Billy Idol croons holiday tunes...really.

Billy Idol has been on my favorite-music play-list for ages. I became a huge fan of his when I saw him perform live back in the day. While there, I experienced a life-changing epiphany about music's place in my life and my place in the universe (link to article I wrote in "annabellemag" where I describe this).

I'm particularly interested in how artists evolve as they, well, get older. Dancers often retire while relatively young, and some turn to teaching. Painters and sculptors craft and create until either their hands or their eyes fail. Most actors never really quit their day jobs. Musicians make music for as long as they can, but many prefer to burn-out young rather than fade away, to paraphrase another perennial rocker.

Then what do rock-n-rollers do when their life's work is to rock-n-roll and keep appealing to audiences? Over a lifetime, this presents all rock musicians with a challenge.

Here is Billy's answer to this question. An excerpt from "A Yuletide Chat with Billy Idol" on the rebel yeller's MySpace page:

A Billy Idol Christmas album is one of those ideas so profoundly wrong, it's right — so deeply uncool that, in the end, it's strangely cool.

Indeed. Reverse-psychology marketing and MySpace social networking are promoting Billy's new musical leanings in an effectively viral way.

Rock on, Billy. Happy holidays to you, too.

(And if there's a Wedding Singer sequel, I hope you're in it.)

Located on YesButNoButYes.

UPDATE: In 2005, Billy Idol released an album called Devil's Playground. On it is a song titled "Yellin' at the Xmas Tree." Just found it on iTunes.

This got me thinking:
1. Was "Yellin' at the Xmas Tree" a test for his upcoming Christmas album, or the inspiration for it?
2. "Yellin' at the Xmas Tree"? What does one yell at one's Xmas tree?

Comments

[S William Shaw]

He looks so strange with normal hair.

[KG]

LOL! Be sure to take a look at the Christmas videos on his MySpace page. It's a whole new Billy.

[S William Shaw]

He still looks like a man to keep your children away from.

[KG]

Yes, now that I'm a parent, I'm beginning to understand why my folks were so worried that all us hormonally charged teens were sooooooooo in love with him.

I think I once told my mom that Billy Idol had a certain "je ne sais quoi" --- yes, I took French in high school.

Now I know that "a certain 'je ne sais quoi'" was putting it mildly.