Billy Idol is giving fans some insight into his Rebel Yell hit “Eyes Without A Face” in a new video for Vevo Footnotes.
In the clip, Idol explains that his aim with the song was to put out something that was the opposite of what was popular during the ’80s.
“I think I was deliberately trying to write not a love song because the ’80s was full of love songs, all drippy, soppy love songs,” he shares. “So I thought maybe I’ll just write an anti-love song. It’s almost a murder song; it’s what I was thinking about, something like a serial killer.”
Idol also shares that the video for the track was influenced by the low-budget silent movies he enjoyed watching at the time.
“I liked a lot of silent movies because you knew they were doing things with paint, wood and glue; you know, it’s very sort of cheap in a way, but with maximum effect,” he says. “That’s what I was sort of bringing into my videos: this kind of old influence of movies one hundred years before.”
And while Idol’s bleach blond hair may have looked good in the video, he reveals that he fell asleep while the bleach was in it and his hair was “fried.”
He notes, “I just had a little bit at the front, and somehow we made it look like I had hair. And that’s the kind of fun we had in the 1980s.”
“Eyes Without A Face,” a top five hit, is one of the many tracks featured on Idol’s sophomore album, Rebel Yell. He is set to release a 40th anniversary deluxe edition of the album on April 26. It is available for preorder now.
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