I Am Still the Greatest Says Billy Idol

Rip It Up, Issue 122, 1 September 1987, Page 16

I Am Still the Greatest Says Billy Idol

By

Chris Bourke

His big grin oozing joy, Billy Idol admires the magazine. Rip It Up, May 1984: Billy conquers Auckland. “I’ve got the poster on my wall at home, I had it framed,” he says. His minder demurs: “I think you look better now, younger.”

PHOTO BY TIM RAINGER

At the age of 14, Johnny Angelo was a heart-throb. He had three-inch sideboards and he wore his hair swept high in a golden quiff. His smile was lopsided. And his mouth was full of the whitest teeth. This is what he wore: scarlet silken shirts, open at the neck, and tight torero pants; white kid shoes with golden buckles; a photograph of Elvis Presley right next to his heart; a silver crucifix. He was loved . . . He was also greatly hated . . . And the things that the girls so adored, the white kid shoes and the lopsided smile,these were the exact same things that the boys most abhorred. — I Am Still the Greatest Says Johnnv Angelo, Nik Cohn, 1967. ' Smothered in junk jewellery, Billy looks like a walking pawn shop: rings, crosses, beads, chains, studs, A black velvet cape, reaching down to his cowboy boots,today without the silver barbed tips. Beneath the cape, a 50s drape jacket with, on its back, a larger-than-life colour portrait ofthe King, 10 years dead today. In the stiff Regent foyer a string quartet plays selections from Vivaldi. Absurd. Billy pulls a face: curled lip, cheesy smile, eyes alive, eyelids up, for once. Sitting in the lounge, he's

leaning forward, enthusiastic to get started. His entourage is near the bar: American "tour consultant” (“How 'bout a beer and a cigarette?” asks Billy),' local record exec, plus a delicate looking chap in glasses and Nehru jacket, carrying a large black bag: Billy's makeup man.' William Broadj ex-English and economic history student, ex-Generation X punk popstar, now Billy Idol, hard rock comic strip icon, is a gift interview. Witty, self-mocking even, he raves and fantasises, shooting off into digressions and tangents. Occasionally he loses the plot, but he re-groups, and then he’s off again. When he remembers, he peppers his middle class English accent with cockney cred, droppin’ his . aitches, fings like that. He's aware of Billy Idol and Billy Idol —the former is just as entertained by the latter as the rest of us. "It’s good fun to wear silly outrageous things,” he says. “I dunno, it’s a bit like making your daily life entertaining to yourself, rather than get up and not be bothered .about what I put on. It's exciting to just go with it.” . 4 „ . ; Sun King Love the Elvis jacket. . “Yeah, it’s nice. Some friends gave it to me. I’ve got this same picture on the back of a priest's robe. I cut it out and put it on the back of a Greek Orthodox

priest’s robe. I thought that was pretty funny — Elvis and God. ” You could say Christ was a rebel too , “Yeah, he was, a bit of one, wasn’t he? I dunno —I’m projecting both sides of it— ' saintlihood with evilness,- at the same time. But I’m not sure which way it’s going half the time, either." Neither did Elvis. Billy, who sees Elvis as “something funny, something tacky, but I love his music and stuff, was going to play the King role in a movie of King Death. Nik Cohn's bizarre novel traced the parabolic ' fame/demise curve of a grim reaper TV celebrity. “Yeah, you see that's an ... allegorical story about Elvis. But it’s not like I, ah, want to be Elvis Presley or nuffin’ [he gives a punk snort], it’s just that you run into things that echo things all ■ the time.” - What have you been reading lately? “Oh, a book about Vietnam — Chickenhawk— it's really, • - really good. And I've been reading a Ipt of books about Hollywood, like Indecent Exposure, Final Cut and a book by William Goldman about . screenwriting, Adventures in the Screen Trade that’s really. fantastic. "For a long time I couldn’t get into reading, and I know it sounds bookwormish, but you can really learn a lot from books. The fact that I write lyrics and • things. It’s interesting to find the printed word being exciting. And things like Adventures in the Screen Trade are great. I like William [actually Albert] Goldman’s book about Elvis as well — re-reading it over and over I think it’s actually one of the most honest books about ’im." ■ But you don’t get the feeling . Goldman even likes his music. “Naah, not really... but 'is stuff about screenwriting is great. It's interesting in that I’d thought about trying to do something intelligent heh, heh—with King Death." •/' Flaming Star Elvis was the great example of someone achieving huge success, but not coping with it

