Billy Idol | Club Random with Bill Maher

While you were remodeling your backyard to make it more, you know, zen-y, we were remodeling our merch store to make it more random. We slapped our new logo on t-shirts, tie-dyes, hoodies, and hats, and all with premium printed labels. Look, I wasn't kidding. We have it because tags are like the junk mail of clothing. All merch is available exclusively at clubrandom.com. Once again, that's clubrandom.com. When you should be dead. Well, the 70s, 80s, 90s, I suppose. All those decades. Yeah. Do you know a guy? I hear you know. I wouldn't start now. Oh, I wouldn't. Billy. Hi. Rock Royce. You look like a royalty in the house. Rock and roll royalty. You look the same. You look like an East London badass. You look like you're ready to kick some ass. You do. And I'm sure you could. Yeah? You and your droogies. Yeah. Remember that? Yeah, of course. That movie? That must have affected you. Yeah. Clock Orange. Yeah. Because it was like something you could relate to, no? Yeah, it was kind of fantastic. Yeah. What year was that? 69, I think. No, I think early 70s. Oh. I think more like 72. I mean, are you a fan of all Kubrick's movies? A lot of them, yes. Yeah. You know. I wish you'd done that Napoleon movie. I've got the script. You think he was supposed to? Yeah. He was going to do that, I think, after 2001. And then they did this film Waterloo, and it did terrible business. It was great, though. Rod Steiger as Napoleon and Christopher. I saw it. Yeah, it's a great movie, but it did terrible business. That was a TV movie. It was what they used to call a miniseries. Oh, was it? Yeah. And I forget who the. Serge. Sergei Bondarchuk was the director. Oh, I don't know that, but the other star was not Maximilian Schell. I forget. He was kind of a big actor at the time, I think British. And he went over time, you know, like the movie went over, and they didn't have him. And they had to shoot like parts of it. You could see it if you watch it, like long shots. It's just his voice. He's not on camera. Just, you know, you shoot a long shot, him in the shadows, you know, but it's amazing. They could actually, not the whole movie, but enough of it where the guy isn't even in the scene. Actors have done it when they like hate the other actor they're working with. You know, like, I can't stand to be in the same room with this guy. So just act without anybody, be like Brando and Rod Steiger in the back of the cab. Yeah. Where Brando left before Rod Steiger did his. Is that right? Yeah. He went to a psychiatrist or something. So Rod Steiger had to act his bits without Brando being there. On the waterfront. Yeah. The Charlie was you, Charlie. But you see them together in a two shot, don't you? Yeah. But, you know, when he did his lines, Rod Steiger did his lines. Brando wasn't there. Oh, I see. This was close up. It's just. Yeah, it's his close up. Talking to a piece of cardboard. Yeah. Well, Brando. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Brando famously used to, you know, write the lines, his lines, on the other actor's head. Yeah. I mean, can you imagine? I should do that with Steve Stevens if I don't know the lyrics. Steve, can I just put them on your forehead? I never understand how you. I've got a teleprompter. You know, you have to. But, like, you didn't always. No. No, only recently. But I mean, I never understood how you musicians could remember so many. I mean, if you're doing a show that has 25 songs in it, how do you remember all those lyrics? Yeah, it's just from doing them a lot, really. And then it's really handy having the teleprompter if we want to do a song we haven't done for ages. It means I can read the lyrics if I don't know it so well anymore. But in the majority of things, I can remember them, you know. I remember seeing Sinatra at the end. Yeah, I was lucky. I saw him in the 80s, yeah. Actually, we went to. That was near the end. Yeah, we went to. I was friends with Sam Kinison. Whoa. And we went to do a show with him where. Because he always did a wild thing. You know, his head is rock band. Oh, he fancied himself a rock star. Yeah, well, he played. Louder than anybody else's guitar even. He was one of the few comedians who did sort of get into that rock star vibe. I mean, Eddie Murphy did it for a minute, Andrew Dice Clay. Yeah. There have been a few who like almost like a rock star. You know, like there's a kind of excitement that music. Yeah, we kind of came to do this show with him. And then he had these two twins. They were. He ended up marrying one of them. And he was doing a wild thing. And I got in between these two girls that he always had dressed up as Las Vegas showgirls. And I was just kind of playing around because it's not my song, you know. But he got upset and he punched my guitarist. My guitarist was on the stage and he punched. So we said, that's it. Fuck, we're not going for the second. This was the early show. We were going to do the second one. So we said, we're not. Fuck it, let's. We even tried to leave Vegas and then we couldn't leave. Because it wasn't a plane. So on the way back, we were staying at the Sands, you know. So on the way back, I saw, whoa, Frank Sinatra's playing. Oh, we've got to. So we saw Frank Sinatra instead, instead of doing the show with Sam. But it was fantastic because I wouldn't have seen Frank Sinatra otherwise. He was. And he was fantastic. I mean, you didn't notice his voice was a bit ragged or anything when he was, you know. It was kind of fantastic. He had this. His son was. You know, directing the. That's what I saw. The son was the director of the orchestra and Frank would humiliate him. He didn't. Like at one point, he was getting sweaty and he went to take his own handkerchief out of his pocket and then thought better of it, took his son's and mopped his brow and put it back. He was always doing. It was like. Stuff like that all the way through. It was fantastic. It was really funny. It was great. I. Okay, I saw him in 1995 already. He did a musical. It took my mother. My parents were from New York. They were from New Jersey and saw Frank's son to perform when he was starting out. Wow. Yeah, like in a little. Late 30s. Wow. It was like 1939 in a place called the Rustic Cabin is the first place he sang at. So it was very sentimental for my mother. And my father had just died. So it was just like, you know, there was a lot of emotion in that room. And Frank took it all away. No, I'm kidding. I mean, well, I mean, he just was such a dick. He was a dick to his son. He was drunk. He had seven large prints, teleprompters all around him. I mean, you couldn't miss it. Everyone that's. I mean, I could have sang those songs. And yet when he was singing a song that he hadn't sung for 50 fucking years, he still couldn't get through it. He tried to do Mack the Knife. You know Mack the Knife? Okay, which is Bobby Darin's song. Yeah, a ton of lyrics. And he had done it on one of his later albums. I have it. I liked it. I like. I love him. I'm a huge Frank Sinatra fan, you know, for the music. Not the early music, but the. Not the early crooner shit, but like when he. 50s, it's got to be Swing, that whole, you know, fly me to the moon. That record is great. Because he was. Frank was either like super depressed. He was polar, right? Maybe not officially, but like he was either super depressed, caught at a three. Yeah, true. Now I'm in a place. That's my favorite song. Save a garden. Gardener left me. I'm going to kill myself right now. Because without love, who gives a shit? And what are you looking at, you fucking punk? Or fly me to the moon. Everything's groovy up here in space. Everything's cool in 1958, if you're white. You know, that was. There was no middle ground, but it's all great. But he did. I mean, I just could not forget how he was mean