White Wedding

I apologize for my bluntness, but you are all idiots. No, the song is not about incest, or being "children under God", or any of that other shit yall said. Geeze he announced what it was about in an interview a long time ago. His sister got pregnant by a guy she wasnt married to and they had a "shotgun" wedding--they call it that because people try to get married really quickly so that no one will suspect they had sex out of wedlock, just maybe had a premature birth. He is her "superman" because hes her big brother and trying to protect her. It's sort-of his apology for not being there for her to help her learn how to face the real world now that shes grown up. GEEEZE yall incest? come on. fucking idiots. look it up if you don't believe me.

From Billy Idol's autobiography, Dancing With Myself:

"I stared at the blank piece of scrap paper in front of me. Taking the pen sitting alongside it in hand, I wrote 'white wedding' at the top. What made me think of that? Well, my sister had recently gone to the altar pregnant. And while that fact was perfectly all right with everyone, seeing as how she loved the guy, I started thinking how, in the more recent past, this would have been called a 'shotgun wedding'. I started to imagine an alternative reality, one in which I was pissed off at this violation of my sister and I arrive at the wedding hell-bent on revenge.

Is this guy in love with his sister in an incestuous way, hating the thought of anyone else having her? The lyrics imply it, but without spelling it out—they create an uneasy feel."

i think you've mostly got it right, but i don't think he's literally talking about his sister. he's probably actually talking about an ex that he knows is in love with him, but is being forced into a marriage with somebody she doesn't really love because she accidentally got pregnant with him. she may have even cheated on him, hence the tone and the sarcastic "white wedding".

OK, woke up (in 2017) with this stuck in my head . . . looked this up and was actually surprised by the dumbness I read.

People, there are multiple interpretations of things! Yes, its about the wedding of Idol's character's (real or imagined) sister to someone else after being knocked up - as he claimed in the interview. Yes, the incest references are deliberate: Idol is not an idiot, and knows exactly how people hear lines like "Hey little sister, who's the one you want?"

And, above all, yes it is about a couple (related or no) using drugs. Freebase cocaine/crack, not heroin. "White wedding" is and was actually slang for a coke relapse. A "shotgun" is blowing exhaled smoke into someone's mouth when you are doing drugs so as not to waste any of the hit - this has been in common use for decades. He walks in and sees her with the the stuff after an attempt to quit: "What have you done?" If shes getting high, so is her "only one". He decides to join her, sharing the hit intimately: "shotgun". They relapse: "its a nice day to start again". It feels good . He's "been away for so long.". Contemplating their actions, and possibly their relationship, he concludes that "there's nothing pure in this world" so you might as well "look for something else in this world" (via momentary pleasure) . . . and Idol is certainly enough of a confirmed hedonist to have this interpretation. The "vice and wish" line also supports this nicely. The wedding is figuarative, and the "sister" probably (but not necessarily) is, too.

And that's probably all there is to say about it.

Idol was on VH1 a few years back and said what the song was about. It was about his sister getting married to the father of her unborn child. He's basically saying that he was 'gone so long' and his sister sort of grew up and changed. He didn't like the idea of his sister marrying this guy

Ha, I'm glad I'm not the only one who at least suspected incest.

"Hey little sister who's the only one Hey little sister who's your superman"

"I've been away for so long (so long) I let you go for so long"

C'mon now. Sounds to me like they sort of messed around when they were little and then he left. Now he's back for her wedding to some dude and he's reminding of what they used to do.

"White Wedding" was rumored to be a "nasty put down" by Idol and then-girlfriend Peri Lister, directed at Idol's sister for thinking that getting married was the answer to getting pregnant. In the 2001 recording of VH1 Storytellers Idol refutes that, saying his sister's wedding was simply inspiration for the song, which quickly took on its own form. Years after the video, Idol's sister is still married with three children.

The song is about Billy Idol's sister who got pregnant and his resentment over the loss of innocence. The shot-gun wedding mentioned in the song is a result of the pregnancy.

I'm laughing too hard at the comment section, but I do agree with some. It does paint Billy to be a bit weird especially knowing it's about his sister or at least inspired by his sister's relationship. Anyways, I believe this track is about yearning, disillusionment, loss of love, and personal growth. "Little sister" can be a term for a former partner too, but I feel like "little sister" could just possibly symbolize innocence regardless of who it's towards. Also, the repeated question "Hey little sister, what have you done?" may be a sense of betrayal or disappointment.

I feel like there's some fragile masculinity at play and power dynamics too, with lines like "who's your superman" "who's the one you want"(jealousy) and "Hey little sister, shotgun!". Shotgun weddings consist of pressure to conform to societal expectations. It could symbolize both loss of purity and new beginnings, but I don't think Billy is so happy about that.

In the end, Billy views the world as it is, harshly accepting it and leaving him to tell himself "It's a nice day to start again" for his own rebirth/redemption.

[Edit: Listen to White Wedding Pt. 2]

just for people who don't know, if you're a cocaine user and you give up but come back to it it's called a white wedding. That might make sense too.