Billy Idol once threatened to bootleg copies of his own album to sell cheaply on the streets during a stand-off with his record label. Idol's 1983 album Rebel Yell sold two million copies in the US alone, but before it established Generation X's former frontman as a star in his own right, the album was the subject of a dispute between the Middlesex-born singer and his record label, Chrysalis.
The argument between the artist and his paymasters arose, says Idol, in a new interview with The Guardian, because of the album cover.
“I was saying, There’s a flaw in this picture, and if we blow this up it will get worse,” Idol reveals. “The record company started to say, 'We’re leaving it. It’s not that bad.' I just thought, I’m just not going to let this happen. It’s so silly. They just need to reprint the picture. I’m not listening to what the record company guys say. In fact, I’m gonna blackmail them.”
