(To commemorate the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame's 40th Anniversary in 2013, GRAMMY.com has launched GRAMMY Hall Of Fame Inspirations. The ongoing series will feature conversations with various GRAMMY winners who will identify GRAMMY Hall Of Fame recordings that have influenced them and helped shape their careers.)

"Music is here around you from the time you enter the world," says GRAMMY-winning jazz trumpeter/composer Terence Blanchard.

"Here," for Blanchard, is New Orleans, arguably the most musical city in the United States. And from the time he was born, Blanchard absorbed it all. His father sang in church and at recitals. His aunt was a vocal teacher and her first husband had a vocal group (which included his dad) and taught opera to neighborhood kids. Blanchard recalls just wanting to be as close to the music as he could when in his childhood his family would go to picnics, parades and pretty much any New Orleans occasion, as there were always brass bands around. And by the time he was a teen he was playing wherever and whenever he could, developing a voracious and all-embracing appetite for music.

"I never did a heavy metal gig, but I loved it," says Blanchard. "I wound up once filling in with some country-western dudes. That was the funniest thing! They were like, 'Just play!' I was 16 or 17."

Though he has four GRAMMY Awards for his jazz recordings, Blanchard also ranks among the most creative, in-demand film score composers, particularly for his collaborations with Spike Lee. He later took the music from one of Lee's projects, the four-part When The Levees Broke documentary on the 2005 New Orleans flood, and crafted the powerful A Tale Of God's Will (A Requiem For Katrina), which was honored with a GRAMMY for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album in 2007. Showcasing his classical interests, he premiered "Concerto For Roger Dickerson" (dedicated to his boyhood composition teacher and mentor) in 2011 and is now putting the finishing touches on his first opera, commissioned for Opera St. Louis.

Blanchard has also assumed roles as a music educator as the artistic director of the youth-oriented Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz and, more recently, as the artistic director for the Henry Mancini Institute at the University of Miami Frost School of Music. The value he holds for his own music education forms the core of his five choices from the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame.

Bitches Brew
Miles Davis
Columbia (1969)
Jazz (Album)
Inducted 1999

"One thing that made doing this hard was I had four of Miles' albums I wanted to use. [I] boiled those down [to] three, and to me they all could be lumped into one group, all about his innovations. I could say two, which changed the course of music: Birth Of The Cool and Bitches Brew.

"These two recordings kind of shaped my life. Listening to Birth Of The Cool you could get an idea of who Miles Davis was and what his contribution to music was. That is simply a perfect record — all the tunes, the arrangements, his playing.

"But once you get your head around that and then hear other things of his and then Bitches Brew and you go, 'Really? This is the same dude?'  [With] Birth Of The Cool, I went, 'Wow.' I was also studying composition besides trumpet, [and I] listened to the introduction of 'So What' [from Kind Of Blue] and went, 'Whoa.' And then Bitches Brew made sense to me, because out of it I could understand Jimi Hendrix's 'Purple Haze' and some of the electronic music I was listening to at the time. I saw the connection between Miles and Hendrix.

"Before that, I'd listened to a lot of big band music [and] a lot of R&B. When it came to instrumental stuff [I] was listening to Chuck Mangione and Maynard Ferguson. But when I found out about Miles, my whole life changed."


"It's A Man's Man's Man's World"
James Brown
King (1966)
R&B (Single)
Inducted 2010

"I remember we used to have in the neighborhood the record man, the guy who would drive around the neighborhood and play records on a speaker and sell them out of his car. I remember him playing James Brown. 'Say It Loud — I'm Black And I'm Proud' — that would stop us doing whatever we were doing. When he did 'It's A Man's Man's Man's World' he made us think in a political fashion, made us conscious of what was going on, how we were being treated as second-class citizens — and in the middle of that to say it's a man's world, but it would be nothing without a woman.

"For me, James Brown and Louis Armstrong are very similar in that regard, because they were extremely popular people of their given musical genres, but also very socially conscious and aware of people and knew how to speak about injustice. Sometimes today we have people who are extremely popular in music and sports who don't feel the need to speak about social injustice."


Bartók Quartets
Juilliard Quartet
Columbia (1950)
Classical (Album)
Inducted 1987

"I was fascinated with these quartets. For me there's a certain mental limitation we think exists by saying 'string quartets.' These quartets are very liberating because you get engrossed in the musical skill displayed in that music. I was 15, 16 years old when I started listening to this. 

