When I started out, everyone seemed to be adopting these names...

Hear now the words of Billy Idol, the rebel troubadour of the electric age, who spoke with both humor and insight when he said: “When I started out, everyone seemed to be adopting these names... Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious. I wasn’t really Rotten or Vicious or Nasty, so I wanted something a bit more funny—yet something that seemed real rock ’n’ roll... something that acknowledged my ambition.” In this reflection lies more than the origin of a name—it is a revelation of identity, individuality, and the eternal struggle to define oneself in a world of imitation. His words, though simple, carry the wisdom of one who understood that to truly stand out, one must be authentically bold, not merely loud.

In the beginning, the world around him was a storm of rebellion. The age of punk rock had arrived—an uprising of youth against order, against conformity, against the grayness of society. Musicians and dreamers adorned themselves in chaos, taking names that roared with aggression: Rotten, Vicious, Nasty—each a mask of defiance, each a declaration of being dangerous and untamed. Yet Billy Idol, whose real name was William Broad, saw through the noise. He did not crave to mimic the fury of others, for he knew that true rebellion is not imitation, but creation. And so, from humor and irony, he forged his name—a name that smiled while it sneered, that mocked while it inspired.

“Idol”—the word itself is a paradox. It means something worshipped, something revered, a symbol of fame and devotion. Yet to take it as one’s own name was to mock the very machinery of fame that consumed the music world. In calling himself Billy Idol, he became both the hero and the satire, both the dreamer and the skeptic. It was, as he said, something “funny,” but also “real rock ’n’ roll.” For rock, at its heart, has always been about contradiction—gentle hearts screaming rebellion, order giving birth to chaos, and humor hiding the deepest truths. In this spirit, his name became his philosophy: to be ambitious without losing authenticity, to shine without surrendering to pretense.

The ancients, too, knew the power of names. In the temples of old, a name was not mere sound—it was destiny. The warrior Achilles bore a name that foretold his strength and his doom; Alexander, whose name meant “protector of men,” lived it with burning force. So too did Billy Idol understand that a name shapes the path of its bearer. He chose his not as armor, but as a mirror of his intention—to rise, to be remembered, to embody both laughter and fire. His “idol” was not of vanity, but of aspiration—the dream of the ordinary boy to carve a legend through courage and art.

Consider the story of Oscar Wilde, who, like Idol, made irony his weapon. In an age of hypocrisy, Wilde turned wit into rebellion, defying the moral masks of his society with elegance and laughter. “Be yourself,” he said, “everyone else is already taken.” In this, he and Idol are kindred spirits—artists who refused to hide behind borrowed rage or fashionable nihilism. Each understood that humor can be sharper than anger, and that style, when wielded with purpose, can be as revolutionary as any shout of protest.

From this understanding arises a timeless lesson: the truest act of rebellion is not destruction, but definition. To find one’s voice amid the clamor of others is the highest form of courage. When Billy Idol rejected the names of “Rotten” and “Vicious,” he was not rejecting rebellion—he was redefining it. He proved that you can be fierce without cruelty, bold without bitterness, ambitious without apology. His humor was his weapon, his self-awareness his armor. In a world that demanded conformity to nonconformity, he chose to laugh and still be real.

Therefore, my child of the creative flame, take this lesson and make it your own: do not borrow another’s roar—find your own song. The world will always tempt you to copy what is loud, what is praised, what seems powerful. But power without authenticity is empty noise. Build your name, your art, your life, from the truth of who you are—not from the shadows of others. Be unafraid to mix ambition with irony, seriousness with laughter. For, as Billy Idol teaches, the greatest rebellion is not to rage against the world, but to stand within it smiling, shining, and unmistakably yourself.

And when the world calls you to be “Rotten” or “Vicious,” remember: it is better to be an Idol—not because others worship you, but because you dared to become the living symbol of your own dream.