Former punk rocker and Sex Pistol’s front man Johnny “Rotten” Lydon has been on a tirade against Disney’s new series “Pistols”, an accounting of the band’s history from the eyes of guitarist Steve Jones. Based on Jones’ book Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol the miniseries Pistol tracks the start of one of the most famous punk rock bands of all time.
Queue John Lydon, who since the formation of the band never agreed on anything with his bandmates and has literally been the band’s Chief Drama Office (CDO) since day one.
Lydon has been on a media blitz trashing his former bandmates, the director, the series, Disney and pretty much everything in between. Lydon in his old age has become the quintessential “Get off my grass!” yelling senior citizen. Except now he’s shouting, “Get off my punk rock!”
In fact, these days, the kid who wrote the lyrics to Anarchy in the U.K., is also protesting anarchy as an elderly adult male. Who would have thought?
Lydon, since turning his once trainwreck of a band into a cash cow corporate pop sensation over the decades is even bashing the progressive left and has become that “right-wing fascist” he and the band so vehemently opposed in their past life.
“I never thought I’d live to see the day when the right-wing would become the cool ones giving the middle finger to the establishment, and the left-wing becoming the sniveling self-righteous twatty ones going around shaming everyone,” Lydon said recently.
Lydon has been trashing the series, but it turns out, he’s a bit randy over the whole thing because he wasn’t hired as a consultant for the movie, claiming it has put him into financial ruin.
That seems to have been the plan all along according to Director Danny Boyle.
“I love Lydon for what he does and I don’t want him to like it — I want him to attack it,” he explained. “I think that’s his absolute right. Why would you change the habit of a lifetime?”
Pure brilliance.
Well played. That was a Malcolm McLaren-level play. In true punk fashion, here’s where we tell Johnny Rotten to piss off.
But never mind Lydon’s bullocks, as a fan of the band since the 80s as a young child, the series is entertaining, especially the behind-the-scenes drama between Sid and Nancy and the near destructive relationship between Jones and Chrissie Hynde. Many fans learned of the Hynde and Jones relationship from the series.
As we know, she went on to become a star herself after being shunned for the bass player job which was given to the self-destructive Sid Vicious.
If you’re a fan, definitely check it out. You can binge-watch it in a day if you want to.