Billy Idol survived fame, heroin, hotel carnage, and one of the strangest tranquilizer gun legends in rock history. This is where punk rock excess crashes headfirst into dart gun science.
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Billy Idol was the archetypal British punk rock star. Born William Michael Albert Broad in Stanmore, England, back in 1955, his mother was from Cork in Ireland, while his dad hailed from working-class stock in Birmingham. Young William Broad spent part of his childhood in the US and the rest in England. He attended the Worthing High School for Boys in Goring-by-Sea.
As is the case with any rebellious up-and-coming rock star worthy of the term, Broad was miserable in school. He particularly despised chemistry. His chemistry teacher, a long-suffering gentleman named Bill Price, described the boy as “idle” on his report card.
William Broad nonetheless still survived to graduate and went on to attend the University of Sussex, where he pursued a Philosophy with Literature degree. He left after his first year to join the Bromley Contingent, a loosely confederated mob of disaffected young renegades whose profession it was to travel about the country following the Sex Pistols from one venue to another. There wasn’t a great deal of money in that, but he enjoyed himself.
Broad’s first band was titled Generation X. However, he didn’t feel like Michael Broad was sufficiently rock and roll-ish. As such, he pulled from Bill Price’s derogatory appellation on his old report card. His first choice was Billy Idle. However, he was concerned that the similarity between that and Monty Python luminary Eric Idle might cause legal issues. As a result, the aspiring rocker settled on Billy Idol instead.
Idol had fairly crummy eyesight, and his bandmates felt like his glasses distracted from the dynamic hard-core look they were seeking. Billy subsequently tracked down a set of contact lenses, dyed his hair platinum blonde, and spiked his coif into something akin to a screaming pin cushion. In so doing, Billy Idol established his own musical genre.
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”
Matthew 16:26
One of the most striking aspects of scripture to me is its otherworldly timelessness. The same temptations that ensnared us back during the reign of King David still topple titans of industry and government today. In the case of Billy Idol, this rebellious young man from Stanmore, England, gave himself over to the rock and roll lifestyle.
He certainly had the raw material. In 1981, at the age of 26, Idol released his first solo album titled, appropriately enough, Billy Idol. This included such classic hits as Dancing with Myself and White Wedding. Coming as it did at the very beginning of the MTV craze, Idol rode the crest of that wave to simply breathtaking success. That brought more money and women than he could use. As was customary for the time, Idol also developed an abiding taste for mind-altering substances.
I can’t blame him much. But for the grace of God go I. I don’t have much of a stage presence myself. Additionally, three friends and I can move a piano, but that is about the extent of my musical ability. Had I been a cool rock star in my heady youth, I’m sure I would have gotten all stupid about it as well. Regardless, Billy Idol took that to the very next level.
In 1983, Idol released Rebel Yell. That took him to some seriously rarefied spaces professionally. He had a woman, a young lady named Perri Lister, who had brought him a son. However, Idol’s repeated indiscretions and raw, unfettered hedonism soon sent her packing along with his spawn. Now living alone in LA and awash in illicit drugs, Idol’s friend Harry Johnson suggested they needed a break. In classic Billy Idol fashion, that meant a rollicking vacation to the fleshpots of Thailand.
When he was interviewed about the trip later, Idol said, “We went there to have a whale of a time – a sex holiday, really. But it got out of hand. Bad things started to happen.”
The objective of the trip really was to get himself away from the drugs he was doing in Los Angeles. He later said, “We were just going to drink and not take any drugs. After about a week, drinking all the time was getting really heavy so we asked this cab driver if he could get us some blow. He went off and came back with this thin vial. It was six or seven inches long. We looked at each other, like, ‘What do you think this is?’ Because cocaine doesn’t usually come in a long thing like that. My friend put his finger in it and had a taste. It wasn’t blow.”
What Idol had originally thought was powdered cocaine was actually heroin. Not only that, but it was some sort of turbocharged stuff common to Asia but rare in the States. He later said, “You only needed a pinprick, and you were out of your mind.”
I’ve honestly never had the pleasure myself, but apparently, you need tinfoil to do heroin properly. Idol and Johnson scoured local supermarkets looking for aluminum foil but came up dry. They eventually cooked up their skag using the foil wrappers from hotel chocolate bars.
Now facing a 14-hour flight home and most thoroughly addicted to smack, the supernova rock star also scored a pile of valium. When taken on top of the heroin, this threw the fit young man into a primal rage. Before he was done, he had done a quarter million dollars’ worth of damage to the upscale hotel where he was staying.
