Punk rock was built on tearing down rock’s biggest superstars, and few embodied that rebellious attitude more than John Lydon. Whether fronting the Sex Pistols or Public Image Ltd, Lydon made a career out of mocking the old guard of rock ‘n’ roll. But even he had his limits—and one particular encounter left him completely overwhelmed.
Despite his punk bravado, Lydon once admitted he was too intimidated to even look at Paul McCartney when they crossed paths. That’s right—the same man who wrote Anarchy in the U.K. and sneered at rock royalty found himself unable to handle a surprise run-in with Macca.
Lydon recalled the moment during an interview with Piers Morgan, saying, “That was terrible. I was with my wife Nora, and we were going to visit my brother in Tottenham.
We had to go past Harrods, and two people come running across the street, and it’s Paul and Linda McCartney. They’re banging on the cab window. I put the lock down and turned my head around. I could not cope with it. It was too much.”
It’s an ironic twist, considering that McCartney—known for his melodic songwriting and polished production—was never exactly punk rock in sound. But in spirit? That’s another story. Even though he was writing radio-friendly hits like Silly Love Songs, McCartney had a habit of bending musical rules, from the chaotic Helter Skelter to the unconventional Band on the Run.
Lydon may have tried to distance himself from The Beatles, but their influence was hard to escape. The same straightforward major chords and Chuck Berry-style riffs that powered Never Mind the Bollocks weren’t far from what The Fab Four were doing in their early days. Even McCartney himself admitted he had a soft spot for punk, once saying he loved Pretty Vacant and even incorporating punk influences into his Back to the Egg album with tracks like Spin It On.
For all of Lydon’s sneering at rock legends, McCartney’s presence clearly carried a different kind of weight. If even the Sex Pistols frontman was left shaken by meeting him, maybe Macca had more punk credibility than people gave him credit for.