to his kid. So all the artistry, you know, and like I forgive him for. He couldn't get through Mac the Knife. It wasn't his song. He like started it three times, you know. Oh, the shark bites. And then he would blame the kid for. This fucking kid, he must. It's not the kid, Frank. You know, you're drunk and 80. So, you know, you musicians, you just live in a completely different universe. than normal people you do even among show business there's an excitement that music gets to in people yes true that just is nothing else is quite like it in in the arts and its effect on people which allows the the musicians themselves to live in a bubble very often a information bubble they very often don't know what's going on and don't need to they have all sorts of people I mean you must have lived a life that is I mean you're obviously survived it but you know yes you know come on when you were King shit on the charts I mean you must have you know had that certainly thrown at you yeah it was very wild I mean I was so watching young blood you know it reminds me of me he was here when yeah I know he loves him when he was breaking that he's breaking through I just I remember what that was yes you know it's pretty incredible you could have been named young blood he could have been Billy Idol yeah no really like it was really incredible was a credible time and was so watching him a little bit remember do you know him now I sang with him we did white wedding with him on his you know anyways he is young blood he's got that festival he puts on the young blood festival blood fest so I sang with him - we did white wedding together eight minutes right the song well my version is yeah the dance version so it's a long version yeah and and and it's still too short great it's such a great record oh so many years are I always wanted to ask you you did money money which was like even a little before my time like I started listening to music in 1968 I was 12 I think money money was 66 or something yeah it's kind of so it was like a song I would occasionally hear because they would you know on the radio I listened to in the late 60s was the top 20 they kept playing they played the number one song every hour on the hour like once an hour you heard that if you were number one which is pretty amazing and then the rest of it was the the other songs in the top 20 but every once in a while be like here's a golden oldie and it would be like from last year to kids it's like thousand years ago way back and that was one of the songs here she come down say moany moany and you killed it I mean you you I mean I the original was good but it was I mean Tommy James has done better but it was it was a good pop record but it was a little bubble gum and your version was amped it up a bit yeah yeah and what do we imagine the song means moany moany Billy Idol what does moany moany mean to you well I know how the song was written so I know it's that building in in New York that has m-o-n-y on that they were looking at that what's building there's a building in New York there the moany building has m-o-n-y money building or moany they were looking at that when they're writing the song so they they were looking for a title they kind of they've China think sort of the girl's name or and then they kind of look to that the top of the building where and so what about moany moany and then that's yeah I mean I had you know I interviewed interviewing a lot like this is an interview but I got high as I'm doing with you with Billy Joel in Boca last year and we were we were I was complimenting on his great lyrics and stuff and but also mentioning that lyrics in pop music they don't have to be good it's better if they are but you can get away with moany moany you can just do it you know and if and if it doesn't make sense to people well are you dancing then shut the fuck up yeah that's what that song was really all about it's about that it's actually a drum loop the original song was a drum loop cuz I was I was always thinking how why is it so why is it so what is it about it that makes you you know want to move or something and then she's coming down when we did down moany moany yeah did our version shotgun turnaround yeah I mean that doesn't say it all yeah the but so yeah it's a drum loop so we did it with a real drummer though we didn't because they just took a four bar loop that's that's why it doesn't stop the original record doesn't stop but Tommy James is to me a very unheralded yeah star massive hits massive hits and good ones I mean it's really good some of them that are not as well known to the public I mean people know I think we're alone now yeah which is a great record just a great pop record and yeah redone in the 80s and a massive hit for Debbie Gibson somebody yeah yeah it was what's-her-name somebody what's-her-name what's-her-name was good so that she did all those she was kind of did all those malls she opened up all those malls not sure that's what you want to be remembered as you know I think she had a number one with yeah one of one of Tommy James songs but then same time Joan Jett did Crimson and Clover and I did Moany Moany so this is kind of Tommy James and Clover fantastic but again what does it mean what does have you ever thought about it Crimson and Clover really I think it's a psychedelic but to this day rolling in clover I suppose to this day I would say I mean I have some sexy music in my iPod I use the old iPod I feel like it's suited to my needs I have some sexy time music but if you really want to get panties wet and I know you do just the opening note of Crimson and Clover just put that ah it's true that that would do it just I mean that it's true it's so it's the sexiest thing it's the sexiest thing on it's the sexiest thing it's the sexiest thing on record I think I mean the ah just that oh and that oh you come walking over but again I'ma waiting to show her Crimson and Clover you know you're anticipating it what are you going to show her this is awesome we're gonna get to really know you Crimson and Clover okay but you know uh it's it's his it's just it's just a sound collage yeah you know sounds good also one of the first records to put that shaky reverb that's right yeah right yeah I mean and then the end which just goes in he was great with just an electric guitar he he's one of the few guys who like he just sounded like a kid in the neighborhood who you could hear from your bedroom window who got a little amp and a little electric guitar and was just doing it and no frills and he just had a way that song all of his songs just um just to just he he understood sound you know it's just it's a sound medium yeah I mean some of the Beatles songs are to me just same thing like very forgettable lyrics um but it just sounds great yeah you know I mean paperback writer just sounds great it's like a good like a bass lead almost you know yeah I mean hello goodbye it's just sound John Lennon's always said it's day tripper again or something or ticket to ride he said you know he's always he said that Paul's just ripped me off again you know I said he said what well because the bottle learning the riff in paperback writer it's very similar to to something like ticket to ride you know he said his balls just taken my ticket to ride and and that's what I gotta listen I never heard that story he doesn't mean it like he's he just means uh we were he's replying to my song with a similar thing because they're always replying to each other's songs you think well John Lennon has money on one album and then next minute Paul McCartney just can't buy me love you know so he's kind of answering they're always answering each other of course money was a cover yeah but still you know he's saying money's what I want and then Paul McCartney does but yeah but it can't buy me love so yeah that's