ROCK ARENA
Interview from March 1987 with Billy Idol in New York

© Rock Arena from ABC 1987
Rage Official Website

This was typed by me, so please ask if you'd like to place this on your site.
This was typed word for word, literally.

BILLY TALKS ABOUT “HOT IN THE CITY”
The song is really about just being on your own, and finding out how to be the most positive about it.
And the other thing is that Manhattan in the summer is like being on a psychedelic acid trip, you know,
the airs so still and the sounds travel through it so weird and you’re so weirdly out of it because of the heat, you know,so uh, that’s the first thing that struck me (he laughs).

BILLY TALKS ABOUT “WHITE WEDDING”
2 out of every 3 people are divorced in America I believe, so uh, really its sort of getting a pretty debatable point, but anyway, the song’s really about insecurity,
and about how people try to overcome that, and I just used White Wedding ‘cause it’s such a virginal type image, you know, and really, who the hell’s a virgin these days?
Y’know what I mean, nobody’s a virgin, even if you are one. I’m certainly not (he smirks at the camera).

BILLY ON GENERATION X
…Nah, we do, erm, yeah we do some Generation X stuff, mainly um, the things which I still think are worthwhile today, like um,
“Kiss Me Deadly”, and uh, “Ready Steady Go,” and uh, (long pause, Billy looking uncomfortable because he’s gone completely blank).. well, one of those records, you know, and the way to look and all that.

BILLY CONTINUES TO TALK ABOUT GENERATION X
…Nah we weren’t manipulated at all really, we did exactly what we wanted; all the record covers, erm, were really done by us mainly, and especially the very first ones,
the single covers and stuff, all the uh, Russian constructivists designs, mixed with reggae things are all our stuff, but um..I, there was a big difference between, funnily enough between what our manager was doing and what we were doing.

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