Seven bands John Lydon can’t stand: “Silly, rich, fat kids”
Love or loathe him, you can’t deny that Johnny Rotten has delivered a range of memorable moments over the years. In fact, he’s changed the world while delivering them.
From the agreeable to the outright deplorable, punk’s resident king of butter has made a living out of his polarising character. With his most recent attempt to get Public Image Ltd to perform at the Eurovision Song Contest – a move that has angered many punk purists – it’s evident that his outspoken stance isn’t going to change anytime soon.
Right from the moment his future Sex Pistols bandmates first laid eyes on him sporting a T-shirt declaring “I Hate Pink Floyd”, the youthful Rotten was destined to be a polarising force. Whether it be using profanities on television with the Sex Pistols and their gang of hangers-on, partaking in a host of notorious publicity stunts directed by Malcolm McLaren, or his recent support of Donald Trump, Rotten was one of the first to weaponise controversy, and it remains the go-to in his arsenal.
Part of what has kept Rotten culturally relevant for so long is his refusal to become a nostalgic caricature of punk rebellion. Many figures from the original punk movement gradually softened their public image or leaned into heritage-act status as the years passed, but Rotten has consistently remained confrontational, even when it alienates large portions of his audience.
Whether people agree with him or not, there is still an unpredictability to his public persona that reflects the same disruptive instincts which first made the Sex Pistols such a shock to British society in the 1970s.
At the same time, Rotten’s provocations have often complicated his legacy as much as strengthened it. For some fans, his relentless contrarianism represents a commitment to honesty and individualism, core values that punk originally championed. For others, it can feel like controversy for its own sake, with the spectacle sometimes overshadowing his actual artistic achievements. Yet that tension has arguably always been central to who Johnny Rotten is: a figure simultaneously capable of sharp cultural insight and deeply divisive provocation.
Or perhaps he’s just being honest. At least that’s what he told us in an exclusive interview with Far Out, saying, “I will not be dictated to… This is our life’s experience. And we’re not going to have somebody misinterpret that on our behalf without our say.” Of playing the PR game he continues, “It’s a stupid trap. The promise, of course, is instantaneous wealth, fame and fortune.”
Adding in typical fashion, “Well, I preferred infamy right from the start. And I found it the easier road to travel. Because I wake up in the morning knowing I haven’t lied to anyone. It’s fantastic.” And that clarity is clearly what he looks for in other bands, too.
One place in which Rotten has found himself earning copious amounts of kudos and disdain from fans is his interpretations of other musicians and their work. While he has provided many glittering readings of groups in his time – including surprising appraisals of The Beatles and Pink Floyd – Rotten has also delivered a host of damning critiques of other prominent artists.
Duly, we’ve listed a selection of bands that Johnny Rotten loathes. Expect to be surprised
Seven bands hated by Johnny Rotten:
Green Day
Green Day remain one of the most famous bands inspired by the monumental strides the Sex Pistols and the rest of the first wave of punk made. However, Rotten is not a fan of the Californian trio and has taken pops at them a handful of times across his career, with his primary qualm being that he thinks Billie Joe Armstrong and the band ripped him off.
The first time Rotten appeared to take a shot at Green Day was in 1996, a time when the Sex Pistols were promoting their Filthy Lucre Tour, a highly lucrative reunion jaunt deemed highly un-punk at the time. With Green Day being one of the hottest bands around, they found themselves in Rotten’s crosshairs.
As well as suggesting that Green Day had ripped the Pistols off, when promoting the reunion tour, Rotten was asked by MTV what his band could give a 16-year-old punk fan that Green Day couldn’t. Then 40 years old, Rotten eloquently responded: “A big willie”.
He then expanded on his crude joke: “No, you’ve seen imitators, that’s what you’ve seen”, spat Lydon. “And you settled for that, and you think that that’s what it’s all about, Alfie. Well it ain’t. It’s a little bit more. It’s called content, which is something none of those wanky third-rate outfits have.”
“I heard that Johnny Rotten was running around telling people that we’d ripped him off,” Billie Joe Armstrong told SPIN the following year, before adding: “It’s funny, because if it wasn’t for the Sex Pistols, there may not have been Green Day, but if it wasn’t for Green Day, the Sex Pistols wouldn’t have done their big reunion tour. To each his own.”
Rotten wasn’t done there, however. Following the immense success of Green Day’s political rock opera American Idiot, he took another swipe at the trio. During an appearance on Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones’ radio show, he fired: “It’s hokey little silly sods like Green Day that come in and think by sucking up to that system that you’re somehow, ‘beating the system’. You’re not. You’ve become part of it.”
He concluded: “We made it easy for ’em to come in and nick our things off us – which is alright, it’s nice, but they’re silly, rich fat kids”.
Hole
Although Hole are regarded as one of the definitive alternative rock groups, with three lauded albums to their name and a host of classic anthems, they’ve always been a polarising outfit. This, of course, is due to their frontwoman and creative director Courtney Love, who, like Rotten, is no stranger to controversy.
Speaking on television in the 1990s, Rotten provided a damning account of Love and her band. Referring to her husband, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, he said: “Courtney Love…’s Kurt’s money.”
He cuttingly continued: “You love the idea of being a rebel, but you haven’t proved to me – or anybody – exactly what being a rebel is; what are you rebelling against? You’re just a pile of confusion. Ya cheap fake.” And as for Hole’s music, well, he did seem to think that certain facets of grunge simply entailed “copying” the Sex Pistols, too.