that's a really interesting thesis I never heard that but I'm gonna now I'm gonna re-look at re-listen it kind of goes on into even John Lennon's solo stuff where in one of those songs that in it on the last album that double fan he sings about things are getting better and better and you can't tell us that he's not thinking about the song getting better you know on uh on Sergeant Peppers and stuff like that you know what song is that on double fantasy it's i don't know if it's beautiful boy beautiful boy it's one of those songs where he says and it's getting better and better and you kind of go i mean there has to be a retort one of my all-time favorite just single records is starting over yeah it's the one that was on the charts when he was killed yeah the lead single off that album that he made hadn't made an album in five years i mean it's got the phil spector full spell phil spector genius on it i mean okay you shouldn't shoot your dates in the head we know that okay we're not forgiving that but that doesn't take away from the sound of that record that record never shot anybody okay that record is just a great record our life together is so special to get the way it just builds you know and the you know the backing vocals it's it's almost like a 50s you know it's like elvis a bit of an elvis touch to it but it showed that john lennon still could do it on his own oh yeah i mean he certainly did not do it as much as mccartney by far first of all he was just very first of all he died okay he only had 10 years but even that 10 years from 70 to 80 when they were their first decade when the group was split up right yeah i mean a carton he probably had you know 10 hits on the charts or more you know my my love does it good memory you know like not always like genius but like reliable pop hits yeah listen to what the man said silly love songs never one of my favorites but giant hit you know what i'm saying yeah i mean he just did a lot of stuff yeah and kept doing it in the 80s and the 90s i mean he's banned on the run i mean that was the seven just that one album just that one album yeah that's what bro that's what brought everybody's faith in paul mccartney back again when he did band on the run oh you think yeah a lot of people were slagging him off and everything with ram or the first mccartney and i like that a lot first mccartney had maybe i'm amazed on it it's fantastic i mean that's even if it was just that song yeah it's huge i mean yeah i mean was there other stuff you know it's funny there's there's a song on that first one every night yeah i like it i just want to wake up and then but the the sort of the chorus do do do do do every time i hear it i think wow that's you never give me your money yeah you never give me your money it does sound very that one part of it is almost a direct yeah because my ear goes right to do do do do your money okay so we busted him on that other than that he's the mozart of our day but you know other than that um yeah but john lennon he was obviously doing other things and taking care of issues bigger than music yeah but it was nice to see that right before he went he still had the capacity on his own without paul mccartney because i think that was an issue that did hang over his head can i do it without the guy who we all kind of know is just even more gifted as far as this like being prolific and being he's just a musical prodigy on a level that i think even john lennon is not on but john lennon could still i mean he certainly was the spirit of the beatles when they started and and he still on his own wrote so many great records but i do think he worried when they split up like oh wow if i don't have this guy because this guy i can go in there with like because he wasn't you know even by his own admission he could be quite lazy yeah so he could go in there with something that was good but not great it's like this guy i picked up when i was 15 he is some sort of player and he's gonna he's gonna bring this one up to band standards you know what i mean yeah and i think he did worry and by the way sometimes the stuff john lennon did put out in the 70s mind game is not a great album yeah not it's not a good album it's not a good album it's not a good album it's not a good album but it was just great to see that at that final moment he could make a record like starting over which is as as as much as a favorite of mine as any beatles record right it's just a great record yeah so yeah and woman and stuff this woman yes another classic it's a great great song but i wouldn't have wanted to see him saying in vegas when he was no you know i mean there's some good things about dying young and leaving a pretty corpse you know you sort of have the best of both worlds like you're a guy who should have died isn't that the name of your yes yes what is it called billy idol should be dead billy idol should be dead so when you were bouncing titles around was there ever a moment where um phil you had an idea something about billy idol big star now we're going to go with the dead okay um tom run that by me again that thing you thought of a couple of days ago no uh so what is the closest that you ever came to being dead look at me acting like a real host a few times yeah like what well uh we kind of went i went back in england to england in triumph with rep with the album rebel yell i'd done rebel yell and the biggest thing i would think that was the biggest of that year i was going to do it on top of the pops in england you know kind of returning to england i've had this big record in america hero it kind of coming back to yes so a load of friends of us met us at the airport and they had a bunch of heroin on them so of course somehow everybody else in the room passed out except for me and the other guy you know who's chopping the lines out so we kept doing lines and then uh doing lines of heroin snorting it yeah yeah i don't know how everyone else had passed out but me and him didn't so you were not shooting it no just not you never shot it i've got a few times but uh i just i didn't like that idea of it my mother was a nurse i think something about that oh so there we learned something you did not shoot her when you snorted it yeah go ahead yeah no because i'm glad i did that because uh yeah but yeah anyway yeah i kind of uh eventually we did pass out and then when people other people in the room came to i was going blue you know so um i don't know they put me in a blue they walked me about on the wait go back to blue why do you go you would go blue on heroin well if you're dying yeah you go if you're dying you're gonna start turning blue but why would it kill you oh i guess i shouldn't ask that question i know it does i just don't know how yeah no nor do i i suppose it just overwhelms your system right and i suppose it stops you breathing or something yeah yeah you know look i'm not an advocate for heroin by any means but i survived it it is important to note that the there are very rare very rare but there are people who uh like actually did it in a managed way william s burroughs i believe was doing it at 80. wow like you know some people just have a i mean i wouldn't recommend it don't try it at home kids because i've also heard that somebody once described doing heroin the first time as the best orgasm you ever had times a thousand well it is really great it's just the worst thing is uh it's getting off we'll be right back it's just getting off it it's terrible and that's what stops me going back to doing it it's the thought of getting off it's so terrible help a pot smoker who has done every drug but heroin like when i was in college i was a i'm a dealer i mean there's no other word for it like i sold drugs to other people you know and we were at the lowest level me and my partner um i did have we have a partner we're