LCD Soundsystem won Best Dance Recording for "Tonite" at the 60th GRAMMY Awards. This marks the band's first-ever GRAMMY win.

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The other nominees for Best Dance Recording were Bonobo's "Bambro Koyo Ganda," feat. Innov Gnawa, Camelphat & Elderbrook's "Cola", Gorillaz' "Andromeda," feat. D.R.A.M., and ODESZA's "Line Of Sight," feat. WYNNE & Mansionair.

LCD Soundsystem has been nominated in the Best Dance Recording category once previously, for "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House," They were also nominated tonight for Best Alternative Music Album, for American Dream.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Congrats Best Dance Recording  -&#39;&quot;Tonite&quot; <a href="https://twitter.com/lcdsoundsystem?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@lcdsoundsystem</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GRAMMYs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GRAMMYs</a></p>&mdash; Recording Academy (@RecordingAcad) <a href="https://twitter.com/RecordingAcad/status/957709841757327360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2018</a></blockquote>
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With the win, the band joins the prestigious roster of previous category winners, ranging from Skrillex and Diplo, Daft Punk and the Chemical Brothers to Justin Timberlake, Clean Bandit and Zedd.

"Tonite" is featured on LCD Soundsystem's acclaimed fourth album, American Dream. The album was notable for being the band's first outing after reforming in 2016 five years after a widely publicized series of farewell shows at Madison Square Garden in 2011.

LCD Soundsystem has collected a total of five GRAMMY nominations over the course of their career, beginning with two nominations at the 48th GRAMMY Awards for Best Dance Recording ("Daft Punk Is Playing At My House") and Best Electronic/Dance Album, both stemming from their self-titled debut double LP LCD Soundsystem.

Full Winners List: 60th GRAMMY Awards

In 2002, against the advice of his friends, a 34-year-old James Murphy released "Losing My Edge," an eight-minute track with a simple, slow-building drum machine pattern. On it, Murphy humorously questions his relevance: "But I'm losing my edge to better-looking people with better ideas and more talent/ And they're actually really, really nice."

The track would, somewhat ironically, make Murphy's LCD Soundsystem and his burgeoning Brooklyn indie label DFA Records the cool new kids on the block.

Murphy started getting booked off of the song and decided to put an actual band behind LCD Soundsystem, calling on Nancy Whang (synths, keys and vocals) and Pat Mahoney (drums and drum machines). Two years later, bassist Tyler Pope became a core member; stellar musicians from the punk/indie/art rock world would join them in the studio and/or on tour over the years.

In January 2005, LCD Soundsystem released their eponymous two-disc debut album, which opens with one of their beloved classics "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House," a No. 1 hit on the UK Dance chart. The aforementioned track and album also earned them their first two GRAMMY nominations in 2006, for Best Electronic/Dance Album and Best Dance Recording respectively, and the album reached No. 6 on Billboard's Top Dance/Electronic Album chart in March 2005. Murphy and company hadn't lost their edge — rather, they were certified big-time indie stars.

Twenty-one years after their tongue-in-cheek debut and 12 years after their not-so-final farewell shows at Madison Square Garden, the beloved Brooklyn band is back with their third residency on their home turf, this time with twelve shows across three New York City venues: Brooklyn Steel (where they had their 2021 and 2022 residencies), Terminal 5 in Manhattan and Knockdown Center in Queens. The shows sold out in a matter of seconds and saw high resale prices clocking double to triple face value, just as their "final" show at Madison Square Garden did in 2011.

In the midst of their highly anticipated Tri Boro Tour — which wraps Dec. 10 — GRAMMY.com examines why LCD Soundsystem still resonates so strongly, even as the dance music and indie scenes around them have changed so much.

They're Y2K's Answer To The Talking Heads

LCD Soundsystem was born during the early aughts, their punk DIY ethos part of New York's brief but thriving indie rock scene (led by the popularity of the Strokes). As documented in Lizzy Goodman's 2017 book, Meet Me in the Bathroom, Murphy fell in love with dance music after trying ecstasy on a New York dance floor, promptly expanding his sonic world.

After this blissful experience, he finally felt comfortable dancing. He started DJing his favorite deep-cut records and throwing parties with DFA co-founder Tim Goldsworthy. 

With LCD Soundsystem, he brought garage and indie rock to the rave, mixing the euphoria and energy of disco, acid house, and electronic instrumentation with guitars and snarky, self-deprecating lyrics. Their influences — ESG, Loose Joints, David Bowie, Talking Heads, CAN, Daft Punk, Kraftwerk — were spiritually present but seamlessly mixed in. Chopped up and flipped until a whole new thing was born, LCD's sound was as inventive as the house music and hip-hop producers and DJs that came before him.

