Rock Icon Billy Idol Featured on Today's CBS SUNDAY MORNING

Living life on the road as a rock star made being faithful in relationships a challenge, singer Billy Idol tells Tracy Smith in an interview for CBS SUNDAY MORNING WITH CHARLES OSGOOD to be broadcast today, Oct. 5, 2014 (9:00 AM, ET) on the CBS Television Network.

At the height of his fame, Idol had the attention of countless adoring female fans. Indeed, Idol tells Smith he couldn't guess how many female partners he's been with along the way and that it was hard staying faithful.

"It's impossible," Idol tells Smith. "I mean, especially on a 10-month tour, on a bus, going from nowhere, from place to place to Denny's, Carl's Jr., Denny's, McDonald's, Carl's Jr., Denny's, truck stop, and you wanted something to break up the monotony. And the only way to do it was a piece of human flesh."

Idol revisits his past with Smith for a revealing interview about his life, his childhood, his new music, his new book published by Touchstone, a division of Simon & Schuster, which is a CBS company, his life today and his relationship to drugs and alcohol.

Indeed, back in the 1980s, when Idol says he was hooked on illegal substances, drug dealers in New York's Washington Square Park would tell him what they were pushing by using the titles of his hit songs.

"I did have some moments in Washington Square Park," Idol tells Smith, saying the dealers would call out to him. "They'd say, 'It's 'Rebel Yell Heroin.' It's 'White Wedding Crack.' It's 'Dancing with Myself Marijuana,' or something. But I actually did get caught here on a police sting when I was a bit addicted to crack for a while, to coke."

Idol, born William Michael Albert Broad, tells Smith his parents were against him being a musician, but he wanted to do something more glamorous than his dad's power tool business. "He was a great salesman," Idol says of his father. "But I always thought to myself, 'The only weakness he's got is he's selling a product that's not himself.'"

Idol hit the charts just as MTV was taking off. He had a string of hits and his music videos were in heavy rotation.

He describes his music as a "cross-pollination of a million styles" including punk rock, rock-n-roll, folk rock and jazz rock. "So you have a bastard child, really, and the bastard child is my music," Idol says.

CBS SUNDAY MORNING is broadcast Sundays (9:00-10:30 AM ET) on the CBS Television Network. Rand Morrison is the executive producer.

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