Billy Idol’s North American ‘Kings & Queens of the Underground’ Tour is well underway and Billy, Steve Stevens and the band been playing to highly energized sell-out crowds! Here are some of
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Billy was recently profiled in a fantastic piece by Andy Hermann for LA Weekly.Excerpt:
From the living room of his house, high up in the Hollywood Hills, Billy Idol gazes out across the Los Angeles Basin, remembering when the city was on fire.
“Even in the daytime, you could see the smoke,” he says, describing his bird’s-eye view of the Rodney King riots in April 1992. “And ash was raining out of the sky.”
At the time of the riots, Idol was one of the biggest stars in rock. But privately, his life had been unraveling for some time. In 1989, he separated from his girlfriend of 10 years, dancer-choreographer Perri Lister, a split that sent him plunging deeper into drug abuse. A gruesome motorcycle accident in the heart of Hollywood the following year nearly cost him his leg.
After limping through an international tour with a cane, he was back at home, struggling to stay sober as he toiled on the most ambitious album of his career, Cyberpunk, with neither of his most trusted collaborators, guitarist Steve Stevens and producer Keith Forsey, to guide him.
In the fires of the riots, Idol saw a parallel to his own life. “I’d been polluting myself with drugs. So it wasn’t so different for me to start seeing the world as polluting itself.”
It would take years, but Idol finally detoxed. Now he stands as an improbable survivor not only of drug abuse and motorcycle accidents but
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Billy Idol will be appearing on NPR’s World Cafe on Thursday, January 29th! Billy’s episode of the acclaimed public radio show will include an interview with Billy by host David Dye, and an exclusive acoustic set from Billy and his band. You can hear the online stream of the program on Thursday, January 29 at 2pm ET at xpn.org
World Cafe is broadcast on over 200 NPR Stations nationwide.
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European summer festival and individual tour dates have been announced for shows in the UK, Germany, Austria, Ireland, Sweden, France and Italy, including some of the larger European festivals such as Download Festival, Hellfest, Rock The Ring and Isle of Wight Festival. More European dates will be announced soon so be sure to also follow Billy Idol on Facebook and Twitter for updates!
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18 x 24 inch screen print, numbered edition of 400. Metallic silver ink on grey stock. Signed by Shepard Fairey. Limit 1 per person, per household. $50. Based on a photo by Michael Muller. Release date: Wednesday January 21, 2015.
“I have been fortunate to work with Billy Idol on several creative projects including his “Devil’s Playground” album package and his “Idolize Yourself” greatest hits package. Billy invited me once again to help with the art for his most recent album “Kings & Queens of the Underground.” Billy played the record for me and I was impressed with the stylistic range and especially loved the songs “Can’t Break Me Down,” “Save Me Now,” and “Whiskey and Pills.” I asked my friend, photographer Michael Muller (with whom I’d collaborated on the “Walk the Line” movie poster), to shoot the portraits for the package and he did a great job. I’m happy with the way the album package turned out, and as part of the project I was able to make an illustration of Billy based on one of Michael’s portraits, which I incorporated into this poster to accompany the “Kings & Queens of the Underground” album and tour. I’m very happy with how the poster turned out. On a side note, the “Kings & Queens of the Underground” album is heavily autobiographical because Billy was simultaneously working on his autobiography entitled “Dancing With Myself.” I’ve had the privilege of hearing amazing stories from Billy about his days in the London punk scene seeing the Sex Pistols, forming Generation X, and then moving to NY to go solo. His book tells all of these stories in an amazingly vivid and evocative style. Billy is a superb writer and I’d recommend the book for any fan of rebel music and personal creative evolution. Billy puts on an unbelievably energetic and charismatic live show, so check him out on tour if you have the chance. Oh, Steve Stevens, Billy’s guitarist and long-time collaborator is an absolute shredder. They shouldn’t be missed.” -Shepard Fairey
We regret to announce that the first two shows of Billy’s North American tour, in New Orleans on Wednesday, January 21 and in Atlanta on Thursday, January 22, will be postponed. Billy is unfortunately suffering from a pesky chest infection and is on doctor’s orders to recover for a few days before hitting the stage again.
“I’m really disappointed to be missing everyone this week in the Big Easy and Atlanta. I was excited for these gigs but want to make sure I can give you the full on Idol rock show you deserve. Thank you for understanding while I get over this bug. We’ll be back later this year!” – Billy
All other shows on the tour, beginning at the Tower Theatre in Philadelphia (Upper Darby), PA on January 24, will go on as planned. Fans with tickets to the New Orleans, LA and Atlanta, GA shows should hold on to their tickets until information about the rescheduled dates becomes available in the near future.
Grammy-Award winning virtuoso and long time Billy Idol collaborator Steve Stevens and Knaggs Guitars proudly announce the Steve Stevens Signature model SS2. Tailored to Steve’s specs and preferences, it will accompany the legendary guitarist on Billy Idol’s 2015 World tour.