"Bartók, and Stravinsky as well, dealt with folklore the same way jazz musicians deal with the blues: take that aspect of your culture, never forget it by expounding upon it. That's what Bartók was doing and [it's] one of the reasons his music has an identity, a presence. It comes from the streets, as we'd say today, based on the music of the people. He was brilliant in his portrayals and adaptations of that, but the core of his music came from the music of the [Hungarian] people and their culture, the folk music of the day. Exactly like the blues. You don't have to be part of that period to understand the angst and pain people were going through. The music is a great representation of a lot of that, whether it be in its basic form or in very elaborate depictions like Bartók's. The essence is the same."

Giant Steps
John Coltrane
Atlantic (1960)
Jazz (Album)
Inducted 2001 

"For instrumentals, it's one of those pivotal recordings. How do I explain this one? [It's] one of those recordings that challenges an artist's technical prowess and mental capabilities. In this improvisational world we live in, jazz was based on song forms with chords changing at a certain pace. It was told to me that John Coltrane had an issue with playing chords that change every two beats, so he developed [the title piece] as an exercise to do that. Who knew he would create one of the greatest jazz compositions to do that? Necessity is the mother of invention.

"Now it's one of those things a lot of musicians judge other musicians by. I don't, but it has become an important thing when one can learn to play that particular tune. And the thing is, he plays it with ease.

"Another thing that makes it magical for me is it came before all the recordings he did that allowed him to evolve into the spiritual side of John Coltrane. Giant Steps was a precursor to all that other music. You go to a tune like 'Impressions' where chords changed every eight bars, every 32 beats — this prepared him for everything later on.

"As a musician, you never feel you've achieved this. I was playing it in high school and a lot in college. After a while I dropped it — [I] realized it was not who I am. That was John Coltrane and his process." 


"Shining Star"
Earth, Wind & Fire
Columbia (1975)
R&B (Single)
Inducted 2008

"I was on the R&B train when I was growing up. Before I was into jazz I was going to be in some R&B band, traveling the country. At the beginning of this song is an F# [note] and everyone wants to hit that. [sings] 'Now's the time for you to see …' [It's] one of those iconic tunes, as soon as I heard it, it touched me. It moved me. [I said,] 'Who is that?' And when we were kids, you [would] play in R&B bands, [and] all the horn players said, 'Let's play "Shining Star," bro,' so we could play our horn lines. A lot of fun! [It was] something that resonated with me big time. And here's the thing, Earth, Wind & Fire [were] one of those bands with a social conscious element too."


(Four-time GRAMMY winner Terence Blanchard most recently won in 2009 for Best Improvised Jazz Solo for "Dancin' 4 Chicken." In 2011 he teamed with Latin jazz percussionist Poncho Sanchez for Chano Y Dizzy! and in 2012 he composed the score for Anthony Hemingway's film Red Tails.)

(Steve Hochman has been covering the music world since 1985. He can be heard regularly discussing new music releases on KPCC-FM's "Take Two" and the KQED-FM-produced show "The California Report," and he is also a regular contributor to the former station's arts blog "Without A Net." For 25 years he was a mainstay of the pop music team at the Los Angeles Times and his work has appeared in many other publications.)

Updated Friday Oct. 13, 2023 to include info about Kendrick Lamar's most recent GRAMMY wins, as of the 2023 GRAMMYs.

A GRAMMY veteran these days, Kendrick Lamar has won 17 GRAMMYs and has received 47 GRAMMY nominations overall. A sizable chunk of his trophies came from the 58th annual GRAMMY Awards in 2016, when he walked away with five — including his first-ever win in the Best Rap Album category.

This installment of GRAMMY Rewind turns back the clock to 2016, revisiting Lamar's acceptance speech upon winning Best Rap Album for To Pimp A Butterfly. Though Lamar was alone on stage, he made it clear that he wouldn't be at the top of his game without the help of a broad support system. 

"First off, all glory to God, that's for sure," he said, kicking off a speech that went on to thank his parents, who he described as his "those who gave me the responsibility of knowing, of accepting the good with the bad."

Looking for more GRAMMYs news? The 2024 GRAMMY nominations are here!

He also extended his love and gratitude to his fiancée, Whitney Alford, and shouted out his Top Dawg Entertainment labelmates. Lamar specifically praised Top Dawg's CEO, Anthony Tiffith, for finding and developing raw talent that might not otherwise get the chance to pursue their musical dreams.

