The new Billy Idol documentary, Billy Idol Should Be Dead, will get its TV premiere Thursday, March 26, on Hulu. The film, which currently is being shown in select theaters around the world, offers an in-depth look at the pop-punk legend’s life and music career, including some of the personal issues he’s overcome en route to becoming a celebrated elder statesman in the rock world.
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Coinciding with the announcement of the film’s Hulu premiere, a new preview clip from the doc has debuted online looking at how Idol developed his signature sound that combined punk with dance music.
Idol first came to fame as the frontman of the London-based punk band Generation X. By 1980, the group had broken up and re-formed under the new moniker Gen X, with former KISS manager Bill Aucoin taking over their management. Also at this time, Billy had become interested in evolving the band’s sound.
As Idol explains in the clip, “I said to Bill Aucoin, ‘What we need is a rock and roll … disco producer. We need someone who knows dance music.’ Cause I was listening to just as much disco music and disco remix as I was punk rock. And I was starting to think, ‘What about if you put the two musics together?’”
How Idol Wound Up Working with Longtime Collaborator Keith Forsey
Idol hoped to work with Giorgio Moroder, the innovative dance-music producer who’d had major success with Donna Summer. Billy wound up sending Moroder a demo of the then-new Generation X song “Dancing with Myself.”
Working for Moroder at the time was Keith Forsey, a drummer who had aspirations to become a producer himself. Forsey listened to Idol’s tape before playing it for Moroder.
Forsey recalled in the film clip, “I used to screen all of the material that came to [Moroder’s] house. We’d just get records, cassettes, everything, cause Moroder was huge at that time. And I’d never seen Gen X. I’d never seen Billy. I just got the cassette. It was a lucky break. … [T]he voice from Idol was like, ‘Wow!’ You can’t deny it. So I said, ‘Hey boss, maybe you should do this.’ He didn’t want to do it.”
Keith continued, “I said, ‘Well, maybe I can do it? Maybe I can produce it for your company?’ I’d never been a producer. He called Bill Aucoin, and they said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’ [It was my] first [production] gig ever.”
Recording “Dancing with Myself”
Forsey, who was based in Los Angeles then, headed to London to produce Kiss Me Deadly, Gen X’s last album before the band’s 1981 breakup. The album included the original version of “Dancing with Myself.”
Forsey noted that London was “a little scary” at the time because there “was a lot of h#r@in everywhere.”
During the making of the album, Gen X didn’t have a guitarist in the lineup, so they hired some guest musicians.
Gen X bassist Tony James recalled, “We had the idea that we should get Steve Jones [of Sex Pistols] to play the rhythm guitars [on ‘Dancing With Myself’].”
Jones also appears in the clip, and he shared that he was having drug issues at the time.
“I had a seizure, cause I’d just come back from Thailand and I was strung out,” Steve explained. “Everyone thought I was joking, ’cause I’m a joker, you know, but next thing I know I’m carted along Oxford Street on a stretcher. Anyway, that was what I remember of that.”
James added that Gen X tapped Steve New of the London punk group the Rich Kids to play lead guitar on the track.
“He was a h#r@in addict as well,” James noted. “Keith Forsey is in the control room, thinking, ‘What the f— am I letting myself in for?’ There are three large bottles of methadone on the top of the control desk. One for Steve, you know, one for everybody.”
It’s worth noting that original Clash drummer Terry Chimes was then a member of Gen X, meaning “Dancing with Myself” was recorded by a veritable punk supergroup.
More About Forsey’s History with Billy Idol
“Dancing with Myself” failed to make a major impact on the U.K. chart when released as a single. Gen X broke up after the release of Kiss Me Deadly, and Idol then launched his solo career.
Forsey remixed “Dancing with Myself,” and the track was included on Idol’s debut solo EP, Don’t Stop. The updated tune wound up reaching No. 27 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. It remains one of Billy’s most popular songs.
Forsey went on to produce all of Idol’s albums through 1990, as well as his 2005 studio effort, Devil’s Playground.
(Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)
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