The Think Tank

Old father punk John Lydon on the Sex Pistols reunion, living in LA, marine biology, English resentment and going to the library.

SELECT Magazine - July, 1997
Interviewed by Ian Harrison

SELECT: So you've finally come out of the closet as a solo artist...

JL: I started the album three years ago but ran out of money and a record contract. Then the idee-ah of a Sex Pistols reunion sounded like money in the bank to me. Now I've got my own studio in my house, there's no budgets or any of that nonsense anymore. I can't think for the life of me why I didn't do it years and years and years ago. So in a way the Pistols finally paid off! [titters maniacally].

SELECT: Did you do it just for the "filthy lucre"?

JL: That wasn't the only reason, but it was definitely the biggest. It was all jolly good fun but it really was time to call all of that stuff to an end. I've since flogged off all my publishing and everything to do with the Pistols. In no shape or form am I connected with it anymore. You can still call me Rotten, because that's what I am, but it's nothing to do with the Pistols.

SELECT: Is this new LP your dance record?

JL: I've made dance records since day one with Public Image. If you can't dance to what I do then you just can't dance, the end. [Adopts vaguely camp drawl] When I listen to crud like U2 it just makes me feel ever so much more relevant.

SELECT: You play loo roll on "Psycho's Path"...

JL: Well, I go for texture, not being note-perfect. Improvise and find the best sound. Arabic influences? That's been flung at me for years. Just call it folk music. I'm Irish, I was brought up with it. If it sounds Arabic it's because I'm a bad musician.

SELECT: What do you think of bands being described as "The New Punk"?

JL: It's kinda daft, innit? It's a lazy way of approaching things. There was then, and now there's something else. The trouble is, bands will always come along and slavishly imitate what they see as being successful because they don't have any real dreams or ambitions of their own.

SELECT: What about the Prodigy's use of punk iconography?

JL: That's all well and fine, so long as they don't blatantly imitate. Everything out there seems to be a mix and match these days, but that's not a bad thing. They're a really good pop band.

SELECT: Liam Gallagher claims he's the reincarnation of you and Lennon...

JL: How nice of him! But unlike me he doesn't write anything. I'm always having fun with them anyway. We take the piss out of each other non-stop. I'd call them good mates. Are they a reason to be cheerful? I dunno. They're fast running out of The Beatles catalogue to rip off. There! They'll love that, ha ha!

SELECT: What about the look-back-bore nostalgia for the 60's?

JL: Well, all that's really in England, hovering around Top of the Pops. I couldn't care less. I've lived in Los Angeles for quite a while now and it gives me an international perspective. It's not an island of isolation for me, I go back to England a lot, but it's become too insular for my tastes. You have to open up to other things a little more and stop wallowing in self-pity and egotism.

SELECT: Are you happy about Tony Blair?

JL: It amazes me that anyone can pretend to be a Labour representative when spouting really what is nothing more than Margaret Thatcherism. It's so obvious I think people miss the point. The same old dreary bloody middle-class values.

SELECT: Have you adopted any strange LA lifestyle habits...

JL: No, I like it here because I got bored with the rain and the cold. Frankly, it's cheaper for me to live here. I can't be paying that ridiculous English tax any more. It kills any sense of creativity because you can never earn enough to pay all the taxes that pay for the Royal Family's fiasco. It's not even as if you get any respect in Britain for challenging the status quo, in fact you're resented for it.

SELECT: Come, come, you're not resented.

JL: Erm... by a lot of the press I am, but not the general population. Certainly not the working class, who are the only people I check for there. The voice of Tring can go fuck off.

SELECT: Your best-ever life lesson?

JL: Probably my father saying [puts on Irish accent], "Get out of the house you lazy good-for-nothing." He made me stand on my own two feet which everybody should do. Get out of the family home as soon as you can and take responsibility for your own actions. When life goes bad for you, cut, make it better. Don't sit there moaning about it. I think I'm a fine example of not accepting my lot.

SELECT: You Tory!

JL: [Caustically] That's because your perception of work is going nine-to-five. I've always found ways around it by using the brain God gave me, by educating myself. I'll tell you outright, do not ignore libraries. They are there for a specific purpose.

SELECT: Do you ever see Jah Wobble?

JL: Now and again. He's someone I respect. He carved himself a role. I don't see us collaborating in the foreseeable future, but I wouldn't say no. There's lots of people I'd like to work with, but I wouldn't go out of my way for it. I will be opening PiL up again, though, probably next year. That'll never go away.

SELECT: Do you feel like a legend?

JL: A definite no. I set myself apart [intimidating stare down telephone]. I imitate no one. But it doesn't make me better or worse in the long run. I have my friends, my family and my wife. If the rest of the world won't listen to what I'm saying, that's too bad.

SELECT: You have a legacy- what's the proudest moment?

JL: The fact I can still continue at my own pace and on my own whims. I'm out there on my own and I like it like that.

SELECT: What about regrets?

JL: No. People that don't put enough effort into what they're doing at the time regret things. Anything half-hearted- it shows a weakness. Hindsight is a terrible thing. It leads into self-pity, and I can't be tolerating that.

SELECT: Are you still bewitched by marine biology?

JL: I wanted to do a degree in it, but work gets in the way. Oddly enough it all started with Jaws [sounds mildly confused]. The shark was a superstar, so I wanted to find out more about them. I tend to go into things big-time.

SELECT: Are you acquisitive?

JL: Yeah. A table, a couch and a TV. Other than that, my needs are simple. I'm not into expensive objects. I'm not aloof, but there's none of that going out every night. I'm into sensible Volvos and need no penis extensions.

SELECT: Will we hear more of the Pistols?

I hope not. But knowing what piranhas that lot are, they'll probably try and reorganize themselves, but it'll be without me. Oh God, there was some rumor before we went out last year that they wanted to get Axl Rose to go out with them, to do Pistols songs, because they really don't like me, those three, ha ha ha! I thought, "Lovely! That would be worth throwing rotten eggs at." They're not the brightest people on God's earth.