Billy Idol unveiled his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame yesterday with help from fellow rocker Henry Rollins and graphic designer Shepard Fairey.

The ceremony, which can be seen below, included a speech from Idol before the star – the 2,573rd to be placed, and located at 6201 Hollywood Boulevard – was revealed.

Idol reflected on his career in a related interview with Variety, saying: "Some way or other, by hook or by crook, I finagled my way into this position where I'm still going strong and enjoying it. We just started playing because we loved it. Maybe it would last six months or a couple, three years. And now it's almost 50 years later. The music we've been putting out lately has been fantastic.”

He added: "We were like the Aborigines, dreaming up a country. When you do music, there is no real template. You have to make it up as you go along. There's a sense of freedom I get from rock 'n' roll. Freedom from the 9 to 5. And we're still having fun and excited about what we do."

Looking ahead, Idol said: "I think we'll do this as long as we're being creative and coming up with new stuff worth playing, doing something we haven't done before. We have one foot in the past and one in the future."

He also suggested that his celebrated story of hearing "Mony Mony" for the first time during his first sexual encounter wasn't strictly true. "Well, it's just a really good story, innit?" he laughed. "But it was around that time I lost my virginity, so it's not that far-fetched."

Watch Billy Idol's Hollywood Walk of Fame Ceremony

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