John Lydon On Strombo: Full Interview

[Music] listen to that huh glory when the Sex Pistols Unleashed this noise on the UK back in 1976 many people were outraged see at a time musicians were still singing about peace and love but that didn't really reflect what was going on in the world and specifically in England at the time so while they were all hippie-dippie the pistols led by Johnny Rotten aka John Lydon we're talking about the England that they saw and the music that they made sounded like treason [Music] John with his anti-monarchist stance was a lightning rod in the storm he was attacked in the streets and wherever the pistols played there were fights there were arrests and there were national scandal but John reviled by many in Britain was actually loved by a lot of people who felt disconnected but that guy actually grew up a shy quiet boy in northern London when he was seven he contracted meningitis and was in a coma for a year missing that much school put him behind and other kids bullied him called him a dummy but the experience he says was the first step towards becoming this but like many ground breakers the pistils quickly imploded amid broken bottles and blood and a disastrous American tour John moved quickly to bury the myth of the band e-forms public image limited the world's first post-punk group had a huge influence on bands like massive attacked today John still got that vitriol he's got things to say about American punk record companies and of course the London riots he also makes a cameo in a new film called sons of Norway but a young boy who suffers a tragedy than channels the rage and alienation he feels into punk rock and who'd know more about that than our good buddy John Rael Shingo the little that can be all weekend had kissed Auguste house is the weakest one that he won't officer it all back [Music] [Applause] now I'm not kidding I didn't know it was a TV show with an audience so I should try to be humble no if you know you don't mean it this is an interesting film because you don't have to be humble in this film this film really is about there's about a lot of things Sons of Norway yeah well what you want to know I mean it's I it's an interesting film for a guy like you because it puts you in pretty strong position in this family's life and in this kid's life how did you decide to be a part of a movie like this well it's a it kind of reflects back to 1978 and and what the punk movement meant to a lot of kids from a deprived industrial housing estates and and under pretty underprivileged and a disenfranchised and and so it's from an Allegiant point of view I mean people know about punk from like the English stance or or the New York fake stance but they don't know it really is oh yeah that's right they were all a hell of a lot older than us the fake stance well they used to do things with their mommy and daddy's money you know they had instruments to play they had garages to rehearse in you know they had all nice things set up for them a slot you know if it fell off the back of a truck you know it would lend very happily in my hand that's not getting the opportunities they're alive but and instead of being a turning to crime or becoming a criminal to try and find something constructive and hopefully that film kinda shows that it's a perspective of a very young lead trying to come to grips with the confusion of adult life because adults really they're not the greatest indicators of how the world should work least of all to children there's a need scene when the father talks to the son and says so I've been listening to this record he holds up the bollocks record and then he has all these opinions on what Johnny Rotten doesn't believe in or doesn't when you hear that you know I know what you're getting at it's it's really hard - like to watch yourself being analyzed in that way but when it's constructive and for the greater good then I don't mind that at all I mean I've been under a microscope all my life now but really most of it you know starting so early in the Sex Pistols I never had what you could really call a proper childhood you know between childhood illnesses straight into that world of chaos but it's all right it's if the end result is honest then it's all worth it when you look back at that guy the version of you and that band when you were a kid I mean it was all so brief as well because not only did you have the illness to that chaos but that chaos ended and then you had you created the pil thing and then you did that went away for a while so when there was a void at some point in the public creative space did you did you feel a void no that's when the record companies managed to make me bankrupt and that calls stifled a lot of activity and it was such a financial hole they put me into that I was in a form of semi-retirement really until I could raise the money to get back up and start things up again the way I've run after the Sex Pistols public image for instance was I'd raised the money myself and so I'd be the one like paying wages paying the equipment renting the halls etc etc and it's a really difficult thing to do but if you love what you're doing you do it when a record company kind of rescinds on the borrowing process you find yourself very quickly in a serious financial hole and when they don't help you to crawl out of that hole by limiting the amount of Records they put in the stores so you can't possibly make up the the debt through sales it's it's a serious problem and then you've got a media out there of course it doesn't back you were you the because they're just happy that the saucy one has gone away but in a sense though isn't it turnabout is fair play I mean you guys did a good job of pissing all over them for a long time so when they pissed back I just told the truth and maybe I tell the truth anyone who thinks they can have her handed my back pocket you know it's gonna get a word or two did you ever have an identity and identity struggle identity struggle no no no when I was seven I lost my memory through meningitis it took me something like four years to fully recover who are who I really was and from there on in I think I really did know who I was I've got no doubts about myself these days and it never faded never at all no it's when you recover from