Billy Idol Performs on 'GMA'

April 15, 2005 — -- Billy Idol, the '80s pop-punk icon, brought his trademark sneer and spiky platinum hair to "Good Morning America's" Times Square stage, performing the first single, "Scream," from his new album, "Devil's Playground."

Idol is best known for his hits "Rebel Yell," "Dancing with Myself" and "White Wedding," which he also performed on "GMA." "Devil's Playground" is his first album of original songs in more than a decade, and after selling more than 5 million records during his career, he's hoping this new one will put him back at the top of the charts.

Idol, who will turn 50 later this year, showed off his six-pack abs before his performance, demonstrating he's in just about the best shape of his life.

Idol battled an addiction to heroin and cocaine for 15 years, but after suffering a near-fatal motorcycle accident and a massive overdose, he's cleaned up his act and has the mental and physical stamina to be back on the road performing.

By the late 1990s, he was settled in as a "Little League dad," as he recently told Time magazine, and focusing on parenting his kids -- a son Wolf, now 16, and daughter, Bonnie Blue, 15.

Idol wasn't totally off the radar, though. In 1993, he released a tepidly received album, "Cyberpunk," and appeared in the stage production of "Quadrophenia" and a memorable cameo in the movie "The Wedding Singer."

In 2000, he released a greatest hits album, which went platinum, and VH1 booked him for its "Storytellers" and "Behind the Music" series.

Around that time, Idol was doing a fair amount of traveling on his motorcycle and stopped by a biker convention in California. The Los Angeles-based band Los Lobos was performing, and Idol got up on stage and sang "Born to Be Wild."

He said he looked down and saw the bikers going nuts for him and he realized his home was on stage. Now he says the real drug for him is performing.

Idol is on a U.S. tour promoting "Devil's Playground." For more information about concert dates and the album, visit Idol's official Web site, www.billyidol.com.