![]() ![]() Rotten reverted to his given name, John Lydon, and formed Public Image Ltd. tour when bassist Sid Vicious died of an overdose. The Sex Pistols disintegrated in one awesome, vulgar swoop after their brief, aborted 1978 U.S. His antistardom, right down to the green teeth he cherished as a symbol of his foulness, became his calling card as he cursed out every rock band, TV commentator, record-company employee and virtually every reporter he ever met. Rotten was too good a name for the astounding character he created in this guise, as he built one of the most sensational images in rock history. He was the vile and repulsive Johnny Rotten, lead vocalist of England’s most cursed and celebrated Sex Pistols. Not the textbook version coined by Marsh and Bangs in Creem over a decade ago to describe a certain late-’60s recording sound that has once again become fashionable, but the nightmare visions of brain-damaged apocalypse kids bent on demolishing everything and everyone in their path. Johnny Lydon almost single-handedly defined the “punk ” in punk rock. To pay tribute, we’re republishing Ann Bardach’s interview with the punk legend from the November, 1980 edition of High Times. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |