NOT RECOMMENDED –
March 4, 2026 – Billy Idol revealed the surprising substance that helped him kick his heroin habit. During an appearance on Club Random with Bill Maher, the “White Wedding” performer spoke about how smoking crack helped him wean off of the substance. “Once you’re trying to get off heroin, what do you go to? You go to something else,” said Idol, 70. He continued, “I started smoking crack to get off heroin. It worked. It worked.”
In his documentary Billy Idol Should Be Dead, which premiered at Tribeca festival in June 2025, the “Eyes Without a Face” artist reflected on his near-fatal overdose in London in 1984 in the midst of the success of his second album Rebel Yell.
At the time, Idol had found major success in the United States but had decided to return to England as a sort of victory lap, “because I’d done it.”
“I was coming back in triumph and I nearly ruined it,” said Idol at the time. “We flew to London where we met a load of our pals that we knew. They had some of the strongest heroin. Everybody did a line or so and they all nodded out except for me and this mate of mine.”