"We'd never forget that: Taking these kids out of the projects, out of Compton, and putting them right here on this stage, to be the best that they can be," Lamar — a Compton native himself — continued, leading into an impassioned conclusion spotlighting some of the cornerstone rap albums that came before To Pimp a Butterfly.

"Hip-hop. Ice Cube. This is for hip-hop," he said. "This is for Snoop Dogg, Doggystyle. This is for Illmatic, this is for Nas. We will live forever. Believe that."

To Pimp a Butterfly singles "Alright" and "These Walls" earned Lamar three more GRAMMYs that night, the former winning Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song and the latter taking Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (the song features Bilal, Anna Wise and Thundercat). He also won Best Music Video for the remix of Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood." 

Lamar has since won Best Rap Album two more times, taking home the golden gramophone in 2018 for his blockbuster LP DAMN., and in 2023 for his bold fifth album, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers.

Watch Lamar's full acceptance speech above, and check back at GRAMMY.com every Friday for more GRAMMY Rewind episodes. 

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Writing an opera is no small feat. The combination of poignant themes in the music score, a meaningful libretto (the written text, or script), and an elaborate stage production is nothing short of epic — a quality that is reflected in the three works nominated for Best Opera Recording at the 2023 GRAMMYs.

"I actually wrote a book about all this, and the title sums it up: The Impossible Art," composer Matthew Aucoin says with a laugh. At only 32, the Boston native and MacArthur Fellow has garnered wide acclaim for his ambitious operas and bold forays into established orchestral formats — the second movement of his 2016 Piano Concerto is bewitching.

"In a way, opera has impossibility at its core," he adds. "It strives for this union of all senses and art forms: music, poetry, drama, painting, lighting and dance. It really wants to create this avatar-level immersion into another world. The thing that I find touching about opera is that it fails most of the time — and when it does, it can look quite silly. But we live for those rare moments of transcendence."

One of the three nominated operas, Aucoin’s Eurydice — with its lush orchestrations and nods to the minimalism of Philip Glass and John Adams — has certainly transcended. The libretto by Sarah Ruhl is based on her 2003 play of the same name, reinventing the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.

This year’s second nominated opera, the jazz-inflected Fire Shut Up in My Bones, which opened in Saint Louis in 2019, focuses on a young Black man who grew up in poverty and now must face the consequences of the sexual abuse he suffered in the past. In 2021, it became the first opera by a Black composer performed at the Met in New York. Kasi Lemmons wrote the libretto, with music by New Orleans trumpeter, composer and multiple Grammy winner Terence Blanchard.

"The first day that we were rehearsing, I had an epiphany," Blanchard told Time magazine in 2021. "A lot of them, like my dad, grew up singing in the church. And when it comes time to do [opera], they have to turn that off. One of the things I’ve been telling them is to bring that back to this."

The music of Fire illustrates the state of contemporary opera — a moment of unrestrained stylistic freedom. There are moments that are classical in style, even reminiscent of Italian masters like Puccini, but some of the melodies are also infused in jazz harmony.

X – The Life And Times Of Malcolm X by veteran pianist and music professor Anthony Davis, is the oldest of the three nominated works. Written by Thulani Davis, the opera opened at Philadelphia’s American Music Theater Festival in 1985. The nominated recording stems from a new version conducted in Boston by Gil Rose.

"Writing an opera is something that is done day by day," Davis tells GRAMMY.com. "You have to devote yourself for two years to work on one single thing."

Davis first harbored the dream of writing an opera when he was in high school, although  he had yet to experience a live operatic performance. Later, when his brother was playing Malcolm X in a play at Yale Drama, he suggested to Davis that he write a musical about X. It was at that moment that he envisioned an opera as the framework for the story of a tragic American hero.

Seeped in dissonance and avant-garde, X showcases Davis’ love for the innovations of jazz greats such as John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Charles Mingus.

"I love the fact that when I was writing X, I knew that every day I was working towards something," he adds. "Malcolm’s story gave me an incredible pathway to the way in which I could express the story through music. I was always thinking about how the music can refer to itself. I was interested in finding funny ways to use leitmotifs and having musical ideas to come back and provide subtext to the story in the opera."

Music itself — its creation and ability to uplift — is at the heart of the Eurydice myth. This element was particularly attractive to Aucoin when it came to composing his opera.

