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TORONTO -- John
Lydon proved Friday he's still the acid-tongued punk lovingly known by
legions of fans as Johnny Rotten when he trained his verbal guns on everything
from celebrities afraid of SARS to people who download music from the
Internet.
"Who told them not to come?" Lydon asked of all the musicians, including
Elton John and the Dixie Chicks, who have recently cancelled gigs in Toronto
in the wake of its SARS outbreak.
"I made my own decisions. Hello, I am a free person. I'm not a number.
That's why I'm here and those wankers are not."
That characteristically Rotten rant, given during a keynote speech at
the North by Northeast music conference, was followed by his thoughts
on what role he'd like to play on the big screen.
"It would be Jesus Christ," replied Lydon, who also fronted the band Public
Image Ltd. after the Sex Pistols broke up in 1978. "And I'll do the musical
too. Jesus Christ, the Canadian version, SuperSARS."
Showing up late for the engagement, Lydon snarled his way through his
address attended mostly by aspiring rock stars. He had few kind words
for those looking for advice on getting a recording contract.
"I don't know why I'm here," said Lydon, clad all in black, in contrast
with his spiky bleached-blond hair. "To help young bands, is it? My best
advice is give up. For several reasons. One, I don't need the competition.
And two, you can bet your sweet Fanny Adams none of you are honest."
"If you're in this business just for the cash, that's a good enough reason
in itself. But then you shouldn't be talking or listening to the likes
of me. I'm the exact opposite of that. Any penny I've earned has been
hard, has been deserved. There's a difference, isn't there? You don't
penny pinch just out of sheer molestation. So on that, goodbye!"
And with that statement, the man often regarded as one of the godfathers
of British punk finished his prepared speaking portion -- running a total
of two minutes -- and asked for questions from the crowd.
Over the course of about 40 more minutes, Lydon spoke mostly in non sequiturs
and dished out vitriol to the adoring crowd eager to see the Rotten of
yesteryear.
The audience of about 200 lapped up his wit, making Lydon seem more like
a stand-up comic playing to a friendly crowd than an aging rock star with
anger issues.
Lydon, 47, poked fun at the group, which applauded politely after nearly
every response.
"All this handclapping after is a bit naff, isn't it?" he asked. "You
make me feel right pretentious. I could really get into this."
Some trinkets of advice managed to sneak through. He told the musicians
they'd need to push and shove their way to the top.
"We broke in. A blind sheer bloody-minded ignorance, mostly. That's the
key to it," he said. "There are no rules. I don't step on anyone and I
don't hurt anyone but you get in my way and you're going to have a serious
bad time."
Lydon was an interesting choice for the North by Northeast organizers,
since he generally has nothing positive to say about the music business.
