By Max Stewart; Cover Photo by Nathan Reinds
Few guitarists have left as distinctive a mark on rock music as Steve Stevens. Best known for his decades-long musical partnership with Billy Idol, Stevens has helped shape some of rock’s most recognizable songs while building an impressive career that includes his Grammy-winning work on the Top Gun soundtrack.
Ahead of Billy Idol’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Stevens caught up with Live Music Daily’s Max Stewart to discuss his 44-year partnership with Idol, the enduring appeal of their music, his recent performance celebrating Aerosmith, and some ‘hidden jams’ from the Billy Idol catalog. Stevens also reflected on his earliest musical influences and shared unforgettable concert memories involving Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Prince, and (in a time machine) Jimi Hendrix.
Max Stewart: First off, congratulations on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame! I’ll actually be flying out from Atlanta to cover the ceremony next week. It’s my first time attending, so I’m really excited for you. What does that recognition mean to you, both professionally and personally?
Steve Stevens: I think it’s really a testament to a now 44-year musical partnership with Billy Idol. In a lot of cases, people get inducted when they don’t work together anymore, or there aren’t many surviving members of a band.
The fact is, we’re still together. We’re still making music, we’re still out touring, and we’re playing to the biggest audiences of our career. It’s really cool that two knuckleheads somehow found each other and made music that matters to people.
Max Stewart: That’s incredible. When you connected with Billy in the early ’80s, did you immediately recognize something special musically? How has that chemistry evolved over such a long partnership?
Steve Stevens: A lot of it comes down to temperament, personality, and life experiences up until the time you meet.
I was such an Anglophile. I grew up in New York and loved all the English bands. Whatever came out of England, whether it was progressive rock, glam rock, or punk rock, I loved it.
The thing about English musicians is they always had something to say. Even Jimi Hendrix, the world’s greatest guitar player, made his career in England with two English guys and recorded those classic records there.
I was really excited to meet and work with an English musician who had made records, had something to say, and had a vision and a plan. It was a case of applying what I had achieved on guitar, along with my musical taste, to what Billy was doing.
A lot of it comes down to personality, temperament, and being good people.
Max Stewart: Is there a particular song, performance, or moment that stands out as defining your partnership with Billy? Obviously, there are so many over such a long career.
Steve Stevens: In the court of public opinion, it’s got to be the Rebel Yell album. I think that album encapsulates a time when rock stars were rock stars. They don’t make them like Billy Idol anymore.
From the moment I met him, he had all the ingredients. He’s charismatic, he has something to say, and he had the experience of being part of something really exciting musically. He saw the Sex Pistols and those bands firsthand and experienced something that really motivated people.
I think he wanted to keep that energy and excitement going in his own career. That’s what I felt from him straight away.
Obviously, the Rebel Yell album stands out. But returning to play Madison Square Garden after so many years was also special. I think we hold the record for the longest duration between appearances at Madison Square Garden [laughs]. That’s where we made our career in New York.
Max Stewart: You mentioned that you’re playing to bigger crowds than ever. There seems to be a renaissance of new fans discovering Billy Idol, whether it’s parents bringing their kids to shows or younger generations finding the music through social media. Have you felt that momentum at concerts?
Steve Stevens: You can’t get away from Billy Idol on TikTok, whether it’s animated AI sh*t, clips of the records, young kids playing the tunes, or guitar lessons with 14-year-olds playing “Rebel Yell.”
It’s so different from when I grew up because I didn’t want anything to do with my folks’ music. We were rebelling against that. We had Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. We weren’t going to listen to those Harry Belafonte records!
But kids now get turned on to a lot of music by their parents, and they think it’s cool. I didn’t think anything my parents did was cool. It’s a very different world now.
Max Stewart: Going back to your early days, do you remember a particular song, album, or concert that made you realize music was what you wanted to do with your life?
Steve Stevens: I just loved music from a really young age. This was before the internet, so it was hard to find a guitar teacher who was going to teach you a Rolling Stones song.