like abbott and costello except abbott and castello had no specific business and yet they described each other as my partner whatever in my case i had a partner and we would sell on the lowest level like you know the the ounce of pot um whatever our dealer had like our the guy above us like the guy who bought like five pounds of pot and then he would sell it to his low level of steelers but you know one pound and we would sell ounces um so whatever he had speed was very big at the time and very good cocaine opium lsd or whatever there probably wasn't really lsd with this whatever he had we would sell to other college kids allegedly heroin i never did it so every drug i ever have done or would talk about i relate to as good or bad pot that's like my benchmark like ask me about any drug and i say oh yeah i did that drug and it was just like it was like pot but i was more low-key or you know it was like pot but much sloppier or it was like pot but whatever horny or whatever heroin i don't know so it's not like that Oh. it's not it's not like pot at all no so what is it then what is it why is it so good and where can i get some no why is it so good i don't get it what kind of feeling well in my case it well it knocks me out you know i kind of like that because i'm quite sort of active or i'm quite sort of so i quite like something putting me to sleep you know well that's a really expensive dangerous sleeping pill i mean if that's all it must do something more than that well yeah i mean uh but uh but people do not out right no yeah yeah why what is that that's because because you're you're so relaxed or you're just you want to be when you're not knotted out are you like still in your head having a good time yeah you're having some sort of like some sort of like almost like a dream dreams but you know uh you don't i actually dream i don't know if you feel like you're dreaming something you know i remember buying buying something i think it was here in l.a but it might not have been on the road a lot my whole life so it could have been somewhere and it was like a thrift store i feel like some sort of like no it was definitely not macy's and the uh i was at the cash register making this transaction and the person the cash register just you know it was just like power off and just right there in the middle of a cash transaction yeah people usually uh nodded out it'd be about to scratch themselves and then they'd they're you know their hand would be in the air because they'd have passed out are you with me really that's because they'd be like that because they're going to itch themselves and then they've because it makes you itch yeah it makes you itchy you know that's really funny it makes you itch but then you're too up to scratch scratch you're going to scratch and then you passed out as you go that should be but it's awful getting off it and that boy george actually said um he was here i love him he's so funny it's like a skeleton that's trying to get out of your body that's how he described coming off heroin i've got to say that's what it feels like a skeleton like your skeleton's trying to get out of your body wow that's the so you've you know that's how uncomfortable it is it's horrible right and john lennon speaking of him cold turkey yeah remember the record i bought that record yeah what i bought cold turkey you bought it you can remember that oh yeah yes of course the plastic owner band records what did you think of the song oh i liked it i thought it was great i thought i i thought it was great i didn't going into that direction i thought it was interesting it's not a good song oh it's just not a good song i kind of like i kind of like the moaning and i just liked you know i suppose i liked the fact he was branching out a bit i liked the his first solo album i thought was incredible plastic on a bun yeah oh with god it's kind of incredible god is a concept by which we measure our pain yeah let's try to understand that well that's a pretty awesome deep pop lyric yeah right god is a concept by which we measure our pain i wish he wrote more like that yeah he was kind of lazy because like you know the song i'm sure you do of course um across the universe yeah i mean the poetry in that song is sublime yeah you know shining on me like a million suns they shine across it whatever it is i'm not remembering it right now but uh all the way through it's so poetic the wind inside a letterbox you know and he just didn't write like that enough i mean there's stuff that's like not certainly typical like i am the walrus but he's just gobbledygook what the well he deliberately wrote that as gobbled i know but he said bob dylan was getting away with doing that and people were taking him so he said i'm gonna i'm gonna do i want to confuse the critics as well i want to confuse the fans to make them make them what what'd you make of this right it's kind of what he was so he said said to his mate pete shotten or something no that let's write the most ridiculous song and then he remembered that uh nursery rhyme that they learned at school the dead dog's eye nursery rhyme and i didn't know but is that where the yellow matter custard dripping from the dog's eye oh but then he also the the ambulance the ambulance or the police in those days no no no no no no no no i am he is you i think he heard a ambulance and he got the idea for the beginning it does sound like an ambulance no no no yeah i mean okay bad example because that that's one of his awesomest songs i mean it's just amazing and you're right and that does come through that he is having you on especially when he says the walrus was paul yeah yeah okay there we we get it you know that you're you're you're here's another clue oh no that's uh yeah that's a glass onion yeah the one here's it okay so he's referring to walrus on another song yeah i mean it's same idea very cheeky and um but yes he he's uh deliberately doing that but i wish he had written more songs like across the universe that were like because he had that gift he could he could do it yeah and he settled for a lot of pop lyrics and you know sort of easy stuff i thought i mean instant karma i liked it but you know somebody accused him once of of writing three blind mice over and over again three blind mice all you need is love is a bit the same thing i think it's the same chords and we all shine on but like again you musicians you songwriters how can you this can't be anything new there's been a zillion gazillion songs there's only so many notes so many chords it's amazing people have got all you know all these that you can get more songs out of as you say just there's only a few notes there's only and you know you add some sharps and flats but really there's only a few notes it's the it's the inflection you put on the notes that that makes makes the tune or the song so it's it's your personality working the note this makes makes the what is your process well are you a craftsman or are you a let the muse strike me yeah i suppose i'm a bit yes i suppose i have to i do sort of let the muse strike a little bit i look for song titles that's that helps a lot to have a really good title helps and a bowl or um and then sometimes you just sit with the guitar and over you know just by playing you know playing around eventually something something makes you get an ooh feeling you know as you're trying something you get a kind of stuff the guitar you get a kind of you know and you kind of know oh this is a good idea you know or this this this is making me react in a good way you know to my own ideas answer me honestly did you ever write a song or just even be playing an instrument while getting blown i don't think so i bet you you did that's that'd be a new i should i should have done i should have done that i'm i'm very disappointed you haven't okay i