John Lydon – aka Johnny Rotten – changed the face of music and sparked a cultural revolution.
The legendary frontman and lyricist of the Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd has caused his fair share of political earthquakes during a unique and extraordinary career.
From the mischievous glint which still twinkles brightly in his eyes, you sense he’s relished every single moment. And still does.
On June 2, the London-born singer will visit Blackpool’s Winter Gardens as part of his spoken word tour, I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right.
He will talk about how he sees life, his unique and extraordinary career, and take audience questions.
Ahead of his show, reporter Sean Gleaves sat down for a chat with Lydon to find out what people can expect.
The legendary frontman and lyricist of the Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd has caused his fair share of political earthquakes during a unique and extraordinary career.
From the mischievous glint which still twinkles brightly in his eyes, you sense he’s relished every single moment. And still does.
On June 2, the London-born singer will visit Blackpool’s Winter Gardens as part of his spoken word tour, I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right.
He will talk about how he sees life, his unique and extraordinary career, and take audience questions.
Ahead of his show, reporter Sean Gleaves sat down for a chat with Lydon to find out what people can expect.
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00:00So obviously today we're talking about your tour that's coming to Blackpool soon, which is the I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right tour.
00:07So could you just tell me a little bit about it?
00:10I've done these kind of things before, book promos or just general chit chats.
00:17It's a question answer format. Don't quite know yet how we're going to sort it all out.
00:22There's no script. You know, it'll be a delightful ball of confusion.
00:29It's kind of like what an audience kind of expects and I will deliver from me.
00:35This is how it is. But if you come with a political manifesto in the back of your skull, forget it.
00:42You're in the wrong building. This is Norman wisdom does philosophy.
00:50Any question's a good question. I'm never short of words because I'm basing everything on my true experiences.
00:59So it's not like I'm going to have to open Caligari's casket and root around in Pandora's box for answers.
01:10No, I'm like that. I'm quick.
01:14And what's it like interacting with your fans? It must be nice to meet the people who followed you for so long and actually get to talk to them.
01:21Yeah, it's good. It's very good. It's exceptional.
01:27It's nice to know that I've had a positive influence on so many people's lives rather than a negative one.
01:35And I think they appreciate the fact that I've stuck to my guns.
01:40I don't run around with a fake image and I don't tell lies. I do it as I want.
01:45I've gone up against the establishment almost continuously.
01:49I'm now completely independent of the record companies and no body can put a gag on me at all.
01:57And that's the best way. And so, by example, I've shown that it can be done and you could be damn well successful and sort yourself out financially just by telling it as it is.
02:09Yeah, which should have been always, always the motto and a manifesto that we all adhere to.
02:17It's to me, I think my life is not that intriguing.
02:21So I'm kind of always flabbergasted when people really, really want to know things that I'd almost forgotten.
02:29And that's terrific because those memories come flooding back.
02:33You know, what was it like dancing with gorillas, Johnny?
02:38You did something similar, was it 2021 where you did a similar tour? What made you so emotional?
02:44It would be like that with a great deal of grief in the back of my mind, which to me might be a real good soul solving problem.
02:54Because to lose my wife and my best friend in the same time span, that's very much more than I was expecting to handle.
03:06But I'm coming round to that. I mean, obviously, my nights are bloody lonely as hell.
03:12Yeah, without the lovely Nora and my mornings to without Rambo on the phone.
03:17Get up, get up, get lazy, do some work. I really miss this.
03:25Their personalities, I kind of try and share that with the audience so that they understand why they were so important to me.
03:35Really, just seriously, if I should die and go to the same place my lovely Nora and a fantastic Rambo are in, I'm going to have to break up a row because those two are cats and dogs.
03:51So Public Image Limited released its 11th album, End of the World, in 2023.
03:57Have you got any plans for anything coming up? Have you been, you know, thinking?
04:03Yeah, most plans, you see, because Rambo was such an important person to me and to Phil.
04:09He was the chief operator and instigator. And it's chaos to me now at the moment trying to pick up the business pieces and find out what was done, what wasn't done.
04:21Because most of the time the man had an incredible memory.
04:26And so he didn't really tend to write things down because he found that unnecessary.
04:32The day before he died, we were moaning about Arsenal, as per usual, on the weekend.
04:38And on the Sunday he had an aneurysm and died in a matter of hours.
04:43So he didn't see it coming. Apparently it was hereditary.
04:48And so now we've all got to deal with that. But I'm going to try.
04:54I mean, I'm in constant contact with Lou. Bruce, our drummer, is having situations of his own.
05:02And Scotty's got to stop drinking so much. They're very good friends of mine. Very, very close.
05:12Right. Again, we all have incredibly different backgrounds and beliefs.
05:18We're absolutely not supposed to get on. But it's just not the truth.
05:24You can find friendship regardless of those, like I say, auxiliary moments.
05:30Well, I like people that don't follow the Pied Piper. It's as simple as that.
05:35And no matter how extreme their political or religious beliefs are, they're absolutely fine to me because they're working it out for themselves.
05:45The individual, the art of being an individual. It's a complicated minefield.
05:52But one I think I kind of like, I've got the gist of it. I've got fond memories of Black Paul.
05:59One of the most famous one was singing into Cilla Clark's tights.
06:06Oh, you've got to expand on that.
06:08Well, we played on that old cinema type venue right by the pier on the front, on the front boardwalk.
06:16I don't know if it's still there anymore, but it was the weekend and Cilla Black was off.
06:22She was doing a play or whatever it is she does, a sing along.
06:27And I went into a dressing room and I found a pair of her tights thrown over a chair.
06:35So I went appropriations time and I put them over the microphone and sang through her tights.
06:44I expect a great deal of fun. These things go off really, really well.
06:49Yeah, they really do. People are good.
06:52And then there's that very, very excellent British way of just finding humor in everything.
06:58And you throw a bit of Irish in there and you've got fabulous events.