"For many overstimulated and underwhelmed New York hipsters, LCD Soundsystem provided the soundtrack for making sense of the late 2000s," Ryan Pinkard wrote for Tidal. "LCD was to 2000s New York what the Velvet Underground and the Talking Heads were in their own eras. And their legacy is no less hefty nor contentious."

While music labels and outlets became obsessed with finding "the next Strokes," LCD and DFA paved their own path in indie dance. They made significant contributions to the era of loud, chaotic danceable music largely made by bands or DJs' edits of bands, which would later be coined bloghouse or indie sleaze. The Rapture's 2002 single "House of Jealous Lovers" and subsequent debut album, Echoes, were produced by Murphy and Goldsworthy. It brought the post-punk band into a dancier arena that proved successful for them and DFA.

Like the Talking Heads — who, 30 years prior, made music "abuzz with nervous energy… [that] articulated the strangeness and anxiety of modern times" — LCD Soundsystem created artsy, humorous, danceable punk for the people, with an open-minded yet meticulously crafted DIY ethos.

Yet Murphy was a reluctant king of the indie dance scene. His own insecurities, perfectionism and jadedness around the scene and his own creative output resonated with his fans. He became — and remains — the moody, accidently cool Gen X father of his younger Gen X and older millennial fans; the younger generations are slowly catching up.

The Music — Lyrically and Sonically — Still Resonates

"It still kinda weighs on me a bit because we keep getting better and better at playing it live. It's surprising how long 'Losing My Edge' lingers around, for a dance song. But everyone's silly and shallow and insipid and vain and the more they accept it the less boring records we'll have," Murphy said of the ongoing popularity of "Losing My Edge."

"I made 'Yeah', which pretty much consists of me saying yeah over and over, to try and erase the expectation that it was gonna be another clever diatribe of lyrics. Etched into the vinyl of 'Yeah' is, 'Not as good as Losing My Edge.'"

The theme of relevancy and aging out youth culture is as old as time.  "Losing My Edge" is an anthem for aging DJs and music fans, who are loyal to their scene but no longer at the center of it. With his debut track, Murphy is knocking too-cool-for-school hipsters, but most of all, he's knocking himself — the music video is a close up of him getting repeatedly smacked as he says the lyrics with a straight face.

It is this playful self-depreciation and jaded introspection that permeates Murphy's lyrics — often sing-spoken, sometimes shouted — makes them so relatable. Just as Murphy found catharsis during his first experience with ecstasy, LCD's upbeat music and contemplative lyrics provide a similar energy for the band's loyal fans.

And as guitars gave way for perfectly programmed EDM-level drops at the end of the 2000s, LCD's music was a necessary balm. The group united emo rave kids and moody guitar heads under the disco ball, creating a cathartic dance party. Here, celebrating, crying, shouting and dancing like a weirdo are all okay, because Murphy does it too.

"Someone Great," placed midway through their second album 2007's Sound of Silver, is a heart-wrenching meditation on grief, pierced by droning synths, sparkling bells and a tender-sounding Murphy. It's easy to place your own story in the song (I thought it was about an ex no longer in his life), which is about his therapist Dr. George Kamen, who died in 2006. The album is also dedicated to him.

Sound of Silver ends with another melancholic track, "New York, I Love You but You're Bringing Me Down," a slow-burning piano ballad that erupts into a can't-help-but-shout-along-chorus. It's a bittersweet love letter to the city that birthed the band (and that they still reside in), speaking to rapid gentrification and police crackdowns that pushed out (and continue to) creatives, venues and working-class people. Even when performed outside of NYC, the song feels poignant given the struggles of living in a capitalist society.

LCD Soundsystem's GRAMMY-nominated fourth studio album, american dream, was released in 2017, in Trump's dystopian America. The anxiety and discontentment are understandably still there, and Murphy is older, but no less disillusioned. "tonite" is a catchy GRAMMY-nominated acid house-tinged tune about all the songs on the radio declaring "you only live once, let's party!" Murphy's response is poetic: "I never realized these artists thought so much about dying/ But truth be told we all have the same end /Could make you cry, cry, cry, cry, cry."

The band has grown up (as have its core fanbase) but there are still plenty of feelings to be processed, sung out loud and danced out.

Their Sound Transcends Trends

LCD Soundsystem's first three albums were released during the first decade of the millennium and peak indie rock/bloghouse era, yet they don't feel dated. Instead, their music channeled something vintage without being nostalgic, and was incredibly fresh-sounding. They remain timeless and are among the era's standouts that still make great music and play killer shows, like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Murphy famously attempted to dissolve the band at the peak of their fame in 2011 — a year after their release of their third album, This is Happening. He didn't want to become a band he hated, to keep getting bigger regardless of if their music was better or not. The hiatus lasted for four years.

