Billy Idol – ‘I’m Not 100 Percent’ Over Drug Addiction
During a recent chat, Billy Idol opened up about his drug addiction issues and his recovery, revealing to Zane Low on Apple Music 1 that if he didn't stop doing drugs, he'd be dead or in prison.
The "White Wedding" singer has worked to "develop some kind of discipline" which included avoiding those involved with hard drugs.
The rocker revealed, "Drug addicts, we're very clever. We're not going to let you know; we're going to hide it. We're going to lie to you. We're not going to tell you the truth." Idol goes on to say that "that's the problem with drug addiction: We're not being honest about it. Hiding it and doing it in secret, trying to get away with it."
Idol continued, "I'm not a hundred percent. I stopped the hard stuff and I don't drink much, things like that. I mean, I always cared about myself physically and everything. So yeah, I did have to think about where I was going. I had to solve this problem about myself with the drug addiction and that's what was happening to me in hospital bed. I was kind of realizing I was going to face up to the thing that I hadn't quite faced up that had been kind of ruling my life about 10 years. And then yeah, over the next 10 years I was able to gradually, I don't know, develop some kind of discipline."
After his motorcycle accident was when he started to recover. The singer says, "I'd had the motorcycle accident because I was a drug addict, and I had to cure that. And it took a long time."
This is why Idol got involved with MusiCares, a program that provides support for musicians with drug issues. "Hopefully that's something that will help musicians that they can go to this foundation and ask for help if they really want to clean up music, it's a great help for musicians and I hope there's that for other people," he concludes.