John Lydon
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John Joseph Lydon (born 31 January, 1956), also known as Johnny Rotten (a nickname derived either from his favourite saying, "You're rotten, you are" or from the rotten condition of his teeth) was the iconoclastic lead singer of the Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd (PiL) and an Irish individualist anarchist. With his leering, swaggering and sarcastic public persona, he laid down a new template for rebellious youth and band frontmen that continues to be imitated today.
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Brief biography
John Lydon was reportedly born in Holloway in London—although, according to his autobiography, this cannot be confirmed, as his birth certificate has been lost. It is alleged that he was born in County Galway, Ireland, and spent a very brief portion of his life there in his father's home town of Tuam.
His parents were both Irish Catholic immigrants. He grew up in the working class environment of Holloway with three younger brothers. At the age of seven, he contracted spinal meningitis, putting him in and out of comas for half a year and erasing most of his memory. The disease left him with a permanent curve in his spine and his iconic stare.
Sex Pistols
Lydon was hanging around Malcolm McLaren's clothes shop, SEX (co-owned with designer Vivienne Westwood), in 1975, after McLaren had returned from a brief stint of travelling with American proto-punk band The New York Dolls, and was working on promoting a new band formed by Steve Jones, Glen Matlock and Paul Cook. Lydon was wearing a Pink Floyd T-Shirt with the words 'I Hate' scrawled in felt-tip pen above their name when offered the job as the new band's singer. He auditioned in the shop tunelessly singing Alice Cooper's "Eighteen" to the accompaniment of the jukebox.
His interest in dub music and his post-Sex Pistols work with PiL and artists such as Afrika Bambaataa and Leftfield showed him to be far more musically sophisticated than his Pistols persona suggested. Indeed, McLaren was said to have been quite upset when Lydon revealed during a radio interview that his influences included Can, Captain Beefheart and Van Der Graaf Generator. Such acts were not in keeping with the 'punk' image McLaren wished to see projected.
Lydon recommended his school friend John Simon Ritchie to McLaren as a replacement for bassist Glen Matlock. Even though Ritchie was a below average bass player, Lydon and McLaren decided he had "the look": lanky, spike-haired, with ripped clothes and a perpetual sneer. Because that image was the exact opposite of the quiet, shy Ritchie's personality, Lydon dubbed him "Sid Vicious" as a joke.
Ritchie would prove the Sex Pistols' undoing, however; his chaotic relationship with disturbed girlfriend Nancy Spungen and worsening heroin addiction angered Lydon in particular, and was the source of much friction. Lydon closed what was to be the final Sid Vicious-era Sex Pistols concert in San Francisco's Winterland in January 1978 with the now-legendary quip to the audience: "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?" Shortly thereafter, McLaren, Jones and Cook went to Brazil to meet train robber Ronnie Biggs, much to Lydon's disgust, who felt that they were making a hero out of a violent thug and that the group ought to honour its gig commitments in Scandinavia. Lydon was abandoned in San Francisco with no money.
The Sex Pistols' disintegration is documented in the documentaries D.O.A. and The Filth and the Fury, and to a lesser degree Julien Temple's comedy/biopic The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, in which the Pistols played themselves. D.O.A. was filmed without permission from either the band or the managment, while Lydon refused to have anything to do with McLaren's The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle.
Public Image Limited (PiL)
That same year, he formed Public Image Limited (PiL) and denounced the Sex Pistols. PiL lasted for fourteen years with John Lydon as the only consistent member, releasing many critically acclaimed albums. The group did quite well in the UK charts, but were regularly outsold by Sex Pistols reissues. But, to this day, to those unfamiliar with his work as a musician, he is known first and foremost as "Johnny Rotten."
TV reality show
In January 2004, Lydon appeared on the British reality television programme, I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!, which took place in Australia. He proved he still had the capability to shock by calling the show's viewers "fucking cunts" during a live broadcast. The television regulator and ITV, the channel broadcasting the show, between them received 91 complaints about Lydon's use of bad language.
In an interview previous to the show's first episode, he had described it as "moronic," and throughout the show's run he had displayed an indifferent attitude to staying and threatened to walk out on numerous occasions. 30 hours following ex-football star Neil Ruddock's departure, Lydon left the show for unclear reasons.
British newspapers claimed that Lydon had won a £100 bet with Ruddock over who would stay in the longest. Lydon, however, stated on air that he felt he would win outright and that it would be unfair to the other celebrities for him to win. After I'm a celebrity..., he presented a documentary about spiders that was shown on the Discovery Channel, Radio Times described him as "more an enthusiast than an expert".
In a February 2004 interview with the Scottish Sunday Mirror, Lydon said that he and his wife "should be dead", since on 21 December, 1988, thanks to delays caused by his wife's packing, they missed the doomed Pan Am Flight 103. During this interview, Lydon said that the real reason for him leaving the Get Me Out of Here! show was the "appalling" refusal of the programme makers to let him know whether his wife had arrived safely in Australia.
In 2004, he publicly refused to allow the Rhino record label to include any Sex Pistols songs on its box set No Thanks! The 70's Punk Rebellion, a compilation of songs by influential punk rock bands.
In 2005, he appeared in Reynebeau & Rotten, a five episode documentary on Canvas, the cultural channel of VRT, which is the Flemish public broadcast. John Lydon guided Belgian journalist Marc Reynebeau through Great Britain to show him and the Belgian viewers what makes Britain so great. When asked why he was chosen as a guide, he answered that he was the cheapest one available.
Lydon's Autobiography
John Lydon wrote the following statement in his introduction to his autobiography, Rotten - No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs.
"Much has been written about the Sex Pistols. Much of it has either been sensationalism or journalistic psychobabble. The rest has been mere spite. This book is as close to the truth as one can get ... This means contradictions and insults have not been edited, and neither have the compliments, if any. I have no time for lies or fantasy, and neither should you. Enjoy or die."
External links
- [1] Official John Lydon website
- [2] Biography and Picturesde:John Lydon
fr:Johnny Rotten ko:존 라이든 it:John Lydon he:ג'ון ליידון nl:John Lydon ja:ジョン・ライドン pl:John Lydon sl:John Lydon fi:Johnny Rotten sv:Johnny Rotten