Billy Idol is nothing if not grateful for the wild ride on which music has taken him.

Were it not for punk, new wave and pop, Billy isn't sure what he'd be doing or where he would be, other than that it would probably "have been pretty miserable, whatever it was."

Billy's ninth studio solo album, Dream Into It, is due out later this month (April 25). The album finds the rock icon reflecting on the triumphs of the past, embracing the trials of the present and maintaining hope for the future.

"It is a little bit about my life and about the early days," Billy tells Q104.3's Out of the Box with Jonathan Clarke about the song "Still Dancing." " But it's also still very much about today, that I'm still rocking, I'm still enjoying what we do. I'm playing with Steve Stevens, my guitarist, he's playing better than ever ... we've got this killer album, Dream Into It. The songs are great. I don't think there's a bad track on it. So all of that is so exciting."

Among many notable collaborations on the record, the album pairs Billy and pop-punk princess Avril Lavigne on "77." Billy says the tune is a good snapshot of what's on his mind these days.

"First she sings about today about what's happening to young people today and then I was able to sort of think about what was happening to us in the mid-'70s in England," he says. "There was a lot of polarization. It's not so different from what's going on in America today."

From squatting with his band mates to selling millions of records and earning a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nomination, Billy doesn't take for granted that he beat the odds.

"The times they were telling you there was no future, that's what was going on in England in the mid-'70s, so it was kind of like, why not do the thing you love then?" he recalled. "...We were just living it day to day because we loved it. Then boom! And here I am a million 49 years later or something ridiculous. I think it's great, I kind of got paid back for doing the thing I loved. It was really luck."

Watch the full interview via the player above!

For more on DREAM INTO IT and Billy Idol's tour dates, go here.

Jones and Company