The wildest Idol

ROCK HELL-RAISER WHO - BY A MIRACLE - LIVED TO TELL HIS TALE

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ROCK icon Billy Idol really should be dead. It's not just the alcohol, or the cocaine and heroin addiction. It's not even the time he collapsed outside a Los Angeles nightclub from an overdose of GHB.

In fact, he's been flirting with death since the start of his 50-year career. He's even made a documentary about it -

IDLE THREATBorn William Broad in Stanmore, north London, Billy was a rebel from the start. In fact, he claims to have been kicked out of the Scouts at 10 years old for kissing "the scoutmaster's wife".

He picked up his stage name at high school, when a chemistry teacher called him "idle" on a report card, but later changed the spelling to avoid confusion with Monty Python star Eric Idle.

When the Sex Pistols formed in 1975, Billy was smitten. Together with pal Siouxsie Sioux, of Siouxsie and the Banshees, he became part of the "Bromley Contingent" a gang of fans that followed the rockers to every show.

WHISKY POWERBilly sang with pop-punk group Generation X before moving to New York to make his name as a solo artist. Before long, he was an MTV staple with hits like White Wedding and Dancing With Myself.