mean i don't think i've done that wow i can still do that though i only bring it up because there was this book by this lady i forget the name um it was like 25 years ago 20 i don't know something like that and you know it was one of those tell-all books about rock stars and stuff and movie stars and famous people she'd you know needless to say a best seller the title escapes me but um among the rock stars she talks about was george harrison now maybe this is not true this is her version i'm not endorsing it i'm just saying her version was he played the ukulele while she was blowing him he probably did do that he did play i hope he did that's bad enough you haven't don't take that away from me too still got things to achieve i mean it it could yield creativity it could it could i think it needs exploring let's put our best man on it gonna be writing more songs so no you're so you've never been married right now i've avoided it me too somehow somehow and just as well because i'll only be divorced a million times we we are in a very exclusive club and we're in a very exclusive club we're not in a club wow right people guys who have not gotten married and i mean i'm 70 i'm i'm guessing you're yeah i'm 70. oh really yes it's 56. 1956. yeah 55 november no i'm january 56 wow oh john john lyden john rotten same oh really he's january 56. our mothers were pregnant at the same time yes yes what if we had gotten switched at birth what if i sang white wedding and you were like doing this and talking to the governor it wouldn't be terrible you'd be terrible if at my job might be terrible at yours yeah no yes i think i'm so glad i'm so glad our mothers my mother was in england during the war oh she's a nurse in world war ii yeah my mom was a nurse that's why she came to england she's irish and she came to england oh become a nurse you feel like that irish heritage helps you with your poetic side because the irish i'm irish also i would think so yeah um you know my my grandmother could play 14 instruments not that i can i'm not that musical 14 instruments she could write music and she could play yeah i mean a lot it was the piano the accordion the viola that you know she'd play a number of instruments and she could write music i think and although she wasn't doing much of that when i did you were you poor when you grew up um we were we were okay i mean dad dad worked really hard so what do you do he's a salesman really sold different he started off selling typewriters then he sold medical equipment in what town is this well we actually came to america i lived in america when i was a on long island when i was a child for i got we came to america you know it's about two and a half and uh we stayed for about three years but you kept the accent well my first accent was because you're around the father who talked like that the parents well my first accent was american i my first memories are of long island and of having an american accent and you know it was sneakers not pimples and uh you don't sound american no no well we went back to england you know ice no you have a great accent because it's it's like a carrie grant accent it's not quite a british accent but it has hints of it and so it just strikes us all it's just charming and and uh i've tried to hold on to it because i don't know you're i do think it has a certain effect oh i'll bet you it's great with the ladies chicks love an accent yeah that's how dumb they are am i right no cut that out yeah it's worth holding on to i've deliberately held on to tried to hold on to an element of my british yeah it's all good it's also good for the music i mean we here in america of a certain age like me um really i came of age right with the british invasion right a little i mean some of it happened before i was interested i mean in 1964 when the beatles came here that's really the beginning of it i mean i was eight i was not interested in music i was interested in baseball but they were still together and i mean the first album i really listened to was sergeant pepper even though it had been out a year but it was still current and we had it in the house and i mean so um but you know oh fuck i forgot what i was gonna say well i fell in love with the bill i went back to uh around you know 60 late 62 we went back to england you see so i was right there when the beatles kicked off and so uh i wanted to buy right the british i wanted to buy from me to you but it was going down the charts and i didn't have quite enough pocket money so i i've already believed in john and paul already i really believed in them already i don't know why i just you just just believed in them i just knew the next record would be great it was she loves you i bought that six shillings and throbbin's apony that's what it cost wait so you were in england well we went back in like late 62 you know you went back yeah we went by my dad wanted to go back to england and then how long were you in england for about 25 years i suppose oh 25 years oh that may explain the accent yes of course okay i see i was american oh i see because i was gonna say uh for me to you give the ball to the american kid so we can cut him down that's what they were shouting give the soccer ball to that american kid for me you is the third single yeah the first single was love me do love me do which i've never liked didn't like it then didn't like it now it has the unmistakable i mean joy of the beatles and how much joy they took and i think the music thing is great i don't never been a big fan of the harmonica there's just never been that the harmonica thing is well it's it's it's called a mouth organ bill but anyway yeah it always makes me want to put an organ in my mouth no it's it's just i just never been a fan of that particular instrument and also they wrote it when they were like 15 it's it's talk about childish lyrics you know love love me do i know i love you please be true and that's okay as a as a historical artifact i like it as that do i want to hear it no okay the next single was please please me which is still a great record it's fantastic so even between the first and the second they made a record that i want to hear forever okay so they were moving quickly third single is for me to you i think yes fourth single is she loves you fifth one that broke america was i want to hold your hand so we're talking about for me to you which is like you know again a very um respectable record of the early period not again a profound lyric but you know we're talking about teenagers playing for teenagers yeah you know on that level and it's still got their unmistakable joie de vivre yeah you know but um yeah i mean i if you had the choice of playing either from me to you or uh a day in the life but yeah of course i mean that's what's so fantastic when you play a day in the life three times in a row how they're able to morph into such you know change their music up so drastically and still take the audience with them unlike the beach boys where they've kind of lost their audience well albert goldman who wrote the john lennon biography took a lot of shit for it but i happen to think he's an amazing writer but he made the point that the beatles always kept ahead of their audience yeah they did which is kind of what you're getting at yeah and the example he gave was the lead song on revolver was tax man and he said can you imagine a subject less interesting to teenagers than taxes which is such an awesome observation yeah think of that you know what kids we're talking about taxes now me to you that was two years ago yeah we're just different and you know what you want to enjoy us get on you you catch up yeah and we did and we did yeah that's what was great they they kept uh you just believe i believed in them and they kept on so proving you right that's what was fantastic so you were