LONDON: It’s three in the morning and a rampant telephone slices the night silence. The caller is in New York, but the line is crystal clear. Familiar hoarse-hearty tones burst through my earpiece. I say hello to Billy Idol for the first time in four years.

He is interrupting sessions for his third album, Whiplash Smile, to give this solitary interview. I have to admit to the odd tremor as I sat waiting for him to call. Since I’d last seen Idol—just before he left London to start again in the U.S.A.— he’s risen from singer in punk rock group Generation X to megastar-icon of the rock video generation. I’d heard the stories— how fame had supposedly turned him into a crazed megalomaniac dealing out tantrums from his court. Plus, you know what it’s like when you meet someone again after some years without contact.

I shouldn’t have worried.

Billy Idol seems to have changed little. I always found him friendly, funny, with an unswerving passion for rock ’n’ roll. His former endearing enthusiasm is still there, but taut with the confidence and awareness that mass success brings. There are no superstar airs. His spiel is a rapid pinball, hopping from topic to topic. He bares his soul, sends himself up, sticks pins in his ego and talks about the new infusion of personal events into his songs without qualm. He never loses that belief in himself, but obviously still carries scars from the various slagoffs over the years. Basically, it’s the same Billy Idol I met under a table 10 years ago.

' But that lip-curled sneer and the gloves punching air, you say. Isn’t he just the s ANGRIEST person alive? The word is £ passion, my dears. As Idol points out: | “It’s all from the same place. The opo posite of anger is passion, but a lot more i desperate...”

Billy reels off track titles and the new, highly-personal (as we shall see later) nature of the subect matter becomes evident—“World’s Forgotten Boy,” “Beyond Belief,” “Don’t Need A Gun,” “Man For All Seasons,” “Heaven Understood,” “Soul Standing By,” “One Night One Chance,” “Fatal Charm,” “For My Sweet 16.” There is also a version of Rose Royce’s lost love lament, “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore,” which he had initial doubts about including in the wake of Madonna’s version, but his vocal turned out to be such a tour de force it couldn’t not be included!

He’s also at pains to point out that the album didn’t take as long to record as the time-gap since Rebel Yell suggests—after sorting out what he wanted to do, there were delays waiting for studios and engineers. “If I just accepted certain things you’d hate me,” he says.

Idol has taken his time on purpose, partly to alleviate any deadline pressures, but mainly because he wants to get it exactly right. He’s in the happy position of being able to take as long as he likes— while anticipation reaches fever pitch. Seems a logical place to kick off the interview, once the past four years have been dealt with—he was bursting to hear about mutual friends and happenings in the U.K.

Before he commenced recording sessions, Idol took time to place his head firmly back on his shoulders.

“I thought, I’d rather take my time and actually live. Not just be this person who lives on the road, always doing interviews or being Billy Idol. I spent time with Keith Forsey (his producer) and we’ve been putting this record together. We’ve got 10 or 11 songs.

“I don’t know what groups do. They have a big hit, slam out a piece of shit and expect everybody to like it. And they’re all the groups who would have said something so heavy five years ago about how they’d never do that. I always wondered why they’re like that. It’s so peculiar, and you see it in the heaviest of people. It’s as if everything’s suddenly changed in the world. I don’t believe that. I believe the original sentiments about bothering to put out records that you think are good and have merit. That’s why I’ve only put out two—coming for three—albums in fuck knows how many years, rather than flooding people with things and boring them to death. I haven’t done millions of albums, where at least half are no good. What work I have done at least stands up for what it is.”

Suddenly, the line pings with Idol’s exclamation mark—“Hey! This is the first interview I’ve done about it! They wanted me to do millions of them last summer to get on the front cover of all these things. I said ‘What’s the point of being on the front cover of things if you ain’t got a record or you ain’t doing anything?’ You re going to look an arsehole. Everybody bothers you to death about ‘when’s your record coming out?’ I’d rather they didn’t know I was doing one!