"It’s the story of how music came to exist, in a way," he reflects. "The myth tells us that music has the power to bring you back from the dead. But then the myth brings you crashing down back to Earth, showing that we’re always going to mess things up, because we’re human. We’re not really worthy of music, in a certain way."

Worthy or not, the prospect of a GRAMMY Award has some of these composers in disbelief.

"I’d be amazed if I won," Davis says with a laugh. "It would be a great honor, but I’d also think about all the great musicians and singers who have performed this music. So many great artists contributed to the creation of the new version of X. This new generation of singers were able to rise to the occasion and create their own version of my opera. They delivered some truly wonderful performances."

"I’m not giving it too much thought," says Aucoin. "Being nominated was a very pleasant surprise. Sometimes, we composers forget that people actually listen to the recordings of new operas. It’s obviously a huge honor, but I also have a lot of friends involved in both of the other nominated works. I will be happy for whoever wins."

"Writing X was so exciting to me because I was in tenth grade when I thought about possibly composing an opera," adds Davis. "It was the realization of a dream that I had since I was a teenager."

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It's rare that a genre can be traced back to a single artist or group, but for funk, that was James Brown. The Godfather of Soul coined the phrase and style of playing known as "on the one," where the first downbeat is emphasized, instead of the typical second and fourth beats in pop, soul and other styles. As David Cheal eloquently explains, playing on the one "left space for phrases and riffs, often syncopated around the beat, creating an intricate, interlocking grid which could go on and on." You know a funky bassline when you hear it; its fat chords beg your body to get up and groove.

Brown's 1965 classic, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag," became one of the first funk hits, and has been endlessly sampled and covered over the years, along with his other groovy tracks. Of course, many other funk acts followed in the '60s, and the genre thrived in the '70s and '80s as the disco craze came and went, and the originators of hip-hop and house music created new music from funk and disco's strong, flexible bones built for dancing.

Legendary funk bassist Bootsy Collins learned the power of the one from playing in Brown's band, and brought it to George Clinton, who created P-funk, an expansive, Afrofuturistic, psychedelic exploration of funk with his various bands and projects, including Parliament-Funkadelic. Both Collins and Clinton remain active and funkin', and have offered their timeless grooves to collabs with younger artists, including Kali Uchis, Silk Sonic, and Omar Apollo; and Kendrick Lamar, Flying Lotus, and Thundercat, respectively.

In the 1980s, electro-funk was born when artists like Afrika Bambaataa, Man Parrish, and Egyptian Lover began making futuristic beats with the Roland TR-808 drum machine — often with robotic vocals distorted through a talk box. A key distinguishing factor of electro-funk is a de-emphasis on vocals, with more phrases than choruses and verses. The sound influenced contemporaneous hip-hop, funk and electronica, along with acts around the globe, while current acts like Chromeo, DJ Stingray, and even Egyptian Lover himself keep electro-funk alive and well.

Today, funk lives in many places, with its heavy bass and syncopated grooves finding way into many nooks and crannies of music. There's nu-disco and boogie funk, nodding back to disco bands with soaring vocals and dance floor-designed instrumentation. G-funk continues to influence Los Angeles hip-hop, with innovative artists like Dam-Funk and Channel Tres bringing the funk and G-funk, into electro territory. Funk and disco-centered '70s revival is definitely having a moment, with acts like Ghost Funk Orchestra and Parcels, while its sparkly sprinklings can be heard in pop from Dua Lipa, Doja Cat, and, in full "Soul Train" character, Silk Sonic. There are also acts making dreamy, atmospheric music with a solid dose of funk, such as Khruangbin’s global sonic collage.

There are many bands that play heavily with funk, creating lush grooves designed to get you moving. Read on for a taste of five current modern funk and nu-disco artists making band-led uptempo funk built for the dance floor. Be sure to press play on the Spotify playlist above, and check out GRAMMY.com's playlist on Apple Music, Amazon Music and Pandora.

Say She She

Aptly self-described as "discodelic soul," Brooklyn-based seven-piece Say She She make dreamy, operatic funk, led by singer-songwriters Nya Gazelle Brown, Piya Malik and Sabrina Mileo Cunningham. Their '70s girl group-inspired vocal harmonies echo, sooth and enchant as they cover poignant topics with feminist flair.