Limited to only 100 instruments in 3 available colors (Red Sparkle, Cream and Black) the SS2 features a Mahogany body with
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A selection of officially licensed Billy Idol tshirts and apparel is now available! A complete web store will be online soon with additional selections and merchandise.
BILLY IDOL will kick off the new year with a performance at the 2015 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic®–the New Year’s Day outdoor game between the Chicago Blackhawks® and the Washington Capitals®–at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. which will be televised live at 1:00 p.m. ET on NBC (along with CBC and TVA). This performance will come as IDOL prepares for his 2015 tour in support of his critically acclaimed 2014 album KINGS & QUEENS OF THE UNDERGROUND which features the anthemic lead single “Can’t Break Me Down” and its evocative video.
IDOL’s pre-game performance from the main stage at home plate before puck drop will pay
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Steve Stevens graces the cover of the latest (January, 2015) issue of Guitar Plater Magazine with the feature story “How Punk, Electronica and an Adventurous Spirit Forged the Billy Idol Sound”. Available on newstands now and for purchase online here.
From GuitarPlayer.com:
“In the January 2015 issue of Guitar Player, Billy Idol’s sonic superhero Steve Stevens discusses the gear, tones, chops and attitude that go into everything he does, including the latest record. Plus Idol himself talks about his longtime 6-string foil and his creative process.”
Billy Idol’s self-penned New York Times bestselling autobiography Dancing With Myself was selected as #5 on Rolling Stone’s “10 Best Music Books of 2014.” (Actually, #1 of all self-penned autobiographies if we’re keeping track).
From RollingStone.com:
“In 2014, the rock star tell-all autobiography train rolled on with Jimmy Page, Joe Perry, Carlos Santana, Mick Fleetwood, George Clinton, Paul Stanley and Billy Idol among others all getting their turn. But some of the years best books were the
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Billy Idol and his band will play Download Festival 2015 this summer at Donington Park, UK on Sunday 14 June! The festival runs June 12-14.
More festival info at: downloadfestival.co.uk/
Tickets on sale now at: downloadfestival.co.uk/tickets
Billy Idol is scheduled to perform at HELLFEST in Clisson, France on June 19, 2015!
More festival info at: www.hellfest.fr
Tickets on sale now at: hellfest.fr/fr/tickets/
Billy Idol is scheduled to perform at the Isle of Wight Festival in Newport, Isle of Wight in the UK on June 11, 2015!
The Isle of Wight Festival is a music festival which takes place every year on the Isle of Wight in England. It was originally a counterculture event
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The vinyl edition of Billy Idol’s new album Kings & Queens of the Underground is almost here!
Already released digitally and on CD, Idol’s latest record has now been pressed at Pallas in Germany on 2-LPs and will ship to most territories before Christmas.
Each copy of the vinyl edition includes Kings & Queens of the Underground on 2-LPs in a double gatefold jacket, album lyrics and access to
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Give the gift of “IDOL” this holiday season to yourself or a friend! Choose Billy’s New York Times Bestselling autobiography Dancing With Myself, his acclaimed new
The UK/EURO tour is roaring to a close with only a few gigs left in the present leg. It’s been great playing both the old and new songs which you seem to be really enjoying, singing along to the new songs as well as old. That is great for us as we put a lot of work into the new album and are
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Watch exclusive preview clips here of Billy Idol performing Can’t Break Me Down from the new album along with Dancing with Myself and White Wedding for Guitar Center Sessions presented by JBL with host Nic Harcourt. Billy Idol on Guitar Center Sessions airs
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Knaggs Guitars will introduce the Steve Stevens Signature Model at The NAMM Show, Winter 2015. Tailored to Steve’s specs and preferences, the Steve Stevens Signature model SS2 will accompany him on Billy Idol’s 2015 world tour.
Limited to 100 instruments in three colors (Red Sparkle, Cream and Black), the SS2 features a mahogany body with carved maple top, custom SS neck carve, rosewood finger board with mother of pearl inlays, Ray gun head stock inlay and Signature Bare Knuckle pickups with engraved Ray guns not available in any other guitar.
Each instrument comes with an exclusive
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Billy Idol and his band will be playing several special radio station holiday shows in December. Ticketing information can be
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Billy Idol’s Fall European Tour kicked off last night at O2 Academy in Birmingham, UK and saw the live debut of tracks from the album Kings & Queens of the Underground. The tour resumes on Friday, November 7 in Dublin, Ireland with dates running through
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Source: billboard.com
Billy Idol, Kings & Queens of the Underground – No. 34 — Iconic rocker Billy Idol returns to the Billboard 200 with his first new studio album of original material in over nine years, as Kings & Queens of the Underground bows at No. 34.
The album — his 11th chart hit — was released on Idol’s own imprint (BFI) through Kobalt Label Services, and is the
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