As a whole, “Devil’s Playground” was probably
Idol’s weakest. However, it was
propelled to #46 on Billboard’s Top 200 based largely on the strength of the
first single, “Scream”, which stands among his best. The song peaked at #34 on the U.S. Rock
chart, but was inexplicably excluded from the otherwise excellent 2008 hits
compilation “Idolize Yourself”.
Six years would pass
before Billy would release another album of all-new material. “Kings & Queens of the Underground” was
released on October 14, 2014, a week after Idol’s autobiography, “Dancing with
Myself”, hit bookstores. It was also
around that time that his #1 1987 hit “Mony Mony” was being heard in heavy
rotation on national television thanks to its inclusion in a Nissan Sentra ad
campaign. It was a marketing blitzkrieg
that put Billy virtually everywhere at once.
As a result, “Kings & Queens of the Underground” debuted at #34 on
Billboard’s Top 200, his highest debut EVER.
Though the album received
lukewarm reviews from many music critics, it’s easily Billy’s best since 1983’s
“Rebel Yell”. Much of the album sounds
like his music from that time.
His “Kings & Queens of
the Underground” tour is officially over, but Billy promises to be back on the road
in the U.S. soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment