Billy Idol Reveals Smoking Crack Helped Him Stop Using Heroin

Rock legend Billy Idol says his path away from heroin addiction took an unusual turn. During a recent appearance on Club Random with Bill Maher, the singer revealed that he once turned to another dangerous substance in an effort to stop using heroin.

“Once you’re trying to get off heroin, what do you go to? You go to something else. I started smoking crack to get off heroin,” Idol said.

Maher reacted with surprise. “Did you really?” he asked.

“It worked. It worked,” Idol replied, laughing.

The conversation comes as Idol opens up about his turbulent past in a new documentary, Billy Idol Should Be Dead, which explores the 70-year-old rock star’s career, addictions, and the reckless lifestyle that nearly cost him everything.

Reflecting on those years, Idol told The New York Times, “I had it all, and I lit it with butane.”

During the height of his fame in the 1980s, Idol lived the kind of hard-charging rock lifestyle that was often glamorized at the time. He battled heroin addiction while also taking risks on his motorcycle, frequently riding at dangerous speeds.

“I’m super lucky,” he said when describing those years.

In an April 2025 interview with The Associated Press, Idol explained that drugs were deeply embedded in the rock scene during his early career. He said he took his first hit of acid when he was just 12 years old.

“There’s a point in my life where I was very drug addicted,” he said.

Looking back now, Idol recognizes how easily his life could have taken a much darker path.

“I’m lucky that I’ve kept the brain I’ve got, because some people went brain-dead, and some people ended up in jail forever. Or dead,” he told the outlet. “Imagine if it was today. If I was doing what I was back then today, I would be dead because I would have run into fentanyl.”

The documentary also reveals how much of Idol’s struggles were hidden from public view. His longtime guitarist, Steve Stevens, said watching the film gave him a clearer picture of just how severe the addiction had been.

Idol’s drug use intensified after he moved to the United States in 1981 to pursue a solo career following the breakup of his British band Generation X. His rising fame coincided with increasingly dangerous habits.

One of the most serious incidents came in 1984 when Idol nearly overdosed after returning to England to celebrate the success of his album Rebel Yell.

“I was coming back in triumph and I nearly ruined it,” he said in the documentary. “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.”

His friends eventually realized something was wrong.

“I was basically dying. I was turning blue,” Idol recalled, describing how they placed him in an ice-cold bath and walked him around on the roof of his building to revive him.

He shared a similar memory on Maher’s podcast.

“I kind of, eventually we did pass out and then when people, other people in the room came too, I was going blue,” Idol said.

Maher asked why that happens during a heroin overdose.

“If you’re dying, you’re gonna start turning blue,” Idol explained.

The singer also admitted he only injected heroin “a few times,” saying he typically snorted it instead.

His reckless lifestyle extended beyond drugs. In 1990, a severe motorcycle accident nearly cost him his leg and forced him to turn down a role in a sequel to The Terminator because he could not run for the part.

“I’ve always flirted with death, in a way. Even riding motorcycles, you’re staring at the concrete,” he told The Associated Press. “It’s right there, you can come off that thing and get horribly messed up. And I’ve done it. It’s horrible. You find out how human you are, how vulnerable. There’s lots of things about my life that, yeah, I did kind of call death at times. Not really mean to, but you just were living like that.”

“Once you’re trying to get off heroin, what do you go to? You go to something else. I started smoking crack to get off heroin.”— Billy Idol

Fatherhood and the crash eventually pushed Idol to reconsider his lifestyle. He welcomed his son, Willem, in 1988 and his daughter, Bonnie, in 1989.

“There was a voice telling me, you can’t do this forever,” he told The New York Times.

Over time, Idol says he gradually changed.

“I really started to think I should try and go forward and not be a drug addict anymore and stuff like that,” he told People in May 2024. “It took a long time, but gradually I did achieve some sort of discipline where I’m not really the same kind of guy I was in the ’80s. I’m not the same drug-addicted person.”

Today, Idol describes himself as “California sober.” He told Maher that he sometimes takes “pot pills,” but says he has not used cocaine in two decades.

Billy Idol Should Be Dead premiered at the Tribeca Festival on June 10 and was released widely on Feb. 26.

READ NEXT