Billy Idol covers Van Halen
Thursday, 9 April 2009
“Jump” with Steve Stevens:
“Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love” at the Big Ball Stars jam at the Knitting Factory, March 28, 2009. Band: Special Guest singer Billy Idol, Keri Kelli on guitar (Alice Cooper), Brian Tichy on drums (Billy Idol), Brent Woods on guitar (Vince Neil), Robby Crane on bass (Ratt)
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April 9th, 2009 at 6:22 am
Oh dear…
April 9th, 2009 at 6:28 am
I guess we heard it differently, I thought Billy sounded pretty damn good.
April 9th, 2009 at 7:18 am
Why don’t we just start calling this the BILLY IDOL NEWS DESK!!! LOL
April 9th, 2009 at 7:18 am
That actually wasn’t that bad,much better than that horrid version Velvet Revolver did at the Hall of Fame ceremony last year.It’s cool to see them do a “classic” VH song.I have always liked Billy, It’s good to see him performing.
April 9th, 2009 at 7:47 am
I always liked that Jamacan version done in a dance format.
April 9th, 2009 at 8:46 am
billy rocks!
April 9th, 2009 at 8:49 am
The sound sucked, probably from someone’s cell phone.
April 9th, 2009 at 10:10 am
Pretty good. The song suits Billy Idol. Wasn’t as big of a sound as Van Halen, but still OK.
April 9th, 2009 at 10:22 am
wow - that was excellent.
April 9th, 2009 at 10:50 am
Not bad even dave would be proud I think?lol
April 9th, 2009 at 11:11 am
Nice…Billy’s got it lol. Very similar to Roth’s style once you really think about it
April 9th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
It makes me want to puke!!!! That is equally as bad as Carrie Underwood’s cover of the Crue’s Home Sweet Home! Tragic!!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 9th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Please all you has been and current pop stars: LEAVE CLASSIC ROCK SONGS BE - YOU WILL JUST SCREW THEM UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 9th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Let face it. Billy still does kick ass. For a great cover of “Jump” look up Billy and Steve Stevens on youtube.
April 9th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
I’ve always liked billy too! Pretty much grew up on him.
First song I ever heard was : Dancing with myself back in the early 80’s…had no clue then that it had to do with jerking off! LOL!
Not bad at all. Sounded pretty damn good to me!
As the last guy wrote…so much better then velvet revlovers version. Christ…what an embarrasment!
Rock on billy!
April 9th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
not bad. . . .
April 9th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Hell, I thought it was a worthy rendition…Nice Job, Billy!
April 9th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Notice how they had 2 people playing guitar and the two combined pailed in comparison of EVH.
April 9th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
i agree with mark’s comment,but billy sounds to this day.
April 9th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
I think it’s cool as sh^t when one band covers another band’s music (from the relatively same time period). It’s a show of respect in my eyes. Most bands cover music from the previous generation and like most music fans I enjoy that too. But it’s especially cool when a band shows real respect (maybe even humility?) by covering thier peer’s music. I’m not saying Billy Idol is in the same league as Van Halen. I’m just cool with any worthy attempt. On the other side of the coin, I didn’t just think Velvet Revolver’s performance at the Hall of Fame ceremony sucked. It more than sucked…it was disrespectful in my opinion.
I was lucky enough to see Billy Idol back in the day in Lakeland Florida when they filmed the footage used in the ‘Mony Mony’ live video. They filmed the whole show and after the encore (when everyone began piling out of the venue) the video director walked out on stage and asked if the fans would stick around for more footage. Billy and his band came back out, house lights on and all and they set up shots to add for the video (duct taped camera’s to Steve’s guitar and a few other things that didn’t make the final edit). Anyways, the lights went out again and they lip synced to the actual recording from earlier in the show and shot more footage (about 4-5 rotations of the same song). In between the recordings, lights back on, the crew would set up for new angles and Billy kinda goofed off and talked to the crowd. This was a full arena (12k people if I am correct) and nearly the whole crowd was near quiet out of respect to the film crew as they worked. Billy just joked around with the audience and there was even some banter back and forth. Twelve thousand people and you could actually hear what audience members were shouting out to Billy, and of course his mic’d response - it was pretty entertaining and cool to see. Definitely a rock star, but seemed like a guy that would hang out and drink a beer with his fans if he could. Good to see him cover Jump and now Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love. Not the big crowd anymore but looks like he’s still having fun.
Until there is real VH news to report, this kind of stuff is totally cool with me.
April 9th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
We finally get some Van Halen news here, and it’ll say “Billy Idol is the new Van Halen lead singer…” Hahahaha!!!
April 9th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Good job. Far better than that travesty Velvet Revolver version.
April 9th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
Immitation is the best form flattery this just proves thst this song is a classic. Remember this is how the band started playing cover songs now it’s being with their originals. Not that Billy has to find cover tunes to play. I think it’s cool to hear other bands to songs we love kinda of like Hey what would it sound like if Billy had recorded it. Just my 2 cents……
April 9th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
Wow I need to proof read before i submit sorry about the typos !! Arg !
April 9th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
What Steve’s playing in Jump it’s not an EBMM EVH, it’s an EBMM Axis guitar… Both awesome guitars! Ernie Ball MusicMan rules!