While they’ve been active in the New York scene for a few years, they’ve gained wider acclaim for the irresistible music they began releasing this year, including their debut album, Prism. Their 2022 debut single "Forget Me Not" is an ode to ground-breaking New York art collective Guerilla Girls, and "Norma" is their protest anthem in response to the news that Roe vs. Wade could be (and was) overturned. The band name is a nod to funk legend Nile Rodgers, from the "Le freak, c'est chi" exclamation in Chic's legendary tune "Le Freak."

Moniquea

Moniquea's unique voice oozes confidence, yet invites you in to dance with her to the super funky boogie rhythms. The Pasadena, California artist was raised on funk music; her mom was in a cover band that would play classics like Aretha Franklin’s "Get It Right" and Gladys Knight’s "Love Overboard." Moniquea released her first boogie funk track at 20 and, in 2011, met local producer XL Middelton — a bonafide purveyor of funk. She's been a star artist on his MoFunk Records ever since, and they've collabed on countless tracks, channeling West Coast energy with a heavy dose of G-funk, sunny lyrics and upbeat, roller disco-ready rhythms.

Her latest release is an upbeat nod to classic West Coast funk, produced by Middleton, and follows her February 2022 groovy, collab-filled album, On Repeat.

Shiro Schwarz

Shiro Schwarz is a Mexico City-based duo, consisting of Pammela Rojas and Rafael Marfil, who helped establish a modern funk scene in the richly creative Mexican metropolis. On "Electrify" — originally released in 2016 on Fat Beats Records and reissued in 2021 by MoFunk — Shiro Schwarz's vocals playfully contrast each other, floating over an insistent, upbeat bassline and an '80s throwback electro-funk rhythm with synth flourishes.

Their music manages to be both nostalgic and futuristic — and impossible to sit still to. 2021 single "Be Kind" is sweet, mellow and groovy, perfect chic lounge funk. Shiro Schwarz’s latest track, the joyfully nostalgic "Hey DJ," is a collab with funkstress Saucy Lady and U-Key.

L'Impératrice

L'Impératrice (the empress in French) are a six-piece Parisian group serving an infectiously joyful blend of French pop, nu-disco, funk and psychedelia. Flore Benguigui's vocals are light and dreamy, yet commanding of your attention, while lyrics have a feminist touch.

During their energetic live sets, L'Impératrice members Charles de Boisseguin and Hagni Gwon (keys), David Gaugué (bass), Achille Trocellier (guitar), and Tom Daveau (drums) deliver extended instrumental jam sessions to expand and connect their music. Gaugué emphasizes the thick funky bass, and Benguigui jumps around the stage while sounding like an angel. L’Impératrice’s latest album, 2021’s Tako Tsubo, is a sunny, playful French disco journey.

Franc Moody

Franc Moody's bio fittingly describes their music as "a soul funk and cosmic disco sound." The London outfit was birthed by friends Ned Franc and Jon Moody in the early 2010s, when they were living together and throwing parties in North London's warehouse scene. In 2017, the group grew to six members, including singer and multi-instrumentalist Amber-Simone.

Their music feels at home with other electro-pop bands like fellow Londoners Jungle and Aussie act Parcels. While much of it is upbeat and euphoric, Franc Moody also dips into the more chilled, dreamy realm, such as the vibey, sultry title track from their recently released Into the Ether.

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Living Legends is a series that spotlights icons in music still going strong today. This week, GRAMMY.com spoke with Billy Idol about his latest EP,  Cage, and continuing to rock through decades of changing tastes.

Billy Idol is a true rock 'n' roll survivor who has persevered through cultural shifts and personal struggles. While some may think of Idol solely for "Rebel Yell" and "White Wedding," the singer's musical influences span genres and many of his tunes are less turbo-charged than his '80s hits would belie.  

Idol first made a splash in the latter half of the '70s with the British punk band Generation X. In the '80s, he went on to a solo career combining rock, pop, and punk into a distinct sound that transformed him and his musical partner, guitarist Steve Stevens, into icons. They have racked up multiple GRAMMY nominations, in addition to one gold, one double platinum, and four platinum albums thanks to hits like "Cradle Of Love," "Flesh For Fantasy," and "Eyes Without A Face." 

But, unlike many legacy artists, Idol is anything but a relic. Billy continues to produce vital Idol music by collaborating with producers and songwriters — including Miley Cyrus — who share his forward-thinking vision. He will play a five-show Vegas residency in November, and filmmaker Jonas Akerlund is working on a documentary about Idol’s life. 

