John Lydon calls Donald Trump “the Sex Pistols of politics”
Upon the release of the new Public Image Ltd album, End of World, the former Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon discussed the philosophical bent of the new record and his current stance on the state of American politics during a new interview with Far Out.
We spoke to Lydon from his home in California, where he explained the origins of a song on the new PiL album titled ‘Car Chase’. The track, about an institutionalised man who escapes every night unnoticed, was written by Lydon in a single sitting. When asked about whether the song flowed so freely because it was centred on his favourite subject: anti-institutionalism, he revealed that may well be the case.
“I’m anti politicians, and I always have been,” Lydon exclusively told Far Out. “Every single one of them is a liar. This is where my love for [Donald] Trump comes from, he was not a politician at all in any way. And he threw an anarchistic spanner in the works and shook them all up.”
Lydon opines that this disruption ironically helped to clear the political waters. “Now, things are much clearer,” he continued. “I can clearly see the rats for what they are. So, in many ways – is that word ‘catharsis’? I hate that word but it is kind of appropriate – every now and then, life needs a shake-up.”
When I asked whether he had just suggested that Trump was Sex Pistols-adjacent owing to the anarchistic tenets he espoused, Lydon exclaimed: “I have, haven’t I. The Sex Pistols of politics, yeah! Fantastic, fantastic! And, oddly enough, and it has to be said: he did wonders for this country. Unemployment down, fucking no wars, wow. Wage earnings became a serious possibility, fantastic.”
Lydon then proceeded to point fingers at the current administration. “And yet that is not wanted by the institutionalism of the democrat party, who are now kind of sadly running this country into shit. I don’t mean to be political, but I have to be accurate though,” he concluded before proceeding to discuss his new song ‘Walls’, which rallies, “Your ignorance / Will be your fall from grace / Martyrs and morons to the slaughter”.
End of World is out now, and Lydon has a UK and Europe tour ahead of him with PiL beginning in September. We discuss all this and more in our forthcoming interview feature with the controversial frontman.
The full Far Out interview with John Lydon will be published Saturday, August 12th.
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