in what city in 1963 no 1963 yeah three when from me to you came out well uh i was living in southern england you know okay talking i suppose for a year we lived then we were very you know you were in the country where it was happening yeah i mean obviously they were in the north because that's liverpool yeah but they would come they'd come down to london they play everywhere they were living you look at that i mean they've you know london scene was taken off because the stones were in london there was dave clark five and then there's all those bands well 1963 is the year the beatles went crazy you know went crazy big but only in england in they said ed sullivan like saw them yeah they were coming back from sweden or something yeah he saw the crowd at the airport and so who's this for and they said it's for this group the beatles yeah right and then he said well they're this popular why don't we have them on on my program well i always wondered how the hell did you know the other three songs do nothing you know in america you did nothing please in america yeah she loves you do that and then suddenly i want to hold you in my hand goes to number one well suddenly capital got behind us they didn't have a record label that's part of the reason she loves you was issued on vj or something swan that's one that's right yeah swan records which was you know like a guy with a fax machine in his mother's basement it was you know nothing yeah so you know it there was no press behind it no no very often what happened in america was a disc jockey would love a song and start playing it and then the crowd would you know the people in the audience would write in and say oh we love that i mean many singles like that have been broken that way i think maybe it was murray the k then murray the k in new york side playing i want to hold your hand i suppose i don't know if that's how it happened or it was just the noise from overseas was finally capital money i suppose they put money behind you right finally capital records which emi owned you know at that point they were with emi i must have told them you've got to do it but the emi who owned capital must have told them you've got to put money into this band and then they always said they didn't want to go to america until they had a number one yeah that's right and then they did yeah so you know it's funny they were in i think paris when they heard yeah like they came here oh this is february so they came here yeah they're playing the olympia or something in paris and not enjoying it The only place in the world, it's so, So indicative of the French. The only place in the world that stuck their nose up at Beatlemania was France. Like they were like, we don't know what this phenomenon is all about. They are talented, I suppose, but are they Charles Aznavour? I do not think so. I mean, they had like a long engagement there. And it was, not that it was like a disaster, and I'm sure they got laid. It was France and they were the Beatles. But, I mean, for fuck's sake, like they were just not like the crowds everywhere else in the world that went nuts. They just did not. But I think that's where they got the telegram, which we barely remember as a child, that, you know, you have a number one in America. They were like, oh, well, this is very handy since we're going to do Ed Sullivan. And it must have been so much, it must be so much fun, like that uproar. Yeah, it was a very awkward climb when you're, you know, when your rocket gets shot to the moon. Yeah, and it was just, it was really exciting for us in England, seeing that happening, because it really meant, oh, man. No, I mean for you. If you can get into a band and it'll take you around the world, you know. But you had that experience, you know, when the world is at your feet. Yeah, I did, I did. And once you get that high, you know, you're good, you're stamped for life. I mean, there'll always be people. There'll always be people who want to keep up with you, you know, because you meant a lot to that, especially, it's usually that formative part of your life that you remember so fondly. I mean, you know, everybody remembers the song they first got laid to. Yeah, so it's, yeah. And for most people, it is White Wedding. That's the interesting statistical part of that. It's just, it's just good. It says wedding in it. Chicks are going to get, they're going to cream about that. Just hearing the word wedding is, you know, but, so what do you think about, like, the next decade? How old are you now? Well, I'm 70. 70, right. So we're 70. Okay. We, you know, we hung on. We're going to make the most of the next 10 years. We hung on pretty good. I think we both. Yeah. I mean, you are, some people are, like, almost unrecognizable. Like, really, you know what I mean? I know. You're eminently recognizable. It's a little scary when you see. You look exactly like Billy Idol. There's no, the hair, just everything. It's like, it's like instantly easy to able to say, oh, that's Billy Idol. You know, oh, is he a little older? Oh, hey, looks great. You know, that's it. Me, I feel like I basically look like who I am. I mean, yeah, I mean, probably a little worse, but we're all worse for the wear. But 70 to 80, you know, all I'm saying is AI, get on it. Yeah, it's a little while getting to this stage in life, isn't it? Because, yeah, you really, it's getting, we're getting there. Yeah, I don't know. Especially when you do fun, childish things like we do. Yeah, still daft. It just becomes kind of weird then to not be young. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's like, wait, we're the people that didn't grow up anyway. You can't ride a motorcycle kind of thing. Yeah, it's not like we worked in an office all our lives. We did weird, you know, fun, you know. It's not job-like things. And so we're supposed to be young, always, you know. And then you're like, no, but you're not. Yeah. It's, that's a, you know, how long can you, like, act young? I guess forever. I guess it's in your mind, right? Well, I hope so, yeah. I hope that, I mean, I'm sort of lucky. I'm doing something I really like. So that. Yeah. Thank you. It keeps you young because, you know, yeah, I'm doing something that I enjoy. And your penis, is that healthy? It seems to be all right, yeah. I hope that wasn't too personal a question. It does seem to be all right. Well, only because Sigmund Freud said, you know, there's only two things in life that determine whether you're happy or not, your career and your love life. I see. What? You never heard that? No. Yeah. That or Freud. Well, you know what? I think he, don't sue me if he didn't say that. You know, I don't know. Maybe it was Rocky who said that. I don't know. But I think it was Freud who said that. Even if he didn't, I think it's true. Like, aren't they the two things that, I mean, it's either your career or your love life that determine whether you're happy. There's not, I mean, do I feel better? Better when I have something great to watch at night, like, you know, like on TV? Yeah. But that's not what, like, actually determines my happiness. My happiness is determined by my career and my love life. I'm pretty sure Freud did say that. Yeah. So, anyway, that's why I ask about your penis. Well, it seems to be in good nick. Well, that's awesome. So I've been rather, always been rather proud of it, so. And it seems to have gone through whatever I've put it through and come out the other side. So. Right. How does heroin affect your dick? Yeah, it doesn't really make it work. Although you can fuck forever. If it is working, you can fuck forever. That's the thing. What is it? If it is working, you can fuck forever on it. That's the thing. Is that right? Heroin, you say. And what brand would you recommend? No. Well. I mean, I don't know. I can't look away