Why John Lydon will “never forgive” the Sex Pistols
If you’re still holding out hope for the original Sex Pistols to reunite, John Lydon has some bad news: the chances are “in the minus infinities”.
The former frontman has once again shut down any prospect of reconciling with guitarist Steve Jones, drummer Paul Cook and bassist Glen Matlock, saying he’ll “never forgive” his ex-bandmates over the legal battle surrounding Pistol while his wife, Nora Foster, was battling Alzheimer’s.
Speaking in a new interview with Rolling Stone, Lydon reflects on the bitter dispute over Danny Boyle’s Pistol miniseries, which saw him unsuccessfully attempt to block the band’s music from being licensed for the Disney+ show. The court case unfolded while Foster was battling Alzheimer’s disease; she died in 2023 at the age of 80.
READ MORE: This Sex Pistols 50th Anniversary Marshall stack might be the most punk guitar amp ever
“I’ll never forgive them for the way that they piled that court case on me while my wife was dying of Alzheimer’s,” Lydon says. “It was a most unfortunate act on their part, and then using Disney to strip-mine me [for FX’s Pistol]…. If I didn’t raise, say, $10 million after the first week, the case couldn’t go on. That’s money I could have spent taking care of my lovely Nora. They knew she was ill.”
When asked to rate the chances of ever singing with the band again on a scale of zero to 100, Lydon bluntly replies: “It’s in the minus infinities. The dirt that they unloaded on me in a time where I was in real serious grief … No, I cannot forget about that.”
The musician also reveals that none of his former bandmates contacted him following Foster’s death. Asked whether a lack of respect lies at the heart of the split, he replies: “Yes, there was no respect.”
“And to try to put together what I call a mockumentary about the Pistols, and for three years, deliberately not tell me a word, not share any of this with me, and not consider that I might have an opinion on this and then to force that into the law courts, that was really, really untasteful. So no, I don’t hang out with low-renters.”
Lydon also hit back at comments made by Jones in an earlier Rolling Stone interview, in which the guitarist joked that the singer might return to the band if he needed the money.
“There’s desperation for you. How little they know me,” Lydon says. “They must be the only fools on the planet that could think that about me. Well, then, they are special people with special needs.”
The latest remarks follow Sex Pistol’s recent reunion shows, which saw Jones, Cook and Matlock return with Gallows frontman Frank Carter handling vocal duties. Lydon previously slammed the project, accusing his former bandmates of ‘killing the content’ of the Pistols’ message and reducing the band’s legacy to “rubbish childishness”.
Grab tickets to the show.
The post Why John Lydon will “never forgive” the Sex Pistols appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
