English musician Billy Idol says he resorted to smoking crack to kick his heroin addiction.
The 70-year-old rocker appeared on the Monday (March 2) episode of Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast and shared the shocking way he beat his heroin habit.
Around the one-hour mark of the video below, Idol began by sharing some of his other alternatives, like smoking marijuana as a replacement for vaping, along with saying that he was “glad” to have gotten drug addiction out the way when he was in his 20s.
“You need energy to be a drug addict, and I don’t have that kind of energy,” Idol told Maher.
Idol also expectedly shared that to get off heroin, he “started smoking crack” and that “it worked.”
“Probably the worst advert,” Idol said, adding, “I’m glad I got away.
“Took me a long time to put them in the rearview mirror, but at some point, I realized you had to do that,” he said.
In his 2025 documentary Billy Idol Should Be Dead, the musician recalled a near-fatal heroin overdose in 1984 that caused him to have poor circulation, which resulted in his skin turning blue. At the time, Idol had flown to London with his bandmates.
“I was basically dying,” the Rebel Yell artist said. “So they put me in an ice cold bath and I remember them walking me around on the top of the building, on the roof.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.