His latest release is Cage, the second in a trilogy of annual four-song EPs. The title track is a classic Billy Idol banger expressing the desire to free himself from personal constraints and live a better life. Other tracks on Cage incorporate metallic riffing and funky R&B grooves. 

Idol continues to reckon with his demons — they both grappled with addiction during the '80s — and the singer is open about those struggles on the record and the page. (Idol's 2014 memoir Dancing With Myself, details a 1990 motorcycle accident that nearly claimed a leg, and how becoming a father steered him to reject hard drugs. "Bitter Taste," from his last EP, The Roadside, reflects on surviving the accident.)

Although Idol and Stevens split in the late '80s — the skilled guitarist fronted Steve Stevens & The Atomic Playboys, and collaborated with Michael Jackson, Rick Ocasek, Vince Neil, and Harold Faltermeyer (on the GRAMMY-winning "Top Gun Anthem") —  their common history and shared musical bond has been undeniable. The duo reunited in 2001 for an episode of "VH1 Storytellers" and have been back in the saddle for two decades. Their union remains one of the strongest collaborations in rock 'n roll history.

While there is recognizable personnel and a distinguishable sound throughout a lot of his work, Billy Idol has always pushed himself to try different things. Idol discusses his musical journey, his desire to constantly move forward, and the strong connection that he shares with Stevens. 

Steve has said that you like to mix up a variety of styles, yet everyone assumes you're the "Rebel Yell"/"White Wedding" guy. But if they really listen to your catalog, it's vastly different.

Yeah, that's right. With someone like Steve Stevens, and then back in the day Keith Forsey producing... [Before that] Generation X actually did move around inside punk rock. We didn't stay doing just the Ramones two-minute music. We actually did a seven-minute song. [Laughs]. We did always mix things up. 

Then when I got into my solo career, that was the fun of it. With someone like Steve, I knew what he could do. I could see whatever we needed to do, we could nail it. The world was my oyster musically. 

"Cage" is a classic-sounding Billy Idol rocker, then "Running From The Ghost" is almost metal, like what the Devil's Playground album was like back in the mid-2000s. "Miss Nobody" comes out of nowhere with this pop/R&B flavor. What inspired that?

We really hadn't done anything like that since something like "Flesh For Fantasy" [which] had a bit of an R&B thing about it. Back in the early days of Billy Idol, "Hot In The City" and "Mony Mony" had girls [singing] on the backgrounds. 

We always had a bit of R&B really, so it was actually fun to revisit that. We just hadn't done anything really quite like that for a long time. That was one of the reasons to work with someone like Sam Hollander [for the song "Rita Hayworth"] on The Roadside. We knew we could go [with him] into an R&B world, and he's a great songwriter and producer. That's the fun of music really, trying out these things and seeing if you can make them stick. 

I listen to new music by veteran artists and debate that with some people. I'm sure you have those fans that want their nostalgia, and then there are some people who will embrace the newer stuff. Do you find it’s a challenge to reach people with new songs?

Obviously, what we're looking for is, how do we somehow have one foot in the past and one foot into the future? We’ve got the best of all possible worlds because that has been the modus operandi of Billy Idol. 

You want to do things that are true to you, and you don't just want to try and do things that you're seeing there in the charts today. I think that we're achieving it with things like "Running From The Ghost" and "Cage" on this new EP. I think we’re managing to do both in a way. 

**Obviously, "Running From The Ghost" is about addiction, all the stuff that you went through, and in "Cage" you’re talking about  freeing yourself from a lot of personal shackles. Was there any one moment in your life that made you really thought I have to not let this weigh me down anymore?**

I mean, things like the motorcycle accident I had, that was a bit of a wake up call way back. It was 32 years ago. But there were things like that, years ago, that gradually made me think about what I was doing with my life. I didn't want to ruin it, really. I didn't want to throw it away, and it made [me] be less cavalier. 

I had to say to myself, about the drugs and stuff, that I've been there and I've done it. There’s no point in carrying on doing it. You couldn't get any higher. You didn't want to throw your life away casually, and I was close to doing that. It took me a bit of time, but then gradually I was able to get control of myself to a certain extent [with] drugs and everything. And I think Steve's done the same thing. We're on a similar path really, which has been great because we're in the same boat in terms of lyrics and stuff. 

