John Lydon’s scathing assessment of 10 famous rock bands
What made punk so entertaining? There are several different things, the music, the hairstyles, the clothes, but most of all, there was John Lydon. Regardless of what your opinion of him is, the man’s inability to hold his tongue no matter how much it might need cradling has always made for excellent viewing, whether that was swearing on live TV in the 1970s or seeing him have his hypocrisies torn apart by journalists today, it’s hard to look away.
Of course, the place where Lydon has always been most outspoken is in the world he’s most comfortable: music. When it comes to giving his opinion on different musicians, the Sex Pistols frontman hears, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all,” and interprets it as “They’re shit, tell them how shit they are.” As such, he’s made enemies of fans and bands alike, but again, it’s cracking entertainment.
His hatred has been projected to various bands in the past, some of which you might agree with, some of which you won’t, but all of them have enough of a fanbase that his comments were privy to some backlash. Fans of classic rock bands are notoriously some of the most loyal (and simultaneously sensitive), so the moment Lydon uttered a negative word about their heroes, there was uproar.
There are many instances where Lydon has singled out a band and called them rubbish. It’s a wormhole that is well worth you travelling down. So, without further ado, here are 10 of his best scathing remarks towards rock bands.
John Lydon’s 10 scathing remarks about rock bands
Black Sabbath
Sex Pistols aren’t the only band responsible for pioneering their own style of music. Before them, Black Sabbath took the world by storm with their early iteration of heavy metal, comprised of Tony Iommi’s tuned-down strings, Geezer Butler’s mirroring bass lines and Ozzy Osbourne’s hellish vocals. Lydon was never a fan of the band, though, particularly Osbourne.
Though Lydon had high praise for the single ‘Paranoid’ he thought the theatrics of the frontman were an offence to the working class. “The rumours of biting heads really, really haven’t impressed me. Ozzy, now acting like a senile delinquent, is equally unimpressive. The sly innuendo of promoting drug abuse and catatonic stupidity offends me,” said Lydon. “Ozzy’s a working-class man, like me, yet he allows that to happen. By acting like he does all the time, he implies that we’re all stupid, the working classes.”
Kiss
As a musician who became famed for his on-stage theatrics and live show, you would think that Lydon would appreciate artists who went out with the intention of shocking people, and for the most part, you’d be right. He has previously cited the likes of Alice Cooper and Iggy Pop as influences for that very reason; however, one shocking band that he thinks is a bit too transparent are Kiss.
In an interview, when asked about their music, Lydon was forthcoming in suggesting that the make-up and the outfits, paired with the music, make for a very fake product. “There’s a lot [of artists] that are selling you an image that’s false, deliberately fake, and deliberately commercial,” he said, “I’ve met the Kiss lads. They’re alright. You know, [but] without the makeup, there ain’t much going on.”
Guns N’ Roses
Guns N’ Roses have always been a band not too far away from controversy. Because of their sexist lyricism and backstage antics, a lot of rock fans tend to shake their hand with arms outstretched. Lydon also voiced his disdain for the band, saying they are a part of the establishment and he wants nothing to do with them.
“I don’t want to be rubbing shoulder 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,” he said, “Hello? Hello? Let’s wake up here, right?”
The Eagles
Another band that Lydon wasn’t afraid to brandish with a brush of disdain was the Eagles. Although the rock band has released many popular records and can still sell out arenas, Lydon has never seen the appeal, saying that Don Henley was responsible for “The dull seriousness of ‘doom-laden’ music.”
“There’s a man with no humour,” he said about Henley, “Same with Sting, he’s gone and taken himself far too seriously, hasn’t he? ‘I am an intellectual, honest, please believe me. Look how unshaved I can be’.”
The Clash
The Clash frontman Joe Strummer and John Lydon always had a fairly one-sided relationship. While Joe Strummer talks about the Sex Pistols like they were an otherworldly presence, a spark which lit the touchpaper of punk, Lydon has repeatedly called out the band’s message and claimed Strummer was fake.
“I mean, talk about class war, Joe Strummer was living in a mansion. No. Fuck that,” he said with venom, “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.”
U2
What John Lydon looks for in music becomes easy to see when you read enough of his interviews. He probably wouldn’t care how a song sounded so long as he thought there was an element of honesty behind it, as much of his disdain boils down to writers and singers being fake. U2 received this criticism from Lydon.
When he was asked about them in an interview, Lydon was quick to share his hatred for the band, saying the world would be better if they had never made music full stop. “U2 – that’s a band that never should have existed,” he said, “There’s no life experience in any of their songs.”
Depeche Mode
Less of a rock band and more industrial pioneers, Lydon never actually took much issue with Depeche Mode as a musical outfit, as they reflected, for him, how technology should be used in the musical world. “It’s a serious problem for me, all this technology,” he said, “The people who’ve used it best would be Depeche Mode, ‘Your own Personal Jesus!’ Bloody ‘ell mate, they got it!”
Lydon’s issue with the band was that they didn’t seem passionate about what they were doing. He was forthcoming, saying that their shows were a tragic affair and that it didn’t look like they wanted to be playing. “A bad example of how bad things can be is Depeche Mode, who I absolutely hate,” he said, “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…”
Television
Lydon, as seen throughout this list, is always on the lookout for what he deems to be authenticity and honesty. His art came from holding a mirror up to the world and genuinely reflecting what was shown, but Lydon doesn’t think many bands did this very well. One example is Television, which Lydon went as far as to say were “too clever.”
“I had little time for what was coming out of America. Bands like Television never really grabbed me, I just couldn’t connect,” he said, “It was all too clever for its own good and wrapped up in too much Rimbaud poetry: get over it and write about your life, not what you find in books. I still can’t find a place in my heart for music like television.”
Green Day
Representing the wave of punk that came after the initial success of the Sex Pistols, it’s hardly a surprise that Lydon isn’t a fan of Green Day. He has always been the most critical of bands who brandish the punk flag, and seeing Green Day do so was enough to make the frontman angry.
“You’ve seen imitators, that’s what you’ve seen,” he said, “And you settled for that, and you think that that’s what it’s all about… 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.”