“When it’s ready—then they can like it. I just didn’t see any reason to really rush around the world in 80 days or something. That’s exactly what people expected. In America, they always wanna be so hotshot just because somebody’s job’s riding on it. I told the people they’re gonna have to wait and ‘I’m gonna have to live and do my record and be someone for real.’ This way it isn’t something I tried to write in two-and-a-half weeks saying, ‘Where are we going?’ This way I’ve kept to what direction I wanted to go, and been able to explore it a bit as well.”

And that’s the several million dollar question; what can we expect to spring from Idol’s new grooves? He’s never been the formula type, bent on cloning past glories.

“We’ve changed. We’re using slightly different rhythms, but it’s still the same constant type things, just expanding it a bit in our little way. I think this is going to be more of a rock ’n’ roll record, really. Bit more of the old dance-about-andhave-a-laugh, rather than come-at-youwith-depression. I want to have fun. I’m a bit sick of thinking everything’s shitty. When was the last time you bought a record, Kris?”

Erm...been catching up with stuff I missed, really, like old blues.

“You haven’t been buying any new ones, have you?”

No, most of ’em are horseshit (quaint old English expression).

The phone leaps five feet off the table.

“EXACTLY! HER-HER-HER! That’s the whole point! I’m making records at a time when people are doing what you’re doing, where I’d rather that you didn’t have to do that. It’s letting down the fans that you have got by giving ’em a record that’s some sort of publicity gimmick. I already said ‘I’m not doing a follow-up album. This is the next thing we’re doing and it’s just as important as Rebel Yell.’

“That’s the problem with this country. They have to be self-centered at times because of presentation, but if you’re someone like me, it tends to throw you a curve. You can’t figure out how come they don’t get the message. They don’t understand I’m not somebody who’s gonna do something just because I’ve got a record contract, I don’t give a shit about those things. If I did, I’d be fucked— because I’ve been doing this music for 10 years. If I worried about anything like that, I’d have to be such a fool. I don’t ‘have a record contract,’ I make music!

“The thing about the new album is I don’t let people down. It might not be a new direction, but what should I go in a new direction for? I’m here to go in my direction. I’m here to do what I want and what my music’s about and what Steve’s about.

“One thing about the record is: I’ve recently tried to deal with more things that I think about personally, in the outside world. So instead of ‘Rebel Yell’ and ‘Blue Highway’ it’s more to do with me, rather than My Look At The World. Nothing big deal, but I wanted to live between Rebel Yell and Whiplash Smile so I could have something to actually sing about.”

And did you?

“Yeah. In two years, things can really happen to you. My manager (Bill Aucoin) has drifted off, and I haven’t seen him for a year-and-a-half. We’ve been sort of managing ourselves.”

And that’s not all.

“Me and Perri, my girlfriend, kind of split up. She’s been dancing and acting for years, but all this time since she left Hot Gossip (mixed dance troupe who pioneered leather-raunch on U.K. TV) it’s always been that thing of ‘Everything’s Billy.’ People were always around me.

“So my manager’s fucked off, my girlfriend had to go off and do this career thing. People get peculiar, but I understand why they have to do things. It just doesn’t make it any easier doing this record. There again, I can focus on that. I can think about those things and sing about them, not just as if it’s my own world, but like what happens to other people. Everybody loses something they love and it’s all so...the whole last year has really been like that for me.

“People probably think I’ve been having the happiest time of my life. I thought I was gonna have that as well, but it didn’t really work out like that. But I think that’s good—because, if that’s the case, the record will reflect that and will show that I’m not just sitting back thinking that I’m just some big American thing. Mr. Big ain’t Mr. Big.”

Idol is obviously hurt and angry by a spate of stories in the sensationalist English press which dragged “old friends” out of the woodwork to whine about how success had gone to that peroxide head and he doesn’t want to know them and stories about his supposed physical condition. Standard stuff hurled at every new star, but it’s interesting to hear Billy dynamiting these charges back to the sewer they came from.