April 10th, 2009 at 8:21 am
Billy’s cool,
I saw him back in the 80’s with the Cult opening up the show…the Cult blew away Billy, but Billy was awesome that night too…the Cult was just better.
I saw Billy a few month ago, when he opened for Def Leppard..He still rocks, get’s the audience into it but he his voice and his movement on stage are showing his age.
April 10th, 2009 at 8:55 am
I think Steve Stevens is actually playing an EBMM “Axis” and not an “EVH”…you get a sense how little Steve is as that’s a very small guitar and it looks huge in Steve’s hands…great job!
April 10th, 2009 at 10:04 am
He should stick to “Rebel Yell”
April 10th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Jump was great…very accurate to the orginal and Stevens does some great homage work to Eddie at the end of the song….nice job Billy!
April 10th, 2009 at 11:18 am
Say what you want - Billy sounds great here and from a purely technical standpoint, sings the songs better than Dave does at present.
Still, would I rather see and hear Dave singing them? Hell yes! See, EVH would be involved …
April 10th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
” this is a VAN HALEN website so why is it covering chickenfo— uh…. i mean why is it covering chick- uhm… uh… why is it covering billy idol ..? “
April 10th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Maybe that Jump line-up should go out on the road and do a 2 hour show of VH covers!!! They sounded awesome. At least we’d get to see VH in some form.
When EVH dumps DLR again, EVH should look at Billy as the new singer.
April 10th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Everybody wants to be David Lee Roth or Eddie Van Halen!!
When a band or a famous musician plays a Van Halen cover, always is a song of the DLR era!!
Nobody wants to play why can´t this be love or any other song of sammy era…Because they want to play his favorites or a tribute to VH!! And the original line-up is the Real Mighty Van Halen!!!
Billy Idol can play on the MTV Icon Van Halen, if happens someday.
Much better than Velvet Revolver!! argh!!
April 10th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
I liked it. Always liked Billy. Glad to see he’s looking better. He was looking kinda scary for a while. The songs sounded good. Especially “Jump”. What was the event? I wonder why he played two songs by them? Either way, glad it was posted.
April 10th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Why do you whiners always bitch about this is a Van Halen news desk whenever some news isn’t always directed at VH themselves! Hell if we waited around for news on them and always allowed only them, this site would be stagnant and we’d be staring at the same news page for months waiting for it to change. I feel if any thing that relates to them like Sam,Michael, or covers of VH by other artists should be welcomed on here. This site would be boring as hell otherwise and you wouldn’t come back here as often as you do now. So just stfu and quit coming here to check and see if it’s not VH related so you can bitch attitude! BTW that version Billy did i thought was really good and pretty much to the T music wise so go Billy,Steve and the rest of the band good job!
April 10th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Great…But who cares!!! VHND not the BIND…Everybody does VH covers…Lets see VH news…
April 10th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Billy sounded great. Saw Billy in 1985 on th Rebel Yell tour, he was okay, but Steve Stevens was great on guitar. Wildest guitarist I have ever seen live.
April 10th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Jump was great! Stevens nailed the solo, though he got a little off during the tapping time wise - but he recovered. He’s a great rhythm player too. If you didn’t know better, you would think that tune was written for him.
Ain’t talking Bout Love - the guys never get the guitar part for the verse for some reason — and its pretty easy to play!!
April 10th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
I had an opportunity to see Billy perform Jump in Boston a few years back.
I actually wore my EVH Frankenstein sneakers to the show- just to represent.
Towards the end of the show (Billy and the band were great mind you!) as the encore approached I walked towards the back of the pavillion to take it all in. A couple of fans noticed my sneakers and gave a shout out..
No sooner had I thanked them and said “Yah it would be nice to hear a little Halen” - Billy played Jump.
The two dudes busted out laughing and I ran back down to the front of the stage to pay homage to Billy and Van Halen.
It was a good show and a good night.
April 10th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Jump is awesome, Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love is good. Hell, I would give Idol a chance as VH’s front man. To be honest I think Billy would sound better as the front man for chickenfoot. He would write better songs and sing them better, his voice would fit better with the Chickenfoot musicians. Hell, I would rather have VH with mike back and Billy on vocals than the current lineup (although mike and DLR would be perfect right now). Also I find it humorous that a former punk singer is singing a song that was written as a parody of punk (Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love). Billy still does have it, makes me want to catch one of his shows.
April 11th, 2009 at 11:09 am
It’s paying tribute to vh. If I went to see him and he played jump it would be the highlight of my night.
April 11th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Steve and Eddie are good friends. Excellent job Steve! Some nice flavor he added to the solo and ending!
April 12th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Not bad at all….
The Vital Idol Returns…… I’m sure VH would aprove
April 12th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
go billy go!
April 13th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
I saw Billy last year in Grand Rapids MI with Def Leppard and he did not disappoint. It was a great show with a couple awesome covers but we were not lucky enough to hear some VH. This was awesome and Steve Stevens covered EVH very well.
April 14th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
I can see it now, gooood-byeee Dave…….and hellooooooo Billy.
April 15th, 2009 at 6:12 am
this is a VAN HALEN website oooooo on