because, you know, the next landmark is 80, and 80 just seems like a crazy number. Yeah. But I thought 60 was crazy. Yeah, exactly. I thought 70 would be, but it seems somehow sliding through. Yeah, but I don't know. I just wonder. At some point, it's going to get us. I just don't like that idea, though. Exactly. I don't, I don't, I, I, let's put it this way. I think I hear the footsteps. I don't feel the breath on my, my neck yet. That's okay. But I know that's, but I know that's next. I know that's next because you don't really avoid any, you know, in life, life is a series of phases and, you know, passages. You don't avoid any of them. I suppose not, no. It's going to happen, but yeah, I just got to try and put that day off as far. Exactly. You just try to put that day off. So I assume you, you must, I can tell by looking at you, you must live healthy. Yeah, I do. People, people, you, you, you just see in people's faces. Yeah, you can, you can see what they're eating. Absolutely. I, I can see. Yeah, sir, at our age, you just, you're on a very short leash of what you can get away with to, to that fucks with your health. Yeah. Sleep, drugs, liquor, whatever it is. You don't drink? Not anymore, not really. I mean, I used to just have a glass of wine if I was at a restaurant. I would have a couple of glasses. Wine, but they kind of stopped me doing that, you know, a couple of years ago. The doctor, you know. Oh, the doctor. Sort of said, can you not do that even? So I went, I'll buy me, you know, and I come off it sort of thing, but, but I still, you know, I, I take, you know, pot pills and stuff like that, so I'm not. You pop pills? Pills, yeah. For what? Pot. Oh, pot. Yeah, pot pills, you know. Oh. Instead of vaping, I stopped vaping a couple of years ago, because I used to vape all the time. And then. And then I sort of realized, I don't know why I'm vaping all the time. I could just take these, well, a little bit, yeah, but it was more, I realized I could take the pills, and I didn't, once I was taking the pills, I sort of noticed that I didn't feel like vaping, so I carried on doing that. So, yeah, it's a couple of years now, I haven't really vaped, so, but just take the, take some, some at night and stuff like that, you know. I took one today. Yeah, or in the daytime, yes. And yet I still smoke, you know. It's just. Yeah. I mean, I don't want to be the skunk at the garden party, but I think I need to go up to heroin. Do you know a guy? I hear you, no. Well, I wouldn't start now. Oh, I wouldn't. No, we've done, you're doing really well, don't ruin it. Can you imagine? Well, actually, you know, heroin. That's the most scary thing, I think, when people start taking drugs and they're old. You know, that's the really, I don't know. I think that's really like, whoa, man. That's why I'm glad I did it when I was in my 20s or when I was a teenager in my 20s. I'm glad I did it back then, not now, you know. There was somebody. You need energy to be a drug addict, and I don't have that kind of energy. That's a great, you ought to write a song around that. No, really, that's a great idea, and it's so true, because it's such a truism. Yeah, to be a junkie, you need energy. You need energy to be a drug addict. You really do. To stand on a corner and possibly get beat. Well, sometimes to score. Yes, to get the drugs, to keep doing the drugs, you know it's amazing what a great product drugs are because they have this diminishing set of returns and mostly what they do is make you want to do more of the product even though it's working less yeah I mean the classic one of this is cocaine yeah yeah knowingly why you had a brief cocaine period yeah once you're trying to get off heroin what you go to go to something else that I started smoking crack to get off heroin you know did you really worked and I do be the worst advert for step up to crack it's a dwarf it worked I got off spell it out for you little bricks two years ago but don't do it if I've told you once I've told you a thousand times yeah glad I got away the worst drug there is so like in a way yeah cuz it's it's kind of nasty illegal the legal one but it does make things so much fun it was it wasn't I like taking drugs back back then I don't really like it took me a long time to put them in the rearview mirror but at some point I realized you had to do that or I feel what people who are not rock stars like us don't quite understand is that it's the combination of the drugs well that's what either liked I liked I like the yeah I like this energy yeah the the combination you have a number of things and yes you can't get that on with one thing on its own it was really the yeah you know you got to be a rock tail and that's the point you gotta be a rock star rock stars get this and you're just tippling yes yes yes I used to always wonder you know like why you know just so many rock stars who you know you think they have everything and they do you know like all the women want them and the money and the adulation and the creativity and the outlet and blah blah blah why are they destroying themselves on drugs because the drugs they get access to are so good that's what it is when you're a rock star everyone wants drugs to court favor with you yeah I love your yeah I'm gonna put together I'm gonna put together a real just yeah just show how right I am about shit okay Billy Idol he goes yeah but that's what it is it's like yes this will fuck up your life in your career in your erection and everything else but these drugs are just so good you just you know you just gave me the you know the creme de la creme because illicit drugs are just what it's a it's a you know it's a crapshoot you know what you there's no standards whoever your dealer is when I was a pot dealer did anybody ever get a full ounce no I would get a pound which is 16 ounces and then split it evenly so 17 ways you know there's no control here so we don't know what's in the drugs no they're gonna cut it with fuck whatever they want to make more you know if you're given i don't know an ounce of coke okay now you're gonna sell it to hundreds of people right so you're gonna split it into grams it's was sold by the grams right yes okay so you know are you gonna give them a pure gram if there's nobody to say hey what are you doing no you're gonna cut it with baby laxative and whatever the fuck else anybody put in how how i managed to survive my brief two-year cocaine period i don't know it's such a bad drug yeah how long were you on it i don't know well a few years in a way because uh you know on and off you know like i was i was trying to get off drugs and then then i would have a sort of a you know a memory of how good they are yes and then uh you know but i would never i never went back to heroin after a certain point definitely i had a motorcycle accident i was in i was in hospital with one of those pain boxes you know and it was like a 12 minute lockout because otherwise i would have so i thought about that i thought when would you ever be on something i was as high as a kite in that you know with my leg all fucked up but i was as high as a kite in that hospital room you know and i just thought well when are you ever really gonna have stuff like that it's never that pure as that again you know so i really said to myself that's it man you know you've also looked you'd fucked your leg up you know well this is you know this is time to start so i did start sort of trying to ease off it took me a long time though to really get control of myself and and of course the aaa people say there's no control and there probably isn't but i think you have to sort of tell you how long would you say you've been really sober well not really i mean i'm a california sober aren't i you know because yeah because i did used to drink a little bit and um i do take you know