"As things mature — whether they be real estate, rock 'n' roll, politics, festivals, radio — there's an efficiency that develops and with it, very often, comes some soul-crushing truths. If you keep doing it, you get bigger even if the records get worse," Murphy told the New York Times in 2017. "It was our turn, And something about that turned my stomach."

When Murphy was working on music that sounded like his beloved band, it seemed silly to not release it because he killed the project. The band's first — rather surprising — new song in five years, "christmas will break your heart," was released in December 2015. A much-hyped Coachella 2016 headline set, followed by a summer tour including other big fests like Lollapalooza, Primavera Sound and Glastonbury, meant LCD was very much back.

While some fans derided the band for making a big deal about breaking up and then coming back, they were clearly missed. And with their 2017 album, they've been able to avoid getting stuck in the nostalgia trap.  Of course, LCD Soundsystem's latest tune, 2022's "new body rhumba," was created to close out the absurd grocery store dance scene in Noah Bambauch's White Noise (based on Don DeLillo's dystopian 1985 novel of the same name).

"There's a lot of music that came out in the '80s around the time of that book that I love," Murphy told Netflix about writing the song. "I didn't want to do anything that was sounding like '80s Radiohead… And I don't want to do emotions for emotions sake. Because I feel that life and death and fear and feelings and these things are too important to use cheap shorthand."

The Band Is Tight & A Joy To See Live

LCD Soundsystem are beloved for their energetic, cathartic live shows, where each song leads into the next and the bandmates riff with each other. They fill the stage with their talented musicians and their many instruments — several drum kits, percussion instruments and cowbells, Nancy Whang's keyboards and synths, and a whole vintage modular synth set up — and play with deft precision.

"We didn't set out to be cool. We set out to be an extremely tight band. We wanted to defy expectations," the frontman told GQ in 2018. And that they did — and continue to do.

Their live sets weave back and forth through their gem-laden catalog — when they performed 2017's "tonite" after 2005's "Tribulations" on the first night of their latest NYC residency, it's easy to forget how far apart they were recorded.

Whang and drummer Pat Mahoney helped bring LCD Soundsystem from the studio to the stage in its earliest days. Like Murphy, Mahoney played in punk bands (most notably Les Savy Fav) and his precise drumming drives LCD's music forward. Other band members include Al Doyle of Hot Chip and Tyler Pope of !!!, who bring funky guitar and bass, respectively, into the mix. Gavilán Rayna Russom offered her modular synth expertise on This Is Happening and on the farewell and reunion tours.

LCD Does Things On Their Own Terms

James Murphy cares about his art and is painstakingly perfectionist about sound quality. His stellar Despacio mobile sound room is a dark, joyful sonic wonderland — records sound as crisp and bright as ever — but is so costly to transport, they lose money when they use it.

After quitting at the height of their career, they came back when they were ready. Sure, Murphy thought painstakingly about whether he should or could release the music he'd been working on and knew there'd be backlash, but that didn't stop them. In fact, it was one of his idols, David Bowie, that encouraged him to do it.

"When I was working on Blackstar, I was talking to David Bowie, which is a luxurious thing to say. I said to him, 'I'm really freaked out as I've started writing music, what am I going to do? What if I come back after we quit so perfectly?'" Murphy told Crack Magazine in 2017.

"David said to me, 'Does it make you feel uncomfortable to come back?' I said 'Yes.' He said 'Good, you should be uncomfortable to do something. You need to be uncomfortable.' It was a funny thing to hear from him, because I always assumed he was comfortable all the time."

The band returned after four years away with a Christmas song, of all things. Almost two years later, they dropped their reunion album. They take their time with their music and release it when they're ready, on their own terms.

As the COVID-19 lockdowns eased up, they've experimented with different touring and festival formats, with their fans in mind as well as their older bodies and changing priorities. Their 2021 return kicked off their first NYC residency, with 20 shows at Brooklyn Steel (although the last three dates were canceled due to a new COVID variant spreading). They returned to Brooklyn Steel for 20 shows in late 2022, and kicked off their 2023 Tri Boro Tour on Nov. 16. The new format gives the band breaks in-between each venue, as Murphy explained the last run was a tough grind.

Murphy has also brought Despacio to more festivals recently, including his 2022 Ain't No Picnic in Pasadena, California and at Coachella 2023. He also launched the Re:Set Concert Series during summer 2023, which featured no set-time overlap and had LCD and the artists traveling shorter distances between shows.

What will 2024 hold for LCD Soundsystem? Hopefully new music to dance off the funk of 2023, more festivals with Despacio and LCD, and quotable moments from Murphy interviews, but who knows. They'll give us something great when they're ready and that will likely be just when we need it most.

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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."

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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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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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