Billy Idol Says Smoking Crack Helped Him Quit Heroin During His Recovery

Billy Idol revealed that he used crack cocaine to help him quit heroin during an appearance on Club Random with Bill Maher on Monday (March 2). "Once you're trying to get off heroin, what do you go to? You go to something else," said the 70-year-old rock star. "I started smoking crack to get off heroin." When Maher asked if he really did that, Idol replied "It worked. It worked." The "White Wedding" singer nearly died from a heroin overdose in London in 1984 amid the success of his second solo album, Rebel Yell. In his new documentary, Billy Idol Should Be Dead, released on February 26, he recalled turning blue and being put in an ice bath. Idol ultimately quit heroin after a Bangkok hotel incident that caused $75,000 in damages. "I got over it somehow," Idol reflects, while adding "I was really lucky that I could get over it because a lot of people can't."