Billy Idol Opens Up About Starting His Career Playing Wild Nights at Gay Clubs

We know the gay community excels at supporting artists they love, and that can be said about rock icon Billy Idol.

Speaking on the podcast "Turned Out a Punk" (via UltimateClassicRock.com), the "Eyes Without a Face" singer shared that though he may be playing stadiums and arenas 50 years into his career, he first started out playing at gay clubs.

"A lot of the clubs that were putting on punk things were usually gay clubs," Idol said. "We even did a tour, the White Wedding tour, [which] was like that. We were playing a lot of these little clubs, [they] were gay clubs that on Tuesday night, they went punk."

The 69-year-old British star went on to say that the gay community could relate to the punk movement of the late '70s and '80s because both communities were seen as outcasts.

"It was very embracing," he added. "People who didn't feel like they fit in what for whatever reason. Could be a gender thing, it could be a cross-dressing thing, or it just could be you just didn't feel like you –- people would say today, you didn't feel like you're being seen. You know, that's what we felt like."

"In England, we were being told you don't have a chance of future, there's no future for you," Idol went on to say. "This is seriously what we're being told. And so we just banded together with the other like-minded outsiders. And they were coming from all different areas – gender, politics, political politics, personal politics. Lots of reasons why."

You can listen to the full podcast episode by clicking here.