Our local guitar teacher in Far Rockaway, NY, where I grew up, was some old fuddy-duddy guy. But there was a protest singer named Phil Ochs who came from Far Rockaway, and his sister was my first guitar teacher.
Phil’s music was considered dangerous because he had a lot of anti-Vietnam War songs. His cousin was my Cub Scout den mother, and as a Cub Scout troop, we sang one of Phil Ochs’ songs.
One of the kids went home and told his parents, and when they found out we were singing Phil Ochs songs, they excommunicated our den mother!
I realized, “Wow, this music thing is kind of dangerous.” That’s when I started to see the rebellious side of music.
When I started playing, it was also the folk-rock explosion with Crosby, Stills & Nash, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, and artists like that.
And it was a great way to meet girls! If you could play a Joni Mitchell song, you were in good shape. I’d go to summer camp and be the kid who could play a Joni Mitchell song. I’d have four girls sitting around me while I played something like “Ladies of the Canyon,” and all my guy friends were like, “F*ck you!”
I was a little kid who wasn’t very good at basketball or those kinds of things, so music became a way to express myself. I thought, “Wow, I’ve found my thing.”
I found my love of music very early on, and I was fortunate.
Max Stewart: That’s amazing. I picked up a guitar hoping it would help me talk to girls, too! It seems like a pretty universal experience for some guitar players.
Steve Stevens: Yeah, you want to learn guitar to meet girls, but then when you get serious about it, you’re in your bedroom for six hours instead of going on a date.
It’s like, “F*ck that. I don’t have time for girls. I’ve got to learn this f*cking song!”
Max Stewart: That’s the irony! I also wanted to ask about the recent Aerosmith celebration at the Hollywood Bowl. What was it like being involved in that event?
Steve Stevens: Really, really cool. What a cast of guests!
I had to remind myself that when I was playing in cover bands, we did Aerosmith songs. They were our Yardbirds or Led Zeppelin. They were one of the cool American rock bands, and they’re still these larger-than-life characters.
You don’t get cooler than Joe Perry with a guitar on. And those songs are just fucking great.
That’s what it’s really about for me: the songs.
It was great to be part of it. Everybody was there to pay their respects and be part of something special. It was just a really cool couple of days.
Max Stewart: I loved how deep they went into the Aerosmith catalog. I also work with a nonprofit called The Hidden Jams, where fans rank their favorite songs by artists, helping reveal overlooked tracks that might get buried by streaming algorithms.
Seeing that Aerosmith setlist, with so many songs beloved by fans that weren’t necessarily singles, was awesome. How did you guys decide which songs to perform?
Steve Stevens: Obviously, certain tunes were already taken. I think it was actually Billy’s manager who suggested we do “Livin’ on the Edge.”
Billy really made it his own. Especially the second night we performed it, I got chills watching his rendition. I thought, “Man, you just made that your own thing.”
I think that’s the best way to honor a band: make the song your own. Hopefully, that’s what we did.
Max Stewart: Absolutely. You’ve done so many sessions over the years, but I have to ask about Top Gun. When you recorded that guitar work, did you have any idea it would still have such an enormous cultural impact in 2026?
Steve Stevens: Not at all!
Harold Faltermeyer, the composer of Top Gun, had worked with our producer, Keith Forsey, through Giorgio Moroder’s productions of Donna Summer’s records and things like that.
Harold came in to work on Whiplash Smile, and as a side note, he said, “I’m working on this new Tom Cruise movie.”
At that point, I think Tom had only done Risky Business, so it was like, “Oh, okay, cool.”
After a Billy Idol session, I think it was a Saturday, we put on the multitrack, moved the tapes over, and put up Top Gun. I think the whole session was about three hours.
I kind of forgot about it until we went to the premiere. Then I thought, “Wow, this is a big deal!”
And then, of course, to win a Grammy Award for it.
I always tell people that you can never predict these things. Sometimes the things you think are going to be incredibly successful aren’t, for whatever circumstances. And sometimes things become cultural icons like Top Gun.