—whereas you seem on top of it these days. Billychuckles. “Well I dunno ' about that—l’m a bit younger than Elvis was. At the moment I . think getting out on the road has really helped fire up my imagination again, made me really want to do music — and stay alive to do it.” You’d fit in with Nik Cohn’s' - favourite artists—Jerry Lee Lewis,P J Proby—total, exaggerated performers. "I like things that are kinda total, and if that means exaggerated... it's always exciting when people try to drag things out of themselves, to have fun on stage, the clothes you wear, or whatever. I was thinking 7 I bet P J Proby never planned splitting his - trousers as much as they say. : But it looks like it just happens. ’ "As long as you’re following your own lines of what you want to do. It’s the same with the . ;: music. If you're following your own exaggerated — but together in your own mind, if you know what I mean—course,. then you’ll actually, A: develop a stylethat people can recognise. B: one that you can work within, and C: one that has something good about it, cos it’s committed. I know that sounds a bit wild (Follow that? It's the _• commitment that matters...) “Because it means they won’t turn around and try and be . something else one day. That’s half the problem people have, ? because they can’t become something else once they’ve ; been Jerry Lee Lewis." Easy Come, Easy Go But you seem to have a sense of humour about it, too. It reminds me of Robert Mitchum's attitude to acting: “It sure beats working.” ; “Yeah, well it’s good to be serious about it, but who wants to walk about showing that to the ■ world? You’re enjoying what you doing because you’re committed to it, but that doesn't mean you have to think about it 24 hours a day. But then it's hard to get the energy up. And that’s what being here is for —it’s just as much for me as to play for the

people. I'm here to fire myself up, as much as to come and play here for the money.” Uh huh. So what do you think rock and roll done for you? “Well, apart from a lot of money [he chortles]... naah, I haven't really got a lot of money. If I did, I’d spend it all. Whenever I’ve got it, it’s always on the way out. “But I think I’ve given back to rock and roll just as much as it’s given me. Yeah. I’ve actually helped make it as well as take from it, so I think it’s an equal bargain, really. But the best thing is, it's given me a life I really like — a life that's a bit crazy but I’m excited by it. “Something I always got out of great songs is the feeling and energy— the tofefeessof it. So it’s exciting to throw that back at the people. It's great when you come up with a song that you do like. Anyone can write a song, I could write millions of songs, but I wouldn’t like them. But when you find one you like, that you’re gonna enjoy performing, it's exciting to think you've got that ability.” ‘To Be a Lover,'though, is a song by Southern soul-men William Bell and Booker T. Where’d you find it?

“I first heard it on a George Faith reggae album —I originally thought it was a reggae song. So we started to search for George Faith in Jamaica, and we couldn't find him. They reckoned Lee Perry, who produced the album with 'To Be a Lover,’ had killed him, or something! Anyway, it turns out it’s not by George Faith at all, but Booker T Jones and William Bell. And it’s funny that the Booker T version is really slow, with strings and all, so it’s pretty wild that we Booker T’d it more than he did, knowarramean!” Love & Rockets How’s your writing going for the next album? “I think I want to make a much harder rock and roll album. It was nice writing all that romantic stuff on Whiplash Smile, but the next one will be more rock and roll, more experimental.” What brought out the sensitive side on Whiplash Smile? “After doing Rebel Yell and getting through to a lot of people, I thought it was only fair to show another side to me. One that was seriously there, but in a good way—not where you’ve suddenly gone wimpy, but showing them just how

tough you think love and stuff is. It was trying to mix things up a bit more, and avoid becoming a stereotype.” Your lyrics are getting meatier,too—such as 'Don’t Need a Gun.’ Did you read about the English massacre this week (14 shot by a Rambo-fixated antique gun dealer)? "Someone told me about it, yeah. That happens a lot in America, it's peculiar it happened in Britain.” Was it America that made you write that? “Yeah,but I was thinking more of sheer violence, not so much guns. Guns are the symbol of of people crushing you by violence. I was thinking more like those boots in Battleship Potemkin, just crushing on peoples’ faces as a symbol. “ It was also about the sense of foreboding that people get about things, like the sense of foreboding that Elvis had, to kill himself in the way he did, or the sense of foreboding that the blues tells you about. I was thinking about all those things. It’s surprising that you don't really want violence, but you’d love to exercise it if you had the chance. There’s all that passion I wanted to be in it."

