The question

What did you want to be when you were growing up?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Billy Idol

Singer and songwriter

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here
Ever since I saw The Beatles in 1962-63 I started to dream about being in a group. Being on stage, in a group, writing your own songs, it just seemed like they were having a ton amount of fun and there was this huge music explosion.

Sally Steele, Vegas Rocks Magazine, 6 April 2020 source ↗

Others on this question

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Andy Serkis English actor
I just thought I was going to go into graphics and painting, which is what I wanted to do.
Recorded Mark Sells, MovieMaker Magazine, 31 January 2023 source ↗

More from Billy Idol

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Question What is your greatest fear? Identity & self
I nearly lost my leg and things like that, my life and my leg, you know? So (laughter) yeah, so gradually through the '90s, early 2000s, I was gradually trying to get off drugs, really. That's what I was doing, you know? I'm glad I'm like this today because I wouldn't be here talking to you. I would be probably either dead, in prison or gone crazy.
Recorded A Martínez, NPR, KVPR, 24 March 2026 source ↗

More on identity & self

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Rick Astley, Jo Nesbø, Shirley Manson, Julie Andrews, Bobby Womack, Father John Misty

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