© Ron Elkman/USA TODAY NETWORK
English rocker Billy Idol, real name William Michael Albert Broad, one of the original punk rockers, recently sat down with Bill Maher for the Club Random show. During their discussion, Billy Idol’s struggles with addiction came up.
Among the things they discussed was how Billy Idol was able to overcome his addiction and dependency on heroin by discovering crack cocaine. Sounds outlandish, doesn’t it? Well, that was his life.
How Billy Idol Overcame Heroin Addiction By Discovering Crack Cocaine
When I first came across the clip I’d assumed that Billy Idol was going to say that discovering the devastation caused by the crack cocaine epidemic led him to getting sober. That was not at all what Billy went through.
Instead, he traded one vice for another but it ultimately led to him getting clean. The topic turns to Idol’s crack use around the 1:05:11 mark in the video. Shortly after Billy says that there is a diminishing return with these drugs that “makes you want more as they are working less.”
Bill said “once you’re trying to get off heroin, what do you go to? You go to something else. I started smoking crack to get off heroin.” This should not come as a shock to anyone who saw his interview from April of last year where he revealed that he took his first LSD hit at 12 years old.
Earlier in the episode they discussed a truly terrifying period of Billy’s life when he was “turning blue” from drug abuse. Idol said “I was basically dying. I was turning blue.” Adding “I kind of, eventually we did pass out and then when people, other people in the room came too, I was going blue. If you’re dying, you’re gonna start turning blue.”
Terrifying stuff.
The ‘Rebel Yell’ and ‘Dancing With Myself’ singer is extremely fortunate to be alive at 70 years old after the things he put his body through in his younger days. If he didn’t get clean then we never would’ve had his legendary cameo in The Wedding Singer.
In case you forgot, Punk Rock’s not dead.