Dancing with Myself
by Billy Idol
A Rolling Stone Top 10 Best Music Books of the Year "That's what I'm talking about...Of all these memoirs, Dancing With Myself was the only one that stimulated my envy--made me want to be Billy Idol for five minutes....He's a genuine romantic, writing in a kind of overheated journalese about his London punk rock roots...and then falling head over heels for America." --James Parker, The New York Times Book Review In this highly original memoir--following Billy Idol from his childhood in England to his rise to fame at the height of the punk-pop revolution--the iconic superstar tells the real story behind the sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll that he is so fabulously famous for, in his own utterly indelible voice. An early architect of punk rock's sound, style, and fury, whose lip-curling sneer and fist-pumping persona vaulted him into pop's mainstream as one of MTV's first megastars, Billy Idol remains, to this day, a true rock 'n' roll icon. Now, in his New York Times bestselling autobiography, Dancing with Myself, Idol delivers an electric, "refreshingly honest" (Daily News, New York) account of his journey to fame--from his early days as front man of the pioneering UK punk band Generation X to the decadent life atop the dance-rock kingdom he ruled--delivered with the same in-your-face attitude and fire his fans have embraced for decades. Beyond adding his uniquely qualified perspective to the story of the evolution of rock, Idol is a brash, lively chronicler of his own career. A survivor's tale at its heart, this sometimes chilling and always riveting account of one man's creative drive joining forces with unbridled human desire is unmistakably literary in its character and brave in its sheer willingness to tell. With it, Billy Idol is destined to emerge as one of the great writers among his musical peers. "I am hopelessly divided between the dark and the good, the rebel and the saint, the sex maniac and the monk, the poet and the priest, the demagogue and the populist. Pen to paper, I've put it all down, every bit from the heart. I'm going on out a limb here, so watch my back." --Billy Idol
Paperback
English
Brand New
Author Biography
Born William Michael Albert Broad, Billy Idol is a multiplatinum recording artist and two-time Grammy nominee. Known for successfully merging his signature punk attitude with an appealing blend of pop hooks, dance beats, and gritty metallic crunch, Idol created some of rock's most indelible anthems, including "Rebel Yell," "White Wedding," and "Cradle of Love." Idol's latest release, his first studio album in nearly a decade, is titled Kings & Queens of the Underground. He lives in Los Angeles.
Review
"[Idol] proves he's more than a punk sneer and spikyhairdo in this extremely candid autobiography about his personal andprofessional relationships. Who knew he was this deep and self-analytical? Idolleaves you wanting ... 'More! More! More!'"--David. J. Criblez "Newsday"
Review Quote
"[Idol] proves he's more than a punk sneer and spikyhairdo in this extremely candid autobiography about his personal andprofessional relationships. Who knew he was this deep and self-analytical? Idolleaves you wanting ... 'More! More! More!'"
Excerpt from Book
Dancing with Myself PROLOGUE THEY SAY IF YOU HEAR THE BANG, YOU''RE STILL ALIVE By the morning of February 6, 1990, I''d been living on a fine edge for more than a decade, always courting disaster to experience the biggest high. I''d been living the deranged life. I felt so nihilistic, yet why hadn''t I just tuned in and dropped out? Instead, I followed Jim Morrison''s credo, the credo of Coleridge and, at one point, Wordsworth, the credo of self-discovery through self-destruction I so willfully subscribed to until this moment: Live every day as if it''s your last, and one day you''re sure to be right . On this fateful morning, I''m standing wide-awake at dawn in the living room of my house in Hollywood Hills, overlooking the Los Angeles basin that falls and stretches away toward the high-rising pillars of downtown. I haven''t slept, still buzzing from the night''s booze and illicit substances lingering in my bloodstream, staring at the view of the city beginning its early morning grumblings. Daylight unfolds and casts shadows within the elevation, as if God is slowly revealing his colors for the day from his paint box, the hues of brown and green of earth and foliage offset by the bleached white of the protruding rocks that hold my home in place on the hillside. Standing at my window, I hear sirens blaring in the distance. Some one wasn''t so lucky , I think as I tune in to the rumble of cars ferrying tired and impatient commuters on the 101 freeway that winds through the Cahuenga Pass, the sound of a world slowly getting back in motion. The constant moan of the freeway echoes that of my tired and played-out soul. Just the night before, after almost two years of work, we put the aptly titled album Charmed Life to bed. I''m feeling some pressure, home early from the de rigueur studio party. I say that as if we threw one party to celebrate the completion of the album, but the truth is that the party went on for two years. Two years of never-ending booze, broads, and bikes, plus a steady diet of pot, cocaine, ecstasy, smack, opium, quaaludes, and reds. I passed out in so many clubs and woke up in the hospital so many
Details
