Billy Idol received his second nomination for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Wednesday. His first came last year, and he doesn’t sound too bent out of shape that he didn’t get in the first time around.
“I started to realize you don’t always get in on your first time; that’s quite unusual, I think,” Idol tells Billboard. “It’s a process, and I can see why.”
He notes, “There’s quite a large number of people involved in deciding who gets in. It’s no guarantee.”
And it certainly sounds like Idol is excited to get another chance at the Rock Hall.
“It’s fantastic. It’s really exciting. It would be incredible this year,” says Idol, who got his start in 1976 in the band Generation X. “This is 50 years ago when I started so it would be really incredible. It would cap off an amazing 50 years.”
Looking at fellow nominees like INXS, The Black Crowes, Joy Division/New Order and Oasis, Idol says, “[W]hoever gets in will be a fantastic class.”
“We were all kind of making our way towards really doing this forever,” he says. “It’s a serious thing we all believed in, that we really wanted to see where our generation would take music.” He adds, “I think with the punk and then the music in the [’80s], we really did establish what the sound of the [’80s] would be — and beyond.”
Billy Idol’s life and career are the subject of the new documentary Billy Idol Should Be Dead, which is in theaters now.
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