So a lot of things like that were wake up calls. Even having grandchildren and just watching my daughter enlarging her family and everything; it just makes you really positive about things and want to show a positive side to how you're feeling, about where you're going. We've lived with the demons so long, we've found a way to live with them. We found a way to be at peace with our demons, in a way. Maybe not completely, but certainly to where we’re enjoying what we do and excited about it.

[When writing] "Running From The Ghost" it was easy to go, what was the ghost for us? At one point, we were very drug addicted in the '80s. And Steve in particular is super sober [now]. I mean, I still vape pot and stuff. I don’t know how he’s doing it, but it’s incredible. All I want to be able to do is have a couple of glasses of wine at a restaurant or something. I can do that now.

I think working with people that are super talented, you just feel confident. That is a big reason why you open up and express yourself more because you feel comfortable with what's around you.

Did you watch Danny Boyle's recent Sex Pistols mini-series?

I did, yes.

You had a couple of cameos; well, an actor who portrayed you did. How did you react to it? How accurate do you think it was in portraying that particular time period?

I love Jonesy’s book, I thought his book was incredible. It's probably one of the best bio books really. It was incredible and so open. I was looking forward to that a lot.

It was as if [the show] kind of stayed with Steve [Jones’ memoir] about halfway through, and then departed from it. [John] Lydon, for instance, was never someone I ever saw acting out; he's more like that today. I never saw him do something like jump up in the room and run around going crazy. The only time I saw him ever do that was when they signed the recording deal with Virgin in front of Buckingham Palace. Whereas Sid Vicious was always acting out; he was always doing something in a horrible way or shouting at someone. I don't remember John being like that. I remember him being much more introverted.

But then I watched interviews with some of the actors about coming to grips with the parts they were playing. And they were saying, we knew punk rock happened but just didn't know any of the details. So I thought well, there you go. If ["Pistol" is]  informing a lot of people who wouldn't know anything about punk rock, maybe that's what's good about it.

Maybe down the road John Lydon will get the chance to do John's version of the Pistols story. Maybe someone will go a lot deeper into it and it won't be so surface. But maybe you needed this just to get people back in the flow.

We had punk and metal over here in the States, but it feels like England it was legitimately more dangerous. British society was much more rigid.

It never went [as] mega in America. It went big in England. It exploded when the Pistols did that interview with [TV host Bill] Grundy, that lorry truck driver put his boot through his own TV, and all the national papers had "the filth and the fury" [headlines].

We went from being unknown to being known overnight. We waited a year, Generation X. We even told them [record labels] no for nine months to a year. Every record company wanted their own punk rock group. So it went really mega in England, and it affected the whole country – the style, the fashions, everything. I mean, the Ramones were massive in England. Devo had a No. 1 song [in England] with "Satisfaction" in '77. Actually, Devo was as big as or bigger than the Pistols.

You were ahead of the pop-punk thing that happened in the late '90s, and a lot of it became tongue-in-cheek by then. It didn't have the same sense of rebelliousness as the original movement. It was more pop.

It had become a style. There was a famous book in England called Revolt Into Style — and that's what had happened, a revolt that turned into style which then they were able to duplicate in their own way. Even recently, Billie Joe [Armstrong] did his own version of "Gimme Some Truth," the Lennon song we covered way back in 1977.

When we initially were making [punk] music, it hadn't become accepted yet. It was still dangerous and turned into a style that people were used to. We were still breaking barriers.

You have a band called Generation Sex with Steve Jones and Paul Cook. I assume you all have an easier time playing Pistols and Gen X songs together now and not worrying about getting spit on like back in the '70s?

Yeah, definitely. When I got to America I told the group I was putting it together, "No one spits at the audience."

We had five years of being spat on [in the UK], and it was revolting. And they spat at you if they liked you. If they didn't like it they smashed your gear up. One night, I remember I saw blood on my T-shirt, and I think Joe Strummer got meningitis when spit went in his mouth.

You had to go through a lot to become successful, it wasn't like you just kind of got up there and did a couple of gigs. I don't think some young rock bands really get that today.

With punk going so mega in England, we definitely got a leg up. We still had a lot of work to get where we got to, and rightly so because you find out that you need to do that. A lot of groups in the old days would be together three to five years before they ever made a record, and that time is really important. In a way, what was great about punk rock for me was it was very much a learning period. I really learned a lot [about] recording music and being in a group and even writing songs.

Then when I came to America, it was a flow, really. I also really started to know what I wanted Billy Idol to be. It took me a little bit, but I kind of knew what I wanted Billy Idol to be. And even that took a while to let it marinate.

