What does White Wedding mean?

Billy Idol: White Wedding Meaning

Album cover for White Wedding album cover

Song Released: 1982


Get "White Wedding" on MP3: Get MP3 from iTunes

White Wedding Lyrics

Hey little sister what have you done
Hey little sister who's the only one
Hey little sister who's your superman
Hey little sister who's the one you want
Hey little sister shot gun!

It's a nice day to start again
It's a nice day for a...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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    Sep 2nd 2015 !⃝

    As stated in an interview on VH1's "Storytellers", Billy specifically states that the song is NOT about his little sister like everyone believes. "Little Sister" in England, is slang for girlfriend, similar to "Bae".
    He continued to say the song is about a guy seeing a girl he was once in a relationship with marry someone else. He's still deeply in love with her, but she's not. Additionally she's pregnant by the guy she's about to marry.
    He later went on to say his sister getting married gave him the inspiration to the song, but reiterated that it is not specifically about her. Only that his little sister gave him inspiration.

  2. 2TOP RATED

    #2 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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    Dec 8th 2006 !⃝

    Someone requested this song, so here goes.

    Billy Idol is singing about a girl ("hey little sister"), and when I heard this song it seemed kind of menacing the first time, like he's sort of threatening her. He asks her what she has done, who her man is, etc. Then he says "Shot gun!" This is, in the context of the song, a reference to a "shotgun wedding", which means that the girl in the song apparently got pregnant as a result of her relationship with this guy and now they have to get married. He then sings, "It's a nice day to start again... It's a nice day for a white wedding" with a particular sneering, almost venonmous emphasis on "white wedding". A white wedding is where the bride is still a virgin. This bride apparently isn't really, and that's why he's mocking her.

    Then he sings "Take me back home/ There is nothin' fair in this world/ There is nothin' safe in this world/ And there's nothing sure in this world/ And there's nothin' pure in this world". This leads me to the conclusion that he loved this girl, but while he was gone she found another man and now she's marrying him cause she's pregnant with his baby.

  3. 3TOP RATED

    #3 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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    Oct 19th 2018 !⃝

    So many people are way off. Yes his sister was getting married and yes she was pregnant. There was no problem with who she was marrying, etc. It simply gave him the idea for the song, and his mind ran away with the rest. It kind of refers to an incestuious type brother who went out on the road for a while and came back to this, his little sister being knocked up and no longer pure while he was away, but it’s only partially based off his real life and the rest just became a song. Watch his explanation of the song on VH1’s Storytellers. It’s the 4th song in with the story of the song being told first.

  4. anonymous
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    Apr 21st 2023 !⃝

    It's about a man who loves a girl. He finds out she's met someone else and they might get married. So he wants to go home to get her back because he still loves her. He realizes that he let her go for too long.

  5. anonymous
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    May 8th 2021 !⃝

    About starting to use again. The provocative lure into starting again on Cocaine. The song is grooming and baiting ( probably a female) someone to start using again.This is not innocence of a "wedding" wake up.

  6. anonymous
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    Apr 18th 2020 !⃝

    I was at the wedding of his little sister that actually became pregnant to a friend of mine from Kent University, England.Join the dots.

  7. anonymous
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    Jan 15th 2020 !⃝

    This song has perhaps two meanings but the strongest meaning is about heroin. A white wedding in junky circles is when a addict who has been straight for a while falls of the wagon and does another poke. Little sister is slang for morhine.(sister morphine...stones.the line who is the only one is reference to the fact that for a needle addict herion is the only thing that matters period.the line it's a nice day to start again is self explanatory.ps Billy idol just happens to be an addict...hmmm

  8. anonymous
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    Aug 18th 2019 !⃝

    Probably a girl he loved who cheated, got pregnant, and decided to get married because of this. He’s responding with extreme passive aggressiveness/sarcasm in an angry way.

  9. anonymous
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    Jul 24th 2019 !⃝

    When you hit bottom start again give yourself a second chance and don't listen to these phukin idiots

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  10. anonymous
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    Jan 25th 2019 !⃝

    The lyrics is understandable. The video is blasphemy, inappropriate. Yeah, racist.

    My first interpretation is being reviewed.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  11. anonymous
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    Jan 25th 2019 !⃝

    The video is blasphemy, inappropriate, and with racism. Correct, racist.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  12. anonymous
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    Jan 24th 2019 !⃝

    Playing on the radio at work recently. First time I heard it. In todays day and age it sounds more racist then anything though Im sure not intention of song unless it truely was about sister marrying black man.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  13. anonymous
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    Nov 30th 2018 !⃝

    The tribulation? The wedding in heaven and the beginning of the new earth.... Start again!! ????

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  14. anonymous
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    Sep 5th 2018 !⃝

    I like my personal interpretation the best.

    Basically it’s about a guy that went away to college, or in military or some positive reason, the relationship becomes long distance). His girlfriend was younger than him and couldn’t join him. They both love each other very much but she’s lonely and horny and hasn’t heard from him and assumed he has broken up with her or is ghosting her (he got busy and not good habits of writing, and back then long distance calling was too expensive) she is grieving and becomes promiscuous in his absence and accidentally ends up pregnant. Assumes he wouldn’t want her. He comes back, discovers her pregnant and loves her so much and surprises her with forgiveness and acceptance and a sense of humor (he too wasn’t perfectly chaste in waiting to comeback) so he understands. He surprises her with a marriage purposeful and they start a new life together. :-)

  15. anonymous
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    Aug 5th 2018 !⃝

    Billy Idol's little sister marrying a black man.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  16. anonymous
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    Jul 13th 2018 !⃝

    This song is about heroin. Think about It!

  17. anonymous
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    Feb 20th 2018 !⃝

    The song is obviously about a big brother shotgun protecting it's younger sister shotgun. It's like saying hay little sister shotgun. means he's talking about his little sister that is a shotgun. Probably a smaller shotgun with a pink handle. He says that he is her superman which obviously means he is going to get bloke shotgun that run off on her and bring him back.

  18. anonymous
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    Dec 18th 2017 !⃝

    Shotgun is when a girl hits you in the ass with dildos while yanking your.rod..like a shotgun..you have to be in the know..like swinging hammer in Alabama in chili peppers song is about a boy in drag..

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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