John Lydon claims former Sex Pistols bandmates didn’t contact him following wife’s death
John Lydon has said that his former Sex Pistols bandmates didn’t reach out to him following the death of his wife, Nora Foster.
Lydon has been publically feuding with his former bandmates Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Glen Matlock for many years, which has escalated due to the Disney+ limited series Pistol, as well as their reunion with Frank Carter replacing him on vocals.
Despite the bad blood between them, Lydon has now shared that he was surprised none of his former bandmates contacted him after Nora, who he married in 1979, died in 2023 following a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s.
In a recent interview with The Times, Lydon said, “I expected some kind of connection when Nora died, but nothing.”
Following Foster’s death in 2023, Lydon said in a heartfelt statement, “She is loved, and she knows she is loved. And her personality has always been vivacious, outgoing, bright and looking for the best in things.”
Elsewhere, in the new interview, Lydon also again criticised Danny Boyle’s series on the band, Pistol, which was released on Disney+ in 2002, stating, “Something in me wanted it to be good, but it might as well have been about the Partridge Family. I don’t like anything to do with it because I wasn’t asked to contribute.”
He added of Boyle’s wider work, “You look at his films, there is no character development. He doesn’t seem to understand how people think and operate.”
Notably, Lydon tried to stop Pistol in 2021 but lost his legal challenge after the court revealed that the band had agreed in 1998 that decisions about licensing requests could be determined on a majority rules basis. Therefore, his approval wasn’t needed for the songs to be licensed.
Boyle also welcomed Lydon’s criticism in 2022, saying, “I love Lydon for what he does and I don’t want him to like it — I want him to attack it. I think that’s his absolute right. Why would you change the habit of a lifetime?”
The punk icon responded by labelling Boyle’s comments “disgusting“. He also said of the impact of the series and the subsequent reunion earlier this year to the PA, “They’ve killed the content, or done their best to, and turned the whole thing into a rubbish, childishness, and that’s unacceptable.”
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