pot and stuff pot pills and stuff so what how long that well uh well i don't know when did i it's probably 20 years ago or something i lost did a line of blood so what period are we talking about what years are we talking about that the documentary refers to when you should be dead well the 70s 80s 90s all those decades yeah well oh my that is a lot of dying um well i'll say to live yeah if not that we need to give anybody any more reason not to do drugs you just should not do it do drugs kids take it from me um but one reason a good reason not to do drugs is people who do a lot of drugs when they then need a lot of drugs like when they're in the hospital in pain from an accident yes you can't pump up the volume enough because they have built such a tolerance having fun with the drugs um well that's what the doctor said to me he said um mr broad um i've got to ask you something i mean the pain medication you're drinking it in that's what he said it's okay i was a heroin addict we're just worried that you won't get off it when we need you to go and i said i will and i did you know oh you did well that's the perfect place to come off it is in the hospital because i mean there's a nurse changing sheets every hour so if you're gonna do it that's the place to get off get off it and uh john lennon quit cold turkey in the back of a limousine you know that story no i didn't know no they yeah they he they got a limousine and i think they drove across the country oh i have read i read about that but i didn't know that he was getting off heroin oh so that's what they're doing when they did that yeah three thousand miles yeah they ended up it was like where can we do this where no one will know we're doing it except a limo driver because i'm assuming there was a lot of pull over i have to throw up right you just feel terrible but don't you throw up a lot when you're getting off heroin well i don't know about that it's more like you're just you're just you know whatever you can't get comfortable because you're just sweating it's more that you're sweating it's like nausea your your bones are hurt you know your whole body everything's hurting like the flu but like a terrible version of it and it goes on forever yeah it doesn't end you know even when it ends it doesn't end it's like you know you're still feeling you're still jonesing somewhere somewhere you're jonesing for it you know even even right now somewhere jonesing you know what charlie parker said about it they can he said they can take it out of your body they can't take it out of your mind right that's that's the point yeah but it doesn't make me want to do it again i don't want to do it again i don't want to do it again no then the next thing i think about is getting off it you know that's so terrible though it keeps me from doing it as much as we lament and we certainly should and have every right to lament being 70 there is also the great part of it which is you're just smarter so you don't do these stupid things you did when you were younger and there's almost nothing as good as that it's like all that stupid stuff was fun yeah it was fun but like when you think about the pain it put you through well exactly yeah and then you're like now i mean i don't you know we have so little respect for the elderly in this country it's just not our culture when it's like the culture of most of the rest of the world venerate the elders for obvious reasons they've been here longer they learned more like shut the fuck up for a second and learn somebody for learn from somebody who has been down the path before you that alludes the geniuses that are americans but okay in my personal life it's just always a joy it's just always a joy to come upon something where i go oh you know what seen that before and I saw how it fucked me before and I'm just gonna sidestep it like Dick Van Dyke the year he didn't trip over the ottoman you know I'm just gonna miss that one and it's not as good as being 35 perhaps but in some ways it's better you have got to say I mean well obviously in the same boat would you would you go back to 35 if you could well a part of me would like to course but there again yeah you know I'm glad I'm glad I've got here and I'm in a fairly good state I'm enjoying what I do and yeah you know that all that kind of stuff I like the records are making and enjoy the band I'm playing with well it's fantastically good fun still the songs don't get old I don't know what it is I would have thought by now but they don't know they don't seem to get old I mentioned before I use the iPod one reason I use the iPod as opposed to like I mean I have you know the Spotify and the it's like their philosophy is sort of here's music you like here's some other stuff you might like and it's like okay I can I want to be suggested to things but basically I've been listening since 1968 I have thousands of songs already I know what I like and what I like the songs I like are songs that would have been a hit in any decade you know I mean this stuff by the weekend that's only a couple of years old that definitely would have been a hit in the 80s the 70s I mean it sounds just like Michael Jackson yes whatever yes I mean your stuff like it stands the test of time it's like it's not an 80s song it's just a good song yeah you know that's that's what we were trying to do yeah we weren't trying to do something for that decade we were thinking obviously we're thinking of the moment but we were hoping that what we were doing was gonna have you know it's gonna resonate into the future especially so you have a long career or something see what Spotify can't do or what's the other one yeah yeah anyway I'm 70 as well I know you know this so embarrassing to get stoned and not remember like basic words it's like you know the word for a hospital you know that place you go when you're sick but they can you can suggest the playlist to them and all they can do is like put it together by picking songs that could kind of sound alike to the algorithm that cut are kind of from the same period whereas I can put a song from the 60s the 70s the 80s the 90s and today put them all in a row on a playlist and they're from totally different decades but you understand why they all fit together it's a certain sound right Spotify can't do that that's what's not Pandora that's what I was thinking then Pandora can't do it either and that's why I'm firing them tomorrow well I'm glad you're still at it and your fans are do we have anything to plug before I set you back into the wild well apart from yeah documentary coming out well I have a list I keep a list of things I want to see this I want to see you participated in it yeah yeah yeah and you were happy to do that so yes you wanted you you were like let me tell my own story as opposed to somebody else right well yeah although it was kind of good we got different people like Tony James myself Generation X partner kind of thing he did a lot of the punks on the years and then you know it wasn't just me telling my story which was kind of quite good in a way you sort of got other people's that's how they all dar well there you need it's difficult for me to tell my own story exactly but you need both but it really helps you see the Beatles anthology yeah exactly it's not just okay it's them and John was not alive for it but you know these archival tapes and stuff but it's them on camera but then it's also you know Neil and Mal and the people around them and the publicist and then the record company you need that sort of out of view point in it's kind of that's what's kind of good about it I think is that you do get that and at the same time it's yes my crazy story it's something they only do for icons and you are thank you you're seeing in the wrong thing and sort of signaling the wrong thing I did you kidding you you