Billy Idol is subject of the new documentary Billy Idol Should Be Dead, and during a recent appearance on Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast, he detailed a drug-filled night when he almost wound up that way.
He said it occurred when he returned to England after the success of 1983’s Rebel Yell and met up with some friends who 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 was chopping the lines out,” he said, noting he was the last person to pass out.
“When people, other people in the room came to, I was going blue,” he said. “If you’re dying, you’re going to start turning blue.” The friends were able to revive him by putting him in a bath, with Idol simply stating, “I survived.”
Idol did eventually get off heroin, but not before dabbling with another drug first.
“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,” he said, adding with a laugh, “It worked. It worked.”
Billy Idol Should Be Dead is in theaters now.
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
