Billy Idol Reveals He's 'California Sober': 'I'm Not the Drug Addict That I Was'

Billy Idol is getting candid about his past struggles with drug addiction and how he's managed to get clean and "California sober."

The "White Wedding" rocker recently spoke with People about his substance abuse issues, and how a near-death motorcycle accident in 1990 finally convinced him to kick the habit.

"I really started to think, 'I should try and go forward and not be a drug addict anymore,' and stuff like that," Idol, 68, recalled. "It took a long time, but gradually I did achieve some sort of discipline."

"I'm not really the same kind of guy I was in the '80s," Idol continued. "I'm not the same drug addicted person."

"I don't do anything that much anymore. I got over it somehow," Idol explained. "I was really lucky that I could get over it because a lot of people can't."

That being said, Idol explained that he's not entirely sober in the strictest sense considering he will enjoy "a glass of wine every now and again." But he can control his behavior and is far from the man who indulged in excesses and vices.

"I suppose [I am] 'California sober,'" Idol said. "I just tell myself I can do what I want, but then I don't do it."

"If I tell myself I can't do anything, I want to do it. So I tell myself, 'You can do anything you like.' But I don't actually do it," he added.

The term "California sober" has been used by a number of celebrities who have dealt with drug addiction, but still partake in some behavior that wouldn't strictly be considered adhering to sober living.

Demi Lovato raised eyebrows in March 2021 when she revealed in her documentary, Demi Lovato: Dancing With the Devil, that she had "been smoking weed and drinking in moderation" following her 2018 drug overdose.

Demi Lovato Reveals She’s ‘California Sober’: Here's What That Means

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Demi Lovato Reveals She’s ‘California Sober’: Here's What That Means

"I've learned that it doesn't work for me to say that I'm never going to do this again. I know I'm done with the stuff that's going to kill me, right?" she said in the docuseries. "Telling myself that I can never have a drink or smoke marijuana, I feel like that's setting myself up for failure because I am such a black-and-white thinker. I had it drilled into my head for so many years that one drink was equivalent to a crack pipe."

At the time, Ken Seeley, an interventionist and trauma professional, told ET about why he considered Lovato's "California sober" lifestyle to be potentially dangerous to promote.

"[There] is no moderation for people that suffer with addiction... You can't just turn it off," he told ET. "... It could kill millions of people by letting them know that it's OK to use in moderation... To tell people that they could be sober and use in moderation is almost criminal, because I guarantee you if that takes off, people will die thinking that they're California sober when there is no such term. There is no such thing."

Lovato later came out the following December to say she no longer supported the "California sober" mindset.

"I no longer support my 'California sober' ways," Lovato wrote in a post to her Instagram stories in December 2021. "Sober sober is the only way to be."

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