The details are disputed, but apparently the local Bangkok fuzz eventually called in the Thai Army to intervene. In the US, we would have simply sent in a SWAT team to beat the wayward rocker into submission. Legend has it that the Thai Army opted instead for an animal tranquilizer gun.
In short, it is nothing like the movies. Tranquilizer guns were developed in the 1950’s. New Zealander Colin Murdoch first thought of the concept while trying to capture Himalayan tahr in the Southern Alps. A tahr is some sort of weird shaggy goat. I learn some of the most fascinating things pulling these columns together.
These guns are typically driven by compressed gas and deliver a hypodermic dart equipped with fletching to make it fly straight in the manner of an arrow. They are seldom effective beyond about fifty feet. The real rub, however, is getting the drug dose right. This is really, really hard to do in the real world.
In 1953, researchers from the University of Georgia used rudimentary tranquilizer guns to subdue seven free-ranging male deer to study antler growth. Of the seven, three were successfully sedated, one scurried off unaffected, and the other three died from overdose. In the 1960’s, researchers in Kenya used this technology to subdue enormous animals like rhinos and cape buffalo. However, there had never been clinical trials undertaken to find out how much of a particular sedative was required to safely immobilize a rhinoceros. These pioneers discovered that different species required specific doses of specific drugs to expeditiously do the deed. Regardless, unlike film depictions, the time from administration of the drug to immobilization is still upwards of 45 minutes for the really big guys.
The Russians followed their own path around this time by adapting an experimental 9x53mm rimmed cartridge to carry a sedating payload. They also produced sedative loads for both 12 and 16-gauge shotguns. In 1979, the New Zealander Murdoch was consulted by police marksmen of the Armed Offenders Squad about how to dart some lunatic guy who had taken his wife hostage. Not saying one is better than the other, but the American approach would have obviously been to just shoot him.
Once the projectile penetrates the skin, something has to administer the drug. Approaches include gas compression, spring compression, a small chemical explosive, or a gas evolution reaction. One commercial dart design uses compressed butane behind a cap that is pierced by the impact forces to administer the dose.
Slow-acting sedatives include azaperone, detomidine, midazolam (valium), fentanyl, haloperidol (Haldol—an antipsychotic), etorphine, diazepam (Ativan), xylazine, and thiopental. For truly lunatic out-of-control animals, fast-acting drugs like etorphine hydrochloride and ketamine can be used, but they are typically more dangerous.
I could only find one verified official use of a tranquilizer gun against a human target in the US. In 1961, a 221-pound inmate in a prison in Athens, Georgia, went berserk and was administered a tranquilizer dart. He lost consciousness six minutes later.
| System Type | Compressed gas tranquilizer gun with hypodermic dart |
|---|---|
| Development Era | 1950’s |
| Typical Effective Range | Seldom effective beyond about fifty feet |
| Early Deer Study | 1953, seven free-ranging male deer |
| Study Results | Three successfully sedated, one scurried off unaffected, three died from overdose |
| Large Animal Immobilization | Upwards of 45 minutes for the really big guys |
| Russian Sedative Cartridge | 9x53mm rimmed cartridge |
| Shotgun Sedative Loads | 12 and 16-gauge shotguns |
| Pneu-Dart Projectile Cost | Between $18 and $30 dependent upon size and payload |
| Verified US Human Use | 1961, 221-pound inmate, unconscious six minutes later |
Billy Idol eventually left Thailand strapped to a gurney. He was incredibly fortunate that the Thai authorities did not throw him in jail for the rest of his natural life, something that they did and do with shocking regularity. The following year, Idol rolled his Harley and nearly tore his leg off. This was almost, but not quite, the wakeup call he needed.
Idol never married. However, he fathered a boy and a girl and, as of this writing, has four grandchildren. He also serendipitously discovered another son in 2023 thanks to a 23andMe genetic assay. Idol incorporated this young man, Brant Broad, into his Hollywood Walk of Fame induction ceremony that same year.
In 1994, Idol overdosed on illicit GHB and quite nearly died. He has been drug-free since then, save for regular medical marijuana. He later stated that he knew his kids would never forgive him were he to die from a drug overdose.
Since that time, Idol has replaced drug use with physical fitness. Despite being 70 years old, Idol still keeps himself in excellent physical shape. He also seems fairly smitten with America, earning his US citizenship in 2018. Idol is purportedly deeply into US Western movies, American Civil War history, and collecting American history memorabilia. It is a curious endgame for the British poster child of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. As is the case with Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, it is also miraculous that Billy Idol is still alive.
Billy Idol once said in an interview, “Live every day as if it’s your last, and one day you’re sure to be right.”
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