Billy Idol knows this Tuesday's release of his first studio album of original material in a dozen years, Devil's Playground, is a major gamble.

But the '80s pop-punk rocker from England -- who became as famous for his curled lip, in-your-face attitude and hard living as he did for hits such as White Wedding, Rebel Yell, Eyes Without A Face, and Flesh For Fantasy -- is nothing if not still full of bluster.

"It wasn't as if I stopped being Billy Idol. In fact, I took that time to preserve being Billy Idol," says the admittedly well-preserved

49-year-old rocker, relaxing on a couch in a Toronto hotel room recently. "It involved not getting sucked in by huge conglomerate record companies who all want big bucks and not great music."

To recap, Idol's previous studio album, 1993's poorly received Cyberpunk, was released on Chrysalis, which wound up getting sold to EMI.

"They wanted me to do what they wanted," Idol says of his former label. "They kept trying to tell me what record they thought Billy Idol should make. Either Billy-lite, L-I-T-E, or an acoustic album. And I said, 'But man, I'm sitting here with Steve F--king Stevens and he plays electric guitar. Hello?' So there was a lot of things like that. I know it's hard for people to understand. They would say, 'Well, what could take 10 years to get right?' "

Primarily, Idol had to wait to be dropped from his record contract, which included approving the 2001 release of a greatest-hits package that ultimately led to renewed interest in his music.

He began touring again with guitarist Steve Stevens and a new band, including drummer Brian Tichy -- another songwriting collaborator on Devil's Playground besides Stevens -- and soon VH1's popular Behind The Music and Storytellers programs came calling.

Idol says reuniting with Stevens, the guitarist replaced by 1990's Charmed Life, was inevitable despite a somewhat tempestuous parting.

"We just got so coked out in the late '80s that we didn't know left from right," he says. "It was the pressure, too ... there'd be pressure to always come up with the next thing and he's under that pressure, too. That's what makes people break up. There was the blow as well. You just need the artifice of the drugs just to turn the screw a little bit."

By 2003, Sanctuary Records CEO Merck Mercuriadis was at an Idol show at the Hammerstein Ballroom and offering him a deal with creative control.

"Sanctuary are a company I've chosen to be on," says Idol, who will play Kool Haus on April 12. "I've said, 'Yes, and what do you want from me, Mr. Mercuriadis?' (And he said), 'I want you, Billy, to make a great Billy Idol album! What I'm saying is to get control of what you're doing -- it's worth it!'

"I think that was the big point of why I was in rock 'n' roll to start with, why we loved punk. 'Cause that brought that spirit back to rock.

"(With Chrysalis, it was), 'You think I'm going to stop, just because it's 1994? You think I'm going throw those ideals away? No, I'm not. I'm going to wait. I'm going to sit on my ass if I have to and do nothing 'til you drop me.' So I'm now here happy to be talking to you, as opposed to in servitude, enslaved, or in chains, or out there on the street getting f--ked up because I wouldn't be here talking to you because I wouldn't have made a record I'd be proud of."

If you haven't figured it out already, Billy Idol -- born William Michael Albert Broad in Stanmore, Middlesex, England -- is still essentially Billy Idol.

He looks the same, dressed on this day in his trademark black leather pants, with a shock of blond, white hair standing on end, ear piercings and an assortment of silver jewelry around his neck, wrists and hands.

Idol also gamely whips off his shirt for a photo to run with this article.

And he sure sounds the same on Devil's Playground with that "rebel yell" fully intact, particularly on the first single, Scream.

"It's a 3 a.m. sex song," he says happily. "You've finally found the other person who'll make you scream."

Idol says he had a major epiphany about returning to rock and roll while on a motorcycle ride. After moving to L.A., he got his first Harley in 1987 to celebrate his cover of Mony Mony becoming a No. 1 hit.

"It turned out it was a magic way of getting out of L.A. Not only that, it was an incredible way of seeing America," Idol says. "It's like anything you're doing for a long time ... once you're out on the highway, you're just pissing along, you go into a meditative state, and you think about your life. And, in fact, you internalize a lot of it. All I'd be thinking about is, 'How can I rock again?' "

But back to the story. It was the summer of 1999, when he happened upon an outdoor concert by Los Lobos at the end of Northern California's Redwood Run in Eureka, Ore.

Before he knew it, he found himself on stage with the band doing Train Kept A-Rollin'.

"It was so magic that I went off into ecstasy. The music seemed to be going around (and around). And this friend that was watching me was going, 'Wow, he's gone!' 'Cause he'd just ridden bikes with me, he'd never seen me on stage. So it was really cool."

Previously, the other major wakeup call was a mortal one after a 1994 drug overdose of crack cocaine.

Idol says he has been close to meeting his maker several times, including a serious motorcycle accident in 1990 in which he almost lost his leg, and led to him having to drop out of Oliver Stone's biopic, The Doors.

"I've almost died loads of times," he says. "I actually read my obituary once in The New York Times in 1987 or '88."

But this drug overdose was different.

"It was at a point where my friend was able to say to me, 'You've got a son, you've got a daughter, they wouldn't be proud of you, they wouldn't be happy if you died.' And that's when I had to think of somebody other than myself for awhile and it was worth it 'cause it gave me something to do while I was waiting for these record company people. Do I either die or be destroyed by their evil incarnations or whatever it is they are?"

Now at least one of his offspring -- his 16-year-old son Will and 15-year-old daughter Bonnie have two different mothers -- wants to follow in dear old dad's footsteps.

"Will's in his own group, plays the guitar and sings, they just played The Roxy," says Idol, beaming slightly, at the memory of his son playing a cool L.A. nightclub.

"It was pretty wild 'cause my mom was there and my dad and we all watched him together and my mom was pretty wowed. She was like, 'I couldn't believe you did it, let alone he's doing it!' "

Idol is honest about his struggle with drugs and alcohol, even today.

"I'm a bit of binger is what I am," he says. "I'm a binge artist. You do it for short amount of time and then you sort of pull yourself back together. I'm still a total binge artist."

Surely it concerns him?

"Yeah, it does, but I've died so many times already," he says, his voice trailing off.

"I'm Billy Idol, that's better than being f--king immortal."