Rock legend Billy Idol said seeing a Saturday Night Live comedian die motivated him to stop abusing drugs.
Idol, 70, described his tumultuous relationship with drugs in an interview with CBS Mornings’ Anthony Mason, following the release of his new documentary, Billy Idol Should Be Dead. The English rocker said he finally kicked his habit after watching SNL’s John Belushi die at the iconic celebrity haven Chateau Marmont.
When asked by Mason what made Idol turn around his wild lifestyle, the award-winning singer said, “I always had this voice telling me ‘you can’t do this forever,” he replied.
“I was there at the Cheateau Marmont when John Belushi died... you could see where it could end up,” he admitted.
Belushi died in March 1982, at age 33, after tragically overdosing at the L.A. hotel. An original cast member of SNL, Belushi was temporarily banned from the sketch comedy show’s sets as a result of his addiction to cocaine. According to a coroner’s report, the comedian’s official cause of death was “acute cocaine and heroin intoxication.”
Idol, too, struggled with addiction to heroin and cocaine. In a 2014 memoir, the singer confessed to waking up in a hospital on more than one occasion. He tells CBS that heroin was “a pitfall that a lot of people were falling into” at the time, when punk rock dominated pop culture.
Idol had a “near-fatal” overdose in 1984, the Guardian reported, and another incident in the late ‘80s. He also had a motorcycle accident in 1990, resulting in a broken leg and seven operations.
The title of Grammy Award-winning director Jonas Åkerlund’s documentary about Idol is a nod to these experiences, as the rocker himself attests.
“I’m lucky,” he told CBS. “Super lucky to be here.”
Idol has been candid about his drug use, recently confessing to Bill Maher that he weaned himself off heroin by turning to crack. He also said that kicking the drug was difficult: “It’s just getting off it that’s terrible, and that’s what stops me going back to doing it is the thought of getting off it. It’s so terrible.”
Billy Idol Should Be Dead was released on Feb. 27 and chronicles the life of the punk pioneer, featuring archival material and interviews with his family, friends, and collaborators.
