Billy Idol Dancing With Myself (Touchstone), Billy Idol performs live © 2011 Life on the Scene/Cindy Robinson

Singer Billy Idol has written his memoir, Dancing With Myself (Touchstone, available now!), recorded a new album called Kings & Queens of the Underground (out Oct. 21), and is set to tour the world with his band. Before he heads out on the road with his band, Idol has done a handful of book signings across the United States, starting in New York this week and he’ll make a stop at Hollywood’s favorite book store Book Soup, this Saturday, October 11th at 4:00 pm! You’ll need to buy a copy of the book from Book Soup and hang on to your receipt.

In an excerpt from his book, Idol writes:

*Recording with Keith Forsey was exciting for me, though Tony didn’t really get on too well with him. They would bicker all the time, and I could see the two of them might not want to continue together after the record was finished. I thought Keith was doing a great job. It was the best-sounding album we’d made so far. He didn’t let events rattle him, and he could shake himself from an unhappy to a happy mood easily.

When we finished the album, I was the only one to seek him out at his hotel on his last night in the UK. I had dinner with him and his wife, Karen. I told him I liked how he worked and hoped we might do more, if I was ever given the chance to make another record. After all, my future was certainly up in the air at that moment. Keith had really tried to make my concept for the record work, and I appreciated that a great deal. Most important, we had a finished version of “Dancing with Myself” in the can. Would it be my bridge to the future?

During the recording of the album, Perri and I had been on a non­stop, twenty-four-hour drug-and-sex binge without sleep. We made love in bed all day and night, high on heroin, grass, and hash. With that particular cocktail, as orgasm boiled over, we would pop an amyl nitrate (commonly known as poppers) and send our bodies to the sweet spot that intensifies the growing explosion of chemistry between two lovers entwined like vines, curling together, disappearing into each other . . . writhing, sighing, and groaning, soaring into heaven, only to slowly burn out and return to earth, spent but somehow wanting more.

Heroin is a dangerous and addictive drug. If you take it enough, it returns you to the place that is as comfortable and all-encompassing as your mother’s womb. After three days, you’re hooked. When you come off, you’re debilitated, to the point where you feel like your skeleton is trying to get out of your body; you’re dying for more. And unless you want to go on feeling bad, you need a continuous supply. If you take enough to not get sick, you can maintain a semi-regular life­style. Thanks to Bill Aucoin’s renegotiation with Chrysalis, I now had enough money to fund my habits . . . and he, unbeknownst to me at the time, had enough to fund his.

The Stony-Eyed Medusa and I lived in a twilight world of drugs, sex, and rock ‘n’ roll friends. We roamed the London night in a small tools minivan I bought from my dad, dubbed “Power Tool the People.” The slow-burning nights spun into a web that trapped me in its em­brace until unconsciousness delivered me back to a moment of en­forced sleep. Waking up on different floors and beds, I was surrounded by the ubiquitous reggae music, which we always played while we were “block up,” a phrase we used for getting stoned. There had to be guardian angels looking silently through the hash fumes just above our heads. Why else would I still be here today, alive and well, to tell the story?

On one occasion, Perri and I took acid and went to see Apocalypse Now, then made love all night to George Faith’s Lee “Scratch” Perry– produced album, To Be a Lover. It was amazing I was able to get out of bed long enough to record our album, but I was.

I continued going to Perri’s gigs, where I ran into David Mallet, the director who shot Generation X’s ’77 Marquee performance. This meeting would prove fortuitous for the future.

Living twenty-four hours every day with Perri back then was quite the experience. We had a connection that was deeper than any I had ever known. It was a great trip for me to have a counterpart with whom I had so many interests in common, including fashion, music, movies, and the like. Perri had become my constant companion throughout this life of love, lust, and insanity. Only later did I realize that I had not paused to consider that my intense love affair with her, the heroin, hash, and other drugs were unraveling the constraints of my punk past and helping to further widen the gulf between me and Tony James.

Billy Idol, Steve Stevens and the band will hit the road in November for their European tour with newly unleashed plans for North America in January and February. Dates are listed below (with more dates to come so don’t fret if you don’t see your city listed just yet) with presales happening now, general public on sales happening October 10th in most markets with Idol and Stevens offering meet and greet packages for the shows! Let Life On The Scene know what you think of Billy Idol’s new book and what shows you’ll be attending in the comment section below.

North American Tour Dates:

January 21 (Wed)                                New Orleans, LA                             House Of Blues

January 22 (Thu)                                 Atlanta, GA                                      The Tabernacle

January 24 (Sat)                                  Philadelphia, PA                              Tower Theater

January 25 (Sun)                                 Washington, DC                             Lincoln Theater

January 28 (Wed)                                New York, NY                                 Beacon Theater

January 31 (Sat)                                  Boston, MA                                     Orpheum Theater

February 3 (Tue)                                 Montreal, QC, Canada                  Metropolis

February 4 (Wed)                                Toronto, ON, Canada                   Massey Hall

February 7 (Sat)                                  Chicago, IL                                      Riviera Theater

February 9 (Mon)                                Denver, CO                                    Paramount Theater

February 12 (Thu)                               Vancouver, BC, Canada               Queen Elizabeth Theater

February 13 (Fri)                                 Seattle, WA                                     Paramount

February 15 (Sun)                               Oakland, CA                                   Fox Theater

February 18 (Wed)                              Los Angeles, CA                           Wiltern Theater

*Book excerpt from DANCING WITH MYSELF, by Billy Idol. Copyright © 2014 by Billy Idol. Published Touchstone, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.