With his venomous tongue and ever-shifting persona, John Lydon, the Sex Pistols’ face, carved a distinctive niche in music’s landscape, independent of the punk scene while perpetually bound to its legacy. Sneering, sardonic, and odd, the vocalist has always kept commentators guessing.
Despite having such a short oeuvre, Lydon’s efforts with the Sex Pistols rate among the most culturally influential of their age, and his critiques of other artists have played a vital role in building the contentious and somewhat hilarious character that he is today.
John Lydon appears to have never been scared to express himself. After all, the other Sex Pistols members saw him as a shady teenager going along London’s Kings Road. He was wearing a tattered Pink Floyd T-shirt with “I hate” written above the band’s name. That was enough to hire him in the punk spirit, and what a risk that proved to be.
Lydon would become the band’s musical and public face from that point on. From leading the renowned, profanity-laced insurgency against Bill Grundy on the Today program to incendiary lyrics about the late Queen. It is safe to argue that the quintet would not have risen so quickly and generated such a commotion without the flame-haired rascal.
Lydon’s character has become stronger since those days of ranting against the establishment in a sclerotic Britain. He has delivered many caustic appraisals of fellow musicians. One of the most explosive included the grunge band Hole and their temperamental leader, Courtney Love. From their three critically lauded albums to their countless anthems, the American band has cemented its place as a legendary force in the alternative rock landscape. Lydon seems unconcerned. Love, he believes, is nothing more than a “cheap fake.”
Lydon erupted into a harsh critique of Love and her persona on television in the 1990s. “Courtney Love Kurt’s money,” he remarked, referring to her husband, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain.
“You love the idea of being a rebel, but you haven’t proven to me – or anyone else – exactly what being a rebel is; what are you rebelling against?” said the punk icon. You’re just a jumbled mess. “You’re a cheap imitation.”
The interview is displayed below.
