<\/p>\n
Billy Idol<\/a> recently revealed the unhinged way he quit heroin in a candid chat with Bill Maher<\/a>.<\/p>\n On the March 2 episode of the Real Time With Bill Maher<\/a><\/em> host\u2019s Club Random<\/em><\/a> podcast, Maher and the rock icon, both 70, found themselves on the topic of illicit drugs.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, once you\u2019re trying to get off heroin, what do you go to? You go to something else,\u201d Idol explained.<\/p>\n That\u2019s when he admitted the unconventional route he took in kicking his habit, telling Maher, \u201cI started smoking crack to get off heroin. It worked.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere you go, kids,\u201d Maher quipped with a laugh. \u201cWant to get off heroin? Step up to crack!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is probably the worst advert,\u201d Idol acknowledged before reiterating, \u201cBut it worked. I got off the heroin.\u201d<\/p>\n Through the years, Idol has opened up a bit about overcoming his past drug addiction. In the documentary, Billy Idol Should Be Dead<\/em><\/a>, the \u201cWhite Wedding\u201d singer recalled a near-fatal overdose in 1984.<\/p>\n \u201cI was coming back in triumph, and I nearly ruined it,\u201d Idol recounted, per People<\/a><\/u>. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was basically dying. I was turning blue,\u201d he continued. \u201cSo, they put me in an ice cold bath, and I remember them walking me around on the top of the building, on the roof.\u201d<\/p>\n A huge shift in Idol\u2019s habits came after a 1990 motorcycle accident<\/a>, after which he nearly lost a leg.<\/p>\n \u201cIt took a long time, but gradually I did achieve some sort of discipline where I\u2019m not really the same kind of guy I was in the \u201980s,\u201d he told People<\/a><\/u> in a May 2024 interview. \u201cI\u2019m not the same drug addicted person.\u201d<\/p>\n Idol pointed out that he is \u201creally lucky\u201d to have kicked his addictions. Today, he said he is \u201cCalifornia sober.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI can have a glass of wine every now and again,\u201d he explained. \u201cI don\u2019t have to do nothing. But at the same time, I\u2019m not the drug addict that I was in the peak \u201970s, \u201980s.\u201d<\/p>\n