But there’s a positive side to America too —that’s why you're there. “The great thing about my life is that singing songs is a pleasurable experience — I haven’t had to violently force people to do anything, it’s all been a matter of putting across something of my personality with my songs. “So that’s one of the meanings of the song, and that’s what is fantastic about America — it’s very much a proletariat kind of place. You’re dealing with people who work hard every day at God knows, all sorts of things, and they’re all looking for something to speak to them with some sort of personality. The mass American audience wants things to be stripped down, and one of the exciting things about America is it’s stripped down. It’s Boomtown, and my music fits Boomtown things.” The Fugitive And America’s where you r found Steve Stevens. “When I left Generation X it was really getting terrible for rock and roll in England. People really hated it for a while, whereas now they’re getting back to it, with things like the Cult. Anyway, all I could do was go somewhere else, and the only place I felt would make sense after England was some other totally devoid-of-culture place like America! Especially New York, which is cultureless — but at the same time, culture-ful! You know it's gonna be crazy, but at least it’s gonna be wildly crazy. "But the main thing was I wanted to find a guitarist I could write songs with. Despite the fact I played guitar, I still didn't know how chordal structures and things like that worked. That’s what was great about meeting Steve. I found

someone who could interpret me musically. Because despite whatever you say about punk rock, I still have melodies and

things in my songs I want to expand upon, and'someone like Steve is intensely creative and can help bring those sounds out in the music. Steve’s hung in the wild times and the low times...” ■ Your partner in crime. “Yeahthe Great Song Robbery!" Billy laughs. "That’s a good book I read recently— :. The Great Train Robbery. ‘The Great Song Robbery' — I like that, it’s quite a good title! Bit like The Great Rock & Roll Swindle though...” The Wild One “That's another reason ‘Don’t Need a Gun’was great, because Julien Temple made the video, and I always loved The Great Rock & Roll Swindle. . Our video worked out pretty good, really, because we went through the whole thing of •-. wanting Billy-as-Marlon Brando, on a motorcycle. No, thanks! God knows, in some weird zoo in Los Angeles, with weird girls cavorting, it would have looked like, oh! The most terrible video going. So when we met up with Julien Temple, I found someone who wanted to do something good.” I was thinking about the boxing scene, with the humping of the stage... , , “A lot of women think about that, the humping-the-stage part. It’s a purely imp- imp- ;■ A. improvisational bit, that! 'A.'. ... but you live in New York now, where there’s this paranoia about sex, no one’s safe unless you've had the ■ ' same partner for 10 years, and . all that. Any qualms about those videos, with all this emphasis on safe sex? ' “If I think back over the last 10 years, it’d be frightening!” i;:/; Would you do an ad for . . condoms? “Naah, I don’t think so. I think people should think about great sex before safe sex! I mean enjoying it, hell! In the face of it ■<. all!” [Billy and entourage collapse with laughter] . ? ;

So you haven’t received any flak for the overt sexuality, in this new age. ■ . ..J “I think even people '. practising safe sex want to see something provocative.. Y’know, it's a bit of a male striptease show! Let's go!” So, all these years after. Rebel Yell, the question is: what are you rebelling against? .. - • - “Ha! Just stupidity really, and boredom, and hatred and all the things you despise. I’m still living my own life, despite what anybody says — and enjoying it. That’s one of the greatest , things, just rebelling against people making your every day a drag!” Elvis, Jerry Lee, Little z . Richard, P J Proby, ...the great doomed romantic showmen of our age. What would they have done without rock and roll? Billy gives the answer: with a swirl of his cape, he’s off —for tonight’s performance in the circus tent. But Billy, doomed? No way. He’s more in the Iggy Pop/David Johansen/Nick Cave school. A real wild child. But smart. He’s been walking the tightrope for 10 years, and he knows his history: he won’t fall off. • Superpop: the noise machine, the image, hype and beautiful flash of rock ’n’ roll music. It has to be intelligent and simple both, it has to carry its implications lightly and it has to be fast, funny, sexy, obsessive, a bit epic. A - Superpop, it’s been like a continuing Western, it’s had that same classic simplicity, the same power to turn cliche into myth. It’s had no mind of its own. All it’s ever done has been to catch currents, moods, teen obsessions, and freeze them in images. It has made giant caricatures of lust, violence, romance and revolt, and they’ve been the most powerful, most accurate fictions of this time. — Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom, Nik Cohn, 1969.