an illness that serious the one thing you rely on from there on in and it's a guideline and it principle in my life is that I expect people to tell me the truth the whole truth and nothing but as I will do to you I will not lie I will know not about anything I can't afford to because once you've lost your memory you have to bear this in mind you need to believe what people are telling you when they're telling you I'm your mother you need to know that to be true even though in the back of your head you don't know this at all it's a wonderful thing to find out that people haven't lied to you and it's terrible thing to find out that they have so if you don't hurt people the most serious way you can hurt anyone is to lie any kind of a lie when did you first experience that of course if it's in Irish storytelling then it's okay know what I mean when did you first feel like you were lied to Oh school teachers do you know they did it's just an example you know they'd go you you have no hope you have no prospects the best you can look forward to is working in a bank I mean me I can't count to ten I'm not a stupid person I I love books I love reading I love everything to do with like absorbing knowledge and because of the background you from the school system in England then no didn't want you didn't want did they would view you as a social climber and so I decided not to be climbing that way and I made my own life so when the riots were happy he wrote in quite rightly you were in that position for sure is there a difference between rotten and lighted in your mind well if one gets paid more depending on when that's changing it's interchangeable when you saw what was happening with some of the riots and in England over there did you understand where that was coming from yeah yeah and don't trust what the media tell you don't trust what the British government tell you that in fact you've got to bear in mind that this is just kids that want a TV you know why not Nick it if there's no law and order in the country and there's no government you can't you can trust it and this is what you're going to get and it wasn't whole scale enormous rioting its small pockets of of people's when it when it first started it began for a serious reason a man was shot dead by the police in in Tottenham and now the police is justification if that was that he was carrying a gun no he was not he had a water pistol in his sock all right that's a good enough reason for people to be upset the police refused to really answer that in an illogical way and so one thing led to another an escalation into total violence don't lie you know ouch I made a mistake had shot him would would have been something of an answer but do you think that would have changed these starts the process and then you've got no leadership in the country you got the Prime Minister away the head of police god knows what holiday he's on the second-in-command to the Prime Minister they're all off you know cavorting around the world sipping wine and having a fine old time so there's no leadership so when this light gets outta hand it took three days really to come back and have anything like an answer to it and so now what you've got is you've got them yakking on about light we need more riot police no you don't you need to treat the youth of today with some sense of respect all right and you need to give to something that they can do in the evening I do if we're going to tell you about our species well I think in the human race is a when I think is our greatest example was after that that disaster in Japan you know the earthquake and the tsunami they I think shine like a beacon to us as human beings no riots no looting now hatreds no spy no rage no war they stood up and helped each other and their country is now in a serious state of recovery because they love each other and ain't that a good example stick around more with John Lydon when we come back I think you probably tell we have a live studio audience I'd love it if you would join us go to Stromberg comm slash tickets for more [Music] do I buy country life butter because it's British why bike hugs life because I yearn for the British countryside door because he's made only from British milk [Music] now I buy country life because I think it tastes sub s quite Brizard so that great butter so there is some commercialism you will engage with I don't despise commercialism at all particularly when you actually like the products and let's face it British butter is the best spot a campaign did when it was offered to us it it struck us as like the most anarchistic thing I could ever do in my whole life you know basically non-food product really hit home what it did was it wasn't an enormous amount of cash but it was absolutely sufficient for us to get public image back started so I could raise the money right so every penny of that went to went back into public image limited probably the best band in the world and butter helped us to do that that was very very important because the money wasn't coming from anywhere else so record industry two fingers you know butter are you going to be doing more of that yeah temp X next next nice somehow that doesn't surprise my job doesn't surprise me at all right who's the biggest sellout in music uh well wasn't there an album by the who called the hosts sellout so it must be then wasn't damn that was a long time ago how about Lady gaga oh I love her she great fun absolutely hilarious pink floyd-- I know sober the players very nice people and some of the records - how do you feel with the tea party in America they seem to be so bigoted and poisonous and stupid and ridiculous and and small-minded that they're probably perfect for America that's the country that you live in sir you know our Jess we know you thinking with the British Prime Minister we know - okay giving T a bad name it was called sons of Norway John Lydon everybody

Channel: Strombo

Views: 385,998

Rating: 4.8307638 out of 5

Keywords: John Lydon, George Stroumboulopoulos, Tonight, GST, Strombo, Canada, Toronto, CBC, the Hour, Sex, Pistols, Public, Image, Limited, British Butter, Punk, Music, Johnny, Rotten, Spokesperson, Singer, Musician

Id: TuA_wv_IBYM

Length: 14min 41sec (881 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 04 2012