Ongoing History Daily: How Billy Idol got his name
Billy Idol’s real name is William Broad. So where did “Billy Idol” come from? There are two parts to the story. First of all, he was a terrible student in school and was considered very lazy by his teachers. After he failed a test, his teacher wrote on the paper, “William is idle.” He remembered that, and when it came time to find a stage name, he changed the spelling of “idle” and went with that. T
he second half of the story has to do with a lesbian club called Louisa’s, which was just off Oxford Street in London. Billy and his mates wanted to hang out there, but admission required a special membership card. His card read “Billy Idle.” When he started getting a little famous, he realized he needed to change I-D-L-E to I-D-O-L to avoid any confusion with Eric Idle, one of the guys in Monty Python. And it stuck.