“‘He looked like he’d had 200 bad nights’—but I’d just had 200 bad nights in rock ’n’ roll! We’d been on the road for eight months. I’m 10 years older than the young fledgling at the Marquee all that time ago. So many things are irrelevent and not really the point. I’m only coming over here to play this silly music I make.

“What’s good about it is, it isn’t the standard music around now. In fact, it’s quite odd. In America, it’s sandwiched between Foreigner and Van Halen. If you hear ‘White Wedding’ between these two it’s pretty weird. But putting me between Wham! and Boy George—you’ve got to have one hell of an attitude. It’s just gotta say, ‘Sorry, this isn’t the face with no brain,’ or whatever they say. This isn’t a middle-class simp\ Only people who are worried about whether intelligence is important or not will mention the fact that I might not have a brain.

“What I don’t wanna get is that attitude * about myself that I’ve done something so brilliant, because it’s so simple to do this. But it’s bloody hard to do it and like it. It’s easy to write songs, but hard to write good ones. This album is as good as I can get right now. I just like the idea that when you get this album, it is what it is. It doesn’t matter that it’s better than ‘White Wedding’ or not as good as Rebel Yell.

“It’s not a follow-up record. It’s in its own time and space. I hope if I get it right, it’ll be a great record. If I get it wrong, it’ll be in the trashbin. I wouldn’t be surprised if it bombed! I wouldn’t care, either! Ha ha ha! Whatever it is, it’s gonna be the record that / made.

“People seem to get this idea that you’re just walking around saying how bloody brilliant you are! I’ve never really even said that I’m such a brilliant songwriter. People have really gone out of their way to say how shitty I am. They take that Idol stuff seriously. I mean, I feel silly...

“I’ve perservered, and now I’m here when there’s not much else, which means maybe I’m here at the right time. And there isn’t much else here great. And maybe it does show that my music lasts and it’s good and I think that’s nice.

“I think the best thing is that the new album will be new for everybody. Everybody’s going to be getting the same music at the same time, so you can all slag it off at the same time! Print I’m a load of shit—Ha! I’ll be the same old shit as I’ve always been because I’ve sold records and I haven’t.”

Do you ever feel, with your current success, like you’ve had the last laugh on those who scoffed over the years?

“No, not really. I think they had a right to say what they thought, really. It’s all changed somehow, hasn’t it? That’s what’s so ridiculous, me thinking it’s big stuff being successful. Because then I’d be just as silly as to worry—just the same as me being upset about those people saying Joe Strummer’s calling me a wanker...just like opinions, everybody’s got a type of music. Just like an arsehole. Everybody’s got an arsehole, but not everybody’s arsehole’s the same. I * thought that was the idea of punk rock— that we were supposed to be ourselves. When we (Gen X) got slagged off for doing that, it was almost a compliment, really. The fact that I’m here 10 years later is just as funny, really. I’m doing what I said I’d do. I didn’t say I was gonna die at 27.1 wanted to show people punk rock meant something, and I think it does, really. They just thought we were all stupid and arseholish. They thought people like me could never ever sing to anybody. They didn’t think I could sing. I stHI can’t really, they just all think so. Like hypnotic illusion was used.

“/ didn’t think I was a wanker! These sort of things don’t really hurt me. I wouldn’t be in a group if they did, ’cause then I wouldn’t stand on a stage and ponce about, being me...I just tried to avoid all those negative-type things that people think we should be upset about. I never got like that, because I found out that when you get upset about things, it makes you all vindictive and bitter and revolting.”

Surprisingly, Idol doesn’t feel his setup’s changed that much since “the old days”—“The people around me now are kind of the same type of people as then—they like to have fun, play rock ’n’ roll. I don’t have to worry about things being too arty or anything. I never wanted ’em to be Talking Heads or anything like that. I didn’t wanna be the Velvet Underground. I always needed to be Billy Idol, and I s’pose that’s my biggest triumph!”

By now we’d been talking for over an hour, and it was time for Billy to get back to his overdubs. Have no fear—the Idol feet are rooted firmly to the ground (in “Hound Dog” stance). Bye-bye, Billy.

Click. Brrr. a