John Lydon reveals he drank “non-stop” for three months after wife’s death
Former Sex Pistols singer John Lydon has revealed he turned to alcohol for three months of “non-stop drinking” after the death of his wife Nora Forster.
The couple married in 1979, and Forster died earlier this year after a prolonged battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Announcing her death, Lydon’s management issued the following statement: “It is with a heavy heart that we share the sad news that Nora Forster – John Lydon’s wife of nearly 5 decades – has passed away. Nora had been living with Alzheimer’s for several years. In which time John had become her full time carer.”
Now, Lydon has opened up about his battle with grief and revealed he’s working on himself after drinking heavily following Forster’s death. “I’m getting fit. There was a period there of three months solid of just non-stop drinking. It wasn’t help push the sadness away and I stopped,” he said on the XS Noize podcast.
Lydon described the past few months of heavy drinking as “hell” and claimed Forster would have been upset to have seen him “crying into a bottle of whiskey”.
Meanwhile, in a recent exclusive interview with Far Out, Lydon explained how the new Public Image Ltd. album End of World was influenced by him caring for his late wife. “As the gaps between us grew, and my 24/7 care of Nora, it became very, very poignant to me to notice this situation accurately,” he explained.
Lydon continued: “And so I did, and I chose my words carefully, as I do in all songs, but in this one in particular, to actually sum it up and suss out what these feelings were. It’s a song I’m really happy to say – along with the whole album, actually – I was able to play to her before she died. And that was very, very excellent for me. A real reward.”
Listen to his appearance on the XS Noize podcast below.
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