Public Image Ltd play their first Irish show in five years at Vicar Street in Dublin this August. The band’s front man and once and forever Sex Pistol John Lydon talks to Alan Corr
"Hello!!!! I’m big and ugly!" It can only be John Lydon. On the phone from his house in LA, where he has lived with his wife Nora since 1981, the Sex Pistol and frontman of Public Image Ltd is in rollicking form before I can even shove a question in sideways.
He is anarchic, sensitive and wise but most of all 62-year-old Lydon is very, very funny. The one-time punk enfant terrible, who turned the British establishment ashen-faced in the seventies before pushing sonic and stylistic boundaries with Public Image Limited, has had many scrapes and scraps over the years. And then there were those ads for butter . . .
This year marks the 40th anniversary of Public Image Limited, the band he formed with guitarist Keith Levene, bassist Jah Wobble, and drummer Jim Walker.after the messy dissolution of The Sex Pistols in 1978 and as well as a huge retrospective release (from Metal Box to box set, indeed), PiL are also recording a new album for release before the end of 2018.
"Forty years? Is that all?" Lydon asks in his very loud voice. "Back then, my head was probably well screwed on as I hope it is still today. I grasped the opportunity and seen it well and I wrote very well accordingly and improved my voice no end over the years so I’m not joking when I say `only forty years’ because I feel as though I‘ve got forty more years left in me to become the truly perfect person I want to be."
Alan Corr: So, you’re the Mick Jagger of punk aren’t you?
"No, I’m not. No, no, no. Triple no. Two and a half f***ing books of no."
The Rolling Stones are playing in Dublin soon and we’re told it’s a big deal . . .
"Well, no it’s not because there’s been no improvement on the domestic front as far as that band are concerned. They’re of no interest to me, although I must say Mick did some nice things for Sid when he was in trouble years ago. He recommended a lawyer. It was all done behind the scenes and I respect that but the stadium rock thing? No, I don’t have any respect for that. It’s awful. That’s like looking at an ant on a windowsill. I don’t think about Mick and Keith at all. May their blood transfusions keep them happy."
Speaking of long-running acts, this line-up of PiL with Lu Edmonds, Scott Firth and Bruce Smith has been going for ten years now. That’s the longest and most stable line-up in the band's history. The Chemistry must be good . . .
"The chemistry is excellent but I think the predominant factor in our longevity is that we no longer continue with large record companies. Being independent, the poison and the corruption and trying to manipulate the purse strings . . . all that’s gone. Now that we’re out own bosses, we tend to agree with the board. All our board meetings are in excellent good taste."
You had your fair share of hassles with record companies over the years, of course . . .
"They can’t help it. It’s a money-earning industry. They pollute and water down any concept of originality. They try to take that away from you. They don’t mind selling it to lesser bands but they’ll soon manipulate them too. You become nothing less than a pawn in someone else’s chess game. That’s the corruption of it all and those who go willingly into that, what I call artistic death, good riddance to them. None of them end up happy and most of them end up with some kind of liver damage."
What about the current crop of English bands or do you even pay attention to what’s being going on musically in England for the past ten years?
"I can’t help but listen and like. Anybody who ever gets on a stage I have an admiration for because when I first started the shyness in me was overwhelming in my childhood and to have to break out of that in the way I chose! Hahahaha. I have great empathy for anyone, and everyone I know really who’s been on stage admits it - it’s frightening! You’re putting your head on the chopping block and begging to be judged. No, that’s not easily done and so admiration."
Even for Bono?
"Oh absolutely! I think he’s a great bloke. I always have a good laugh with him, always. He might be on the receiving end of some jokes but that’s neither here nor there. He means well. I don’t particularly like the music. He’s too much into the bluesy stuff for me and from time to time he seems flippant and doesn’t seem grounded in reality. It’s not about life’s experiences really and all of my songs have to be about a realistic situation."
"The Rolling Stones? I don’t think about Mick and Keith at all. May their blood transfusions keep them happy."
You have a new album coming out later this year as well as the box set. What will the new songs be about?
"I have no idea, we’ve yet to record it. I’ll probably be trying to deal with the current crop of problems. Such is life’s gift! There’s an endless supply of issues and problems. How could you be bored with that? The box set is a fantastic body of work. I didn’t think it would be quite as substantial when we started putting it together and the amount of work it takes. I mean, you’re arguing here with publishing houses and licensees and god knows what else. All you want to do is release the thing but there it is! There are obstacles which are just problems which need to be resolved and we’ve resolved them and we’re rather proud of what we’ve done. It entails the entire career, which it should do, there’s forty years of it."
What happened at the pub brawl you were involved in on Eden Quay in Dublin in 1980?
"I know nothing. I was asleep at the time and I’m frightened of reprisals, officers. I do not want to remember it. I reckon the whole thing was a case of mistaken identity."
In 1977, the Garda referred the cover of Never Mind The Bollocks to the censorship board. Ireland hasn’t been very nice to you, has it?
"I don’t expect nice. I can’t say Britain has been nice either. That’s the way it is, you know but these are not insurmountable barriers. The powers that be may issue warnings, threats and negative things about me occasionally but that doesn’t stop me loving the people. I make music for my fellow folk. I view my band as a folk band because we’re not contemporary pop, writing meaningless trivia. There are serious relationships going on in these songs, serious issues that are all too often ignored by modern music and there’s no longevity in it if you want to approach it as a rock and roll star so here I am! Hell in a hand basket."
You’ve been fairly ambiguous about Brexit in the past. What’s your view of it now?
"Not ambiguous. If that’s what people voted for then that’s what they get. That’s it. It’s called democracy, the majority wins and therefore you go with the majority and that’s the gift of being able to vote. 100 years ago none of us would have had the vote so there it is and if you don’t like what it is then you didn’t contribute and many people didn’t vote. It’s too late to turn back the clock. You have to go forward with every thing and every issue. I’m a realist. I wanna make the best of what it is for the people, not to just to go on thinking you can change a thing back to what it was. That’s not possible. Too many insults have flown there for that."
"I think Bono is a great bloke. I always have a good laugh with him, always. He might be on the receiving end of some jokes but that’s neither here nor there. He means well."
Your plans to represent Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest this year came to nought but I believe you will be trying again next year . . .
"Oh, I’m gonna go next year, yeah! Once I see the light through the crack in the door, I’ll go for it. It’s a bit of a dull affair that Eurovision Song Contest, it really does need some proper new blood. Someone who has a great deal of respect for music and all of its possibilities . . . oh! Gosh! I guess I’m talking about myself here. Some of the negative nonsense was that I wouldn’t be able to handle big crowds on live TV. Wow! Hahahahahha."
Do you ever see Jah Wobble and Keith Levene anymore?
"No, not for quite a while, not for quite a while and that’s a pity. I’d still view them as friends regardless of falling out because of the band and a lot of that really was do with again finances and record companies pulling purse strings. If you can’t see a regular wage then band members will leave and there it is. It’s always down to the money."
Finally, John, what can we expect at the PiL show in Dublin this August?
"More than 100% effort. If we have to draw the blood out of our veins to make it as poignant as possible then that is what we will do. For us it’s not just about running through the songs; there’s history in those songs but there’s also very deep personal connections to the subject matters. Death Disco is about the death of my mother and that’s not taken lightly but at the same time it’s not done as a morbid piece or a dirge. There is resolve at the end and you hope they’ve gone to a better place."
PiL: The Public Image is Rotten Tour, Vicar Street, Dublin, August 26
