Billy Idol and Steve Stevens | The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Somehow putting it all together was a hell of a lot of fun. If you're a guitarist and you admire the person you're working with, that's all you need.
You were building a genre of music that didn't exist.
You can't help but be proud of it.
Rock is such an incredible thing. And, you know, it's like a form of playing with fire. Everybody's got Billie Eilish. Your name was on the headline. Gentlemen, thank you for being here today. I'm very excited. As a longtime fan and admirer, it's awesome to talk to both of you.
How did Billy Idol and Steve Stevens meet and start their collaboration?
Because I'm a guitarist, of course, first. So I always start with the guitar. And then you. Right? Right. Because back in the 80s, I'm like, what pedal is he using? Oh, and then Billy. Right? Anyway, congrats. 44-ish years of partnership. Not a perfect partnership, but certainly a perfect partnership in productivity. And Obviously, your connection is strong because you're together. Yeah. And with the documentary just about to come out here.
Right on.
It's exciting. So let's start there. Did somebody put you two together? Was it a producer or a record label? Or how did that...
Well, I had a manager, American manager, Bill O'Coin. He managed Kiss. And he knew Steve, really. He'd been following Steve's career in New York around the clubs or whatever. That's right, yeah.
The band you were in. Sort of had a development deal with O'Coin at the time.
Yeah.
What challenges did they face while building their musical genre?
And I left the band that I was in. We had an ill-fated record that was never released. But I stayed with the coin management. And Bill called me, I don't know, you know, at some point and said, hey, you ever heard of Billy Idol? And by then, Dancing With Myself was being played, you know, five times a night in every club. I went, oh, yeah, Generation X. And he said, well, he's moved to New York. We're managing him. You guys should meet. Wow. Yeah, yeah.
So in the, uh, give me your version of, so is, is Gen X waning or is it breaking up or how do you end up in America? Cause I, I mean, there's variations of that story, but of course I want to hear it from you.
Well, yeah, it's just, uh, yeah, Generation X was sort of falling apart gradually. And, uh, then me and, uh, me and Tony was sort of, uh, we were carrying on with Gen X, but, um, in the meantime, we did get this American manager, Bill O'Coin, who managed Kiss and stuff. And, uh, he, yeah, I mean, he was, he obviously was really interested in, in managing us, but, uh, I think he really just wanted to manage me really. Cause, uh, you know, um, yeah.
Anyway, uh,
Yeah, so what started to happen was, you know, dancing myself didn't do sweet ball in England. You know, it got to number 60 or something when we put it out in England. It didn't do anything. So it was a little bit like, blimey, I mean, yeah, things are not really happening here at all. And I knew kind of somewhere, I knew, you know, if I stay in England and start a solo thing, I'll probably end up propping up a bar, and that's about it. Because in England, things go through really fast.
It's like this, right?
How did Billy Idol and Steve Stevens navigate the MTV era of fame?
It's up and down.
A record can be over in three weeks, even if it's quite successful. And a tour can be over in three weeks. It depends how big you are. But still... Yeah, I could just see that, yeah, I loved what we were trying to do with the Dancing With Myself type music, but it just wasn't happening in England. And it just sort of made sense, you know, if I start something in England, it's likely nothing will happen because they've already felt like they've seen you. And it's just happened, basically. You know, I just was on... Top of the Pops and punk rock. And they really feel like they're already on to something. They're already getting ready for Frank that goes to Hollywood or something.
You know what I mean?
So it just sort of made sense to me that the best thing I could do if I'm really going to start a solo career is to go somewhere else. And what better place than New York, where I knew there's likely to be other like-minded people people because that's that's what we were following the cbgbc yeah so it just made sense to you know go to new york and i'd already been to new york in 70 i'd lived in america when i was a little child so i remember new york as a three three or four year old you know okay and things like that so i had a kind of i wasn't a lot of english people america's daunting
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:37
2
How did Billy Idol and Steve Stevens meet and start their collaboration?
0:37–1:36
3
What challenges did they face while building their musical genre?
1:36–3:31
4
How did Billy Idol and Steve Stevens navigate the MTV era of fame?
3:31–8:46
5
What creative decisions did they make that defied punk norms?
8:46–14:29
6
How did technology influence their music production?
14:29–20:03
7
What led to the temporary separation of Billy Idol and Steve Stevens?
20:03–24:25
8
How did they adapt to changes in the music industry over the years?
24:25–1:12:51
Speakers
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