You and Miley Cyrus have developed a good working relationship in the last several years. How do you think her fans have responded to you, and your fans have responded to her?

I think they're into it. It's more the record company that she had didn't really get "Night Crawling"— it was one of the best songs on Plastic Hearts, and I don't think they understood that. They wanted to go with Dua Lipa, they wanted to go with the modern, young acts, and I don't think they realized that that song was resonating with her fans. Which is a shame really because, with Andrew Watt producing, it's a hit song.

But at the same time, I enjoyed doing it. It came out really good and it's very Billy Idol. In fact, I think it’s more Billy Idol than Miley Cyrus. I think it shows you where Andrew Watt was. He was excited about doing a Billy Idol track. She's fun to work with. She’s a really great person and she works at her singing — I watched her rehearsing for the Super Bowl performance she gave. She rehearsed all Saturday morning, all Saturday afternoon, and Sunday morning and it was that afternoon. I have to admire her fortitude. She really cares.

I remember when you went on "Viva La Bam" back in 2005 and decided to give Bam Margera’s Lamborghini a new sunroof by taking a power saw to it. Did he own that car? Was that a rental?

I think it was his car.

Did he get over it later on?

He loved it. [Laughs] He’s got a wacky sense of humor. He’s fantastic, actually. I’m really sorry to see what he's been going through just lately. He's going through a lot, and I wish him the best. He's a fantastic person, and it's a shame that he's struggling so much with his addictions. I know what it's like. It's not easy.

Musically, what is the synergy like with you guys during the past 10 years, doing Kings and Queens of the Underground and this new stuff? What is your working relationship like now in this more sober, older, mature version of you two as opposed to what it was like back in the '80s?

In lots of ways it’s not so different because we always wrote the songs together, we always talked about what we're going to do together. It was just that we were getting high at the same time.We're just not getting [that way now] but we're doing all the same things.

We're still talking about things, still [planning] things:What are we going to do next? How are we going to find new people to work with? We want to find new producers. Let's be a little bit more timely about putting stuff out.That part of our relationship is the same, you know what I mean? That never got affected. We just happened to be overloading in the '80s.

The relationship’s… matured and it's carrying on being fruitful, and I think that's pretty amazing. Really, most people don't get to this place. Usually, they hate each other by now. [Laughs] We also give each other space. We're not stopping each other doing things outside of what we’re working on together. All of that enables us to carry on working together. I love and admire him. I respect him. He's been fantastic. I mean, just standing there on stage with him is always a treat. And he’s got an immensely great sense of humor. I think that's another reason why we can hang together after all this time because we've got the sense of humor to enable us to go forward.

There's a lot of fan reaction videos online, and I noticed a lot of younger women like "Rebel Yell" because, unlike a lot of other '80s alpha male rock tunes, you're talking about satisfying your lover.

It was about my girlfriend at the time, Perri Lister. It was about how great I thought she was, how much I was in love with her, and how great women are, how powerful they are.

It was a bit of a feminist anthem in a weird way. It was all about how relationships can free you and add a lot to your life. It was a cry of love, nothing to do with the Civil War or anything like that. Perri was a big part of my life, a big part of being Billy Idol. I wanted to write about it. I'm glad that's the effect.

Is there something you hope people get out of the songs you've been doing over the last 10 years? Do you find yourself putting out a message that keeps repeating?

Well, I suppose, if anything, is that you can come to terms with your life, you can keep a hold of it. You can work your dreams into reality in a way and, look, a million years later, still be enjoying it.

The only reason I'm singing about getting out of the cage is because I kicked out of the cage years ago. I joined Generation X when I said to my parents, "I'm leaving university, and I'm joining a punk rock group." And they didn't even know what a punk rock group was. Years ago, I’d write things for myself that put me on this path, so that maybe in 2022 I could sing something like "Cage" and be owning this territory and really having a good time. This is the life I wanted.

The original UK punk movement challenged societal norms. Despite all the craziness going on throughout the world, it seems like a lot of modern rock bands are afraid to do what you guys were doing. Do you think we'll see a shift in that?

Yeah.  Art usually reacts to things, so I would think eventually there will be a massive reaction to the pop music that’s taken over — the middle of the road music, and then this kind of right wing politics. There will be a massive reaction if there's not already one. I don’t know where it will come from exactly. You never know who's gonna do [it].

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