A DNA Test Connected Billy Idol With a Son He Didn’t Know He Had

During his peak years as a rock 'n' roll madman in the '80s and early '90s, there was at least one cradle of love that Billy Idol never rocked: the one belonging to his son Brant, who he only learned about and met for the first time a few years ago.

Idol fans became aware of Brant in 2023, when he was present for the ceremony unveiling his father's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. But it's only now that we're learning the details behind their long-belated introduction, which took place after Idol's daughter Bonnie took a DNA test.

"My husband just surprised me with a 23andMe, with a DNA test as a Christmas present,” Bonnie's quoted as saying in the new documentary Billy Idol Should Be Dead (via People). “And then a few weeks later, I get the results back on the app and open it and I’m like, who is this? This Brant. And it says his info’s like, 'New York, 1985, looking for my bio (biological) dad.' I was like, ‘What?’"

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Longtime Idol fans will have already done the math to determine that the singer was touring behind his hugely popular Rebel Yell album when the fateful encounter occurred. As Brant says in the film, he grew up believing his father was someone else, but when a different DNA test raised questions about his parentage, he went to his mother — who told him, "Well, it’s pretty crazy, but back in the day, we broke up and I actually spent a weekend with Billy Idol."

For Idol, this later-in-life surprise is nothing but a blessing. "I really enjoyed being a dad. I always wanted a boy and a girl, and I finagled my way into a boy and a girl," he says in the film. "And I actually had a son that I didn’t realize, who I fathered on the Rebel Yell tour without knowing it. So I somehow finagled this as well."