Harp Magazine
December, 2007

Johnny Rotten, 51, Los Angeles, CA

Does John Lydon, more popularly known as Johnny Rotten, strike you as particularly wistful? You think he’d ever write an essay for one of them Chicken Soup for… books? Neither did we. He’s the crazy-eyed, loose-cannon singer of the Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd.—the guy who on national television dropped two-thirds of the naughty word triumvirate. His anarchism rivals only the Rapture’s Comin’ sect of Christianity in its scorched earthiness. Except he did cry about Sid Vicious in The Filth and the Fury, and appear on the UK television show The Meaning of Life saying, “Life is a series of lucky, lucky, lucky moments and incidences. And sometimes, not. But you know, when you get the chance, grab it. You too could be a Sex Pistol.” Could be the Grinch’s heart has grown a size or three in the 30 years since he started pissing everyone off.

I wouldn’t say I cheated death. I was robbed of my death. [laughs] [Lydon was supposed to be on Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988]

You gotta look at life with a smile. Let’s get off this “woe is me” stuff. I’m not one to do that. I mean, I nearly died of meningitis when I was young. I was in a coma for four months. But you won’t get my harping on about it, if you don’t mind a pun about your magazine.

I’ve led a tough life. I come from an extremely poor working-class background. Working-class in American means lowest on the rung, right? Alright? I mean, piss poor. If I survived that with a smile, I can survive anything.

I don’t like people who wallow in self-pity because there’s no time for it. All’s I know is heaven is on this Earth and there is no afterlife. It’s nonsense to wait for one.

I was a horrible student. The teachers hated me. But I never failed an exam. I was in school to be educated and I had to educate myself because the system was not there for my benefit. But I made it work. The teachers don’t really try.

There’s no insult with any word, really. You know, except if it comes with a lie. And lies is the one thing I won’t tolerate. Let me explain: I lost my memory when I was seven. I was in a coma for four months. When I came out of that, it took me four to five years even to remember who I was. And so, to me, I like to know that everything is what it is.

Sell out? I’ve sold out every gig I’ve ever done.

Years ago I donated my body to charity. I hope some very fine trainee surgeons have a field day operating on the carcass. They may find out a thing or two. I’m very sensual alive. Imagine what I’m like dead! They should sell tickets for it. Come and have a fondle!

Barack Obama is an intellectual lightweight and therefore dangerous. I think he’s highly manipulated by his wife, who just seems to talk out of turn rather a lot. The last thing that America needs is a loudmouth woman in the White House at the moment. This country is in a serious mess and it needs to be corrected by someone with a sense of dignity. And there’s something not quite right there. It’s not lack of experience [but] lack of knowledge in the man that worries me.

I like [cash] money. It makes sense to me. I don’t trust myself with a credit card. It’s just a way of keeping us in debt, innit? Another way to part a fool with his money.

The idea of we’re all equal is a nonsense. We’re not. We’re all varying degrees of excellence; some people are better at some things than others. If you take away a reward system for that, you’re making us all nonachievers. What’s the point in making any effort? In fact, what you would do is raise the suicide rate.

Anybody who thinks that [the Sex Pistols] shouldn’t be connecting with video games doesn’t understand us as human beings. You know, we do play the things ourselves also and Guitar Hero is wonderful... It was a compliment for them to ask us to contribute. We had to rerecord the songs because our record company in England—Virgin—couldn’t find the original masters. So any money that we would’ve made was spent recording. We think we’ve about broken level on it. That’s the truth of it and anyone who wants to badmouth us around that is talking shit. As per usual. Because there are no flies on us. Ever. Never will be.

If you don’t like the way I am, mind your own fucking business! Plain and simple. I ain’t gettin’ in your face; don’t get in mine.

Rotten. It’s as good a name as any, innit?