Max Stewart: Going back to The Hidden Jams, is there a Billy Idol song that you feel has been overlooked? Maybe something buried on an album that didn’t get much airplay but you particularly love, or that fans really connect with? What’s a Hidden Jam from the Billy Idol catalog you’d like to shine a light on?
Steve Stevens: With our music, the singles are usually very obvious. That was never really dictated by the record company. It was always self-evident. You’d hear something and go, “That’s a fucking single!”
“Eyes Without a Face” is a single.
But there are other tracks that are essential to a Billy Idol show. It wouldn’t be a Billy Idol show if we didn’t play “Blue Highway,” for example. I don’t know if you’d consider that a deeper cut.
There were also two Billy Idol records I didn’t play on, and I love reinterpreting those songs. On the tour we just finished, we did “Trouble with the Sweet Stuff.”
It’s great because I’m a Billy Idol fan. If I was on the record, great. If I wasn’t, I still love those records. I love the Generation X records, too.
It’s really fun for me to reinterpret songs that I wasn’t necessarily involved in recording. Those would be some deeper cuts.
Max Stewart: Absolutely. You get to add your own special sauce to those songs.
We’re going to wrap up with a segment we call First, Best, Quest. It’s a way to get a window into your influences and experiences as a music fan.
First, what was the first concert you attended? Best, what’s the greatest concert you’ve ever seen? And Quest, who’s an artist you wish you could have seen live but never got the chance?
Steve Stevens: Well, I have an older brother who’s five years older than me. He used to take me to see jazz artists in Greenwich Village, but I won’t count those.
The first proper concert I attended with my friends, where we actually slept out for tickets, was Emerson, Lake & Palmer at Madison Square Garden in 1973, on the Brain Salad Surgery tour.
It was a huge production. I’d never seen anything like it.
I was a huge Keith Emerson fan, and it absolutely blew my teenage mind.
I know progressive rock eventually got a bad name, but what was great about Keith Emerson was that he was a virtuoso and an incredible showman.
He was jumping over the organ, battling it, and he had this great image. He looked like Prince Valiant up there!
It was a great lesson for me. If you’re going to present technically proficient stuff on your instrument, make it a show. Keep people’s interest beyond just noodling away on your instrument.
That was a really important lesson.
The best concert I ever saw was Prince on the Dirty Mind tour.
Somebody had gotten me a ticket and said, “You need to go see this guy.”
I was like, “Who is it? Prince?” I had no idea who he was.
It was at the Ritz in New York. I got there, went up to the balcony because I didn’t have very good tickets, and I saw Mick Jagger and Tina Turner seated at a table.
I thought, “Who the fuck is this guy we’re about to see?”
And two songs in, I was just blown away. I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing.
He was an incredible showman. The whole band was choreographed, and it just blew my mind.
Max Stewart: He really was one of a kind. What an artist. He could play everything, sing, dance, and put on an unbelievable show. And you saw him before Purple Rain, when he was still on the way up!
Steve Stevens: Exactly. For me, he was undiscovered. I wasn’t prepared for what I saw.
Here’s this dude up there in a G-string, singing his ass off, performing, dancing. It was the whole thing.
He was Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, and Joni Mitchell all rolled into one. He just had it.
Max Stewart: That’s incredible. And what about your Quest? Who do you wish you’d seen live?
Steve Stevens: I wish I’d seen Jimi Hendrix play. I never did. It’s amazing to think that his main recording career was really only three years, from 1967 to 1970, but there’s so much footage and music documenting that period.
Yeah. What do they call it, the 27 Club? Including Kurt Cobain and all those artists.
I don’t know, man. But I’m glad he visited us on this planet for a while.
Max Stewart: Absolutely. And the music lives on.
Steve, I really appreciate your time. I’m excited for you guys next week at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony, and I’ll also be at the Billy Idol Day celebration in Los Angeles on Friday.
With everything exciting happening in your world, I hope you get to enjoy it and soak it all in. Congratulations again!
Steve Stevens: Thank you. I appreciate it!