Billy Idol’s 3-Week Long Party in Thailand

Billy Idol, one of the most famous and talented rock stars from the 80s, was an incredible artist with songs all over Billboard’s lists, including “Dancing with Myself”, “White Wedding” and “Rebel Yell”. While this amazing young artist had a lot of talent and motivation, he also came face-to-face with a few near death experiences, mostly with drugs, but another with his motorcycle accident.

But despite his wild personality and sometimes rude behavior, I have so much respect for him after listening to his memoir. As he’s talking about his younger self, he explained everything going on in his head at the time, and it makes so much sense.

One of my favorite chapters, Chapter 36, in his memoir Dancing with Myself, he shares his wild vacation experience in Thailand. He caused thousands of dollars in hotel damages, resisted arrest and overdosed on heroin, but it didn’t make him any less famous of course.

Here’s exactly what happened during his 3-week vacation in Thailand, according to his memoir.

The Breakup with Perri After Willem was Born

After the birth of Billy’s son, Willem Wolf Broad, in 1988, Billy messed up his relationship again with Perri Lister. He was caught setting up his next date with a woman, Naomi – with whom he already had an affair – on the phone through the baby monitor in Willem’s bedroom.

Perri immediately left and took Willem back to England for a few months. She did come back, although things weren’t the same.

From then on, both took turns taking care of Willem, but Billy still felt awful for what he did. He wanted to live the rockstar life of doing “what you want when you want to”, which threw him into a life filled with sex and drugs, but the other side of him wanted to maintain a healthy relationship with his girlfriend and son.

The Need for a Vacation After the Breakup

Even a few weeks after the breakup, Billy couldn’t get over his depression and guilt of how his addiction to women and sex had ruined his relationship. His condition was also affecting his behavior and music life while making Charmed Life. So the leader of his band’s group, Rude Dude, Harry Johnson, suggested that he take a break from recording to re-gather himself.

So he took this time to fulfill a longtime fantasy: to visit Bangkok, Thailand and spend as much time drinking and hanging out in brothels as possible while avoiding drugs. He traveled with Harry, who had also owned his salon, styling women’s hair and listening to their personal stories. But he would also have affairs with his clients, which was actually why he became a stylist. He knew the functions of the female mind particularly well, and he was eager to join Billy on his “sexcation”.

The first part of the trip had gone according to plan as they stayed in the presidential suite at the Oriental Hotel with a panoramic view of the city. The country’s capital was filled with brothels, each with about 50 women wearing see-through sarongs and numbers (so they could be easily identified) and hanging out in the front windows.

After a while, the women’s faces and bodies began to blur together, so he asked Harry “to just pick a few he thought he’d like and go back to the hotel.”

Fun fact: Harry took a ton of pictures from his Polaroid camera, with over 1,000 total from the trip.

Onset of Drugs

Once they grew tired from the jet lag and drinking during the first week, they searched for cocaine to keep the excitement going. So they asked their taxi driver if they could get some, although the powder in the long, thin vial he gave them was something a lot more powerful.

Harry took the first taste of the powder and they immediately realized it was a strong, China white heroine. He said he only needed to smoke a pin prick to feel like a zombie. So Billy – one who had no self-control – helped himself. Only when shooting the heroine, they used the foil from the chocolate bar wrappers from the hotel’s mini bar since tinfoil wasn’t available in Thailand.

Eventually, the hotel staff became embarrassed by the constant flow of hookers in and out of the lobby. But the pair didn’t care, and even filmed a video of themselves acting out and “zombie-like” in the suite.

They were then asked to move to another room to make room for the president of Cambodia, who would take up the entire top floor. But they refused, ignoring the fact they were wearing out their welcome at the hotel.

Week 2

After the second week, Billy and Harry had finished the vial of heroine and had originally planned to just go home. But once they did get through it, they were addicted. To offset the hangover of coming off the drug, they bought codeine and some other drugs and left Bangkok.

But just before they left, Mel Gibson and his family found Billy passed out in the elevator with the door opening and closing on him. Mel didn’t say much other than “excuse me” and moved on to the other elevator.

After checking out, Billy and Harry stayed at the Royal Cliff Hotel in Pattaya, which was a seaside resort on the south side of Thailand. A Vietnamese lady whom Harry had met, joined them at the hotel. Their plan was again, to lie low, but as they took more pills and drank, they caused a disturbance – to say the least – amongst the guests.

The pair had even rented jet skis from a local family and played chicken with each other. But as the effect of the drugs was slowing Billy’s reaction, he was too slow to turn and hit Harry’s jet ski, causing it to sink from the damage. Billy ended up paying the family $25,000 to keep them quiet, since the jet skis were their livelihood.

Rage from Drugs

One night, when Billy and Harry were still high from various pills, Harry left without saying anything, leaving Billy in the room with two hookers. Feeling enraged from the lack of communication (and drugs), he picked up a 5-foot log that served as their table and threw it through the glass sliding doors, which were connected to the rest of the wall in the room, shattering everything.

When the hotel staff discovered the damage the next day, Billy had to pay another $20,000 to keep them from not calling the police. It was then the pair thought it was best to leave and return to Bangkok.

Week 3

From then on, Billy said he only remembers flashes of what happened during the rest of the trip. He was also getting phone calls left and right that insisted he return home, but Billy knew he needed more time to come down from the drug-high before enduring the 14-hour flight back to Los Angeles.

For the rest of the trip, Billy still broke things out of rage as people pleaded with him to take his friend and leave. Harry was intensely worried and sure they would be arrested as a result of their behavior. Billy recalled he was crazy, then sane and then crazy again, calling it the “Billy Idol version of acting out.”

Throughout the trip, he smashed up three hotels, racking up tens of thousands of dollars in charges to repair the damages. It even took a call to the Thai military to physically remove him from the hotel. A nurse gave him a shot before he was strapped to a hospital gurney and wheeled out, four soldiers carrying rifles in tow. He finally woke up at the airport, puking again, and was nicknamed “Billvis” from his wild behavior and drug intake.

Billy returned to LA just in time to finish his fourth solo album. Although even during the making of Charmed Life, the sex, booze and drug partying continued, where it would take 3 days to come off the high from all the drugs. To this day, everyone who had worked with Billy at the time still talk about the never-ending orgies that took place at the recording studios.

Can You Handle that Much Partying?

What would it take to have known Billy Idol back then? Would you be able to keep up with him, or simply follow him around Bangkok, Thailand and watch all the destruction and disturbance he caused? For one thing, I’d love to see it if it were a movie! One thing is for sure, this was the life of a rock star: women, alcohol and drugs. Billy Idol was no exception.

For those who have not yet read his memoir, Dancing with Myself is one of the best I’ve read as he captures the intensity of each moment in his life. In addition to being a talented singer, he is also a gifted writer, illustrating a detailed picture of everything he experienced throughout his years. I highly recommend reading or even listening to it as he’s also the narrator of the audiobook version.