Guns ‘N Roses
Another controversial band that Johnny Rotten has a problem with is American hard rockers Guns N’ Roses, with the singer particularly irked by their frontman, Axl Rose. When speaking to Q in July 1989, Rotten tied Guns N’ Roses into the establishment (per The Guardian), saying: “I don’t want the establishment to accept me in any shape or form because I despise them so much”.
He continued: “It’s bullshit, and I don’t want a pat on the back from Phil Collins, thank you. To me, that would be the worst possible insult. I don’t want to be rubbing shoulders with Guns N’ Roses at some Rock’ n’ Roll Hall of Fame sort of nonsense award ceremony, slapping the lads on the back and saying, Yeah, aren’t we all jolly good fellows because we’re too-fast-to-live-and-too-young-to-die-hope-I-die-before-I-get-old, aren’t we great and all that bullshit. Hello? Hello? Let’s wake up here, right?”
Then, during the same conversation in the 1990s, in which he trashed Courtney Love, Rotten said: “Axl Rose. His mediocre excuse (not to talk to me), at the moment is that he’s in (the) studio recording. This is a man, who also at the same time, proclaims that he loves, huh? My singing style. You’re a fraud, and I’m underwhelmed.”
U2
While their legions of detractors might not be aware, U2 have a deep connection to punk. Although the sunglasses and leather jackets might now mask it, the band emerged from the post-punk movement of the late 1970s before embarking on their globe-conquering run that reached its pinnacle with 1987’s The Joshua Tree.
Despite Bono, Edge and the gang being lifelong punk fans, with the Irishmen citing Never Mind the Bollocks among their favourite albums of all time. Rotten has been highly critical of their work. “U2 — that’s a band that never should have existed,” he declared during an interview with The Daily Star. “There’s no life experience in any of their songs.”
Once again, he also thought they were rip-offs too. “I don’t understand U2 either,” he once commentted. “I mean, that’s absolutely preposterous. Particularly songs like ‘Bullet The Blue Sky’, which is almost a complete rip-off of a PIL song! Very annoying.”
Pet Shop Boys
The 1989 interview with Q contained many potshots at other bands. Interestingly, Rotten’s critique of Depeche Mode was followed by an equally damning take of the synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys, whom he described as “pathetic and sad” by way of Michael Jackson.
The extract reads: “A bad example of how bad things can be is Depeche Mode, who I absolutely hate. They are completely lifeless. There’s no love in what they do. When you see them live it’s a tragedy. They don’t move, they’re not excited by what they do …” Burp.
Continuing, “Same thing with The Pet Shop Boys – except they don’t even have the bollocks to get up live. They’re all computer-generated, same as Michael Jackson, and I find it all a bit pathetic and sad.”
Depeche Mode
One act that Johnny Rotten once declared his disdain for is the synth-pop/industrial pioneers Depeche Mode. During the 1989 chat with Q, the Public Image Ltd frontman revealed he “absolutely” hated the Essex group.
Following a burp, he said: “A bad example of how bad things can be is Depeche Mode, whom I absolutely hate. They are completely lifeless. There’s no love in what they do. When you see them live, it’s a tragedy. They don’t move, they’re not excited by what they do…”
Interestingly, though, after Depeche Mode released their classic hit ‘Personal Jesus’ the following month, Rotten appeared to have changed his opinion. “It’s a serious problem for me, all this technology,” he wrote, reflecting on the increasing ubiquity of electronic instruments. “The people who’ve used it best would be Depeche Mode. ‘Your own Personal Jesus!’ Bloody ‘ell mate, they got it! They were using the Casiotone effect, and they wrapped a song around it, but they didn’t let it dictate to the song. That’s another tune I just absolutely love – I was so impressed with the bravery of attempting such a subject matter.”
The Clash
Joe Strummer, the late frontman of The Clash, was a big fan of the Sex Pistols, but Johnny Rotten did not reciprocate this feeling. While Rotten has claimed over the years to be a fan of Strummer himself, on numerous occasions, he has torn into The Clash and what he perceives to be Strummer’s champagne socialism.
When looking back on the impact of the Sex Pistols, Strummer once recalled to The Independent: “The 101’ers had been playing for two years or so when the Pistols burst onto the scene, and when I saw them, I realised you couldn’t compare the Pistols to any other group on the island, they were so far ahead. I mean, it can’t be stressed enough, it was a quantum leap. As soon as I saw the Sex Pistols in the Nashville Rooms – they were supporting the 101’ers – and we had plenty of attitude, we were squatters, and we didn’t care a damn about anything or anybody, but when this lot came in, I remember thinking, damn it, look at these guys.”
He added: “Anyway, they played, there was hardly any audience, it was a Tuesday or something. And I knew we were finished, five seconds into their first song I knew we were like yesterday’s papers, I mean, we were over.”
However, as part of his memoir Energy: My Life Uncensored, Rotten was critical of Strummer’s post-101ers outfit. He claimed the London band’s songs “didn’t have any content, and they really didn’t seem to stand for very much at all other than this abstract socialism”.
Rotten also claimed that The Clash “had nothing to offer, character-development-wise”. Speaking of Strummer directly, he continued: “He began to lack a sense of humour about himself. He. . . was definitely out to grab himself a crown.”
Elsewhere, during a chat with Crack, Lydon maintained that he was a fan of Strummer but found it hard to buy into The Clash’s messaging because of their frontman’s privileged status. He said: “There were some things that The Clash said that really, really challenged my sense of good nature. I mean, talk about class war, Joe Strummer was living in a mansion. No. Fuck that. Look, he pretended to hop off buses, you know, like in his studded leather jacket. It’s nothing personal, I liked Joe. But you can’t be a champagne socialist, you’ve got to be more honest with us than that.”
