Imagine finding out that your father is not your biological father. It happens all the time. People grow up and learn about the dramatic twists and turns that their parents' lives took. Sometimes, they learn that the men they believed to be their fathers aren't actually their genetic relations. It must be a real shock to the system. And it must be an even bigger shock to learn that your actual real father is Billy Idol. That's what a Long Island man named Brant Northridge learned a couple of years ago.
As People reports, a new Jonas Åkerlund-directed documentary called Billy Idol Should Be Dead, which premiered last night at the Tribeca Film Festival, covers the highlights and lowlights of the rocker's career -- the time in early punk band Generation X, the MTV years, the motorcycle crash and addictions that also almost killed him. It also details some surprising twists of Idol's family life. Idol knew that he had two kids: Williem, his son with the dancer Perri Lister, and Bonnie, his daughter with ex-girlfriend Linda Mathis. He did not know about Brant, the boy that he fathered while touring behind the 1983 album Rebel Yell.
Billy Idol learned of Brant's existence a few years ago, when his daughter Bonnie took a DNA test. In the doc, Bonnie tells the tale: "My husband just surprised me with a 23andMe, with a DNA test as a Christmas present. 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 dad. I was like, 'What?'"
Brant, who has now taken his celebrity father's real surname, says that he learned that the man he thought was his father was not actually related when he took his own DNA test: "I was like, 'Mom, is there a chance Mark might not be my biological father?' And she’s like, 'Well, it’s pretty crazy, but back in the day, we broke up and I actually spent a weekend with Billy Idol.'"
Billy Idol has reportedly welcomed Brant Broad into his family and spent time with his newly discovered grandchildren. Brant appeared with Idol and the rest of the Idol family when Idol got a square on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame in 2023. Brant describes Idol as a "good man" who "loves his family," and he also tells a story about his daughter jumping on a bed and landing on Billy Idol's nuts. Read the People story here.
