John Lydon
John Lydon
John Joseph Lydon, also known by his former stage name Johnny Rotten, is an English singer, songwriter, and musician. He is best known as the lead singer of the late 1970's punk band The Sex Pistols, which lasted from 1975 until 1978, and again for various revivals during the 1990s and 2000s. He is also the lead singer of post-punk band Public Image Ltd, which he founded and fronted from 1978 until 1993, and again since 2009...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth31 January 1956
experience life matter
No matter what you experience in life, it incorporates political tendencies, and in so many ways.
inside keeps maintain people sort themselves ticking unhappy wake
I'm sort of of the belief that people kill themselves from the inside out. When they're unhappy with what they're doing, or not achieving things - when your focus is off-kilter. The thing that keeps me ticking is my values. And I maintain them, because they're worthy. I like to wake up and feel I've done no wrong. I like that feeling.
grew liked members music taken
I've been in very many situations where I've not liked the other members of the band or they have not liked me. I grew up presuming that's the way music was made. It doesn't need to be that way. It's taken me years years to find that out.
human
My inspiration is everything that the human being gets up to.
achieved black bob faces shoddy weak
It was a very shoddy and weak production. And there weren't enough Black faces in the show for my liking. I don't think it achieved anything. Bob Geldof is too self-serving.
party believe political
I'm very open about my politics. I don't believe in any political party at all, none of them.
brushes daft
You'd have to be daft as a brush to say you didn't like Pink Floyd.
rotten negative sometimes
Sometimes the most positive thing you can be in a boring society is absolutely negative.
innocence states
Remaining childish is a tremendous state of innocence.
rip hate car
I hate the technological rip-offs that pass for music formats these days, and go back to vinyl to hear a good record because the sound is always so much fuller. I don't even like listening to music in the car.
song should-have band
U2 - that's a band that never should have existed. There's no life experience in any of their songs.
gains poverty chaos
When you come from desperate poverty, and that's exactly what I come from, you know that nonsenses are not to be tolerated. I'm not sure who gains from chaos, but I know it's not the poor folks in the council flats. The politics of vindictiveness is never, ever anything like a solution.
dog needs want
We need wealthy dogs off the seats of power. They're taking us back to feudalism and I really don't want that. But I'm very far from being a socialist.
sex animal names
[Replying to the question of the presenter: "where did the name "Sex Pistols" come from, who thought this name up?"] Some animal. I can't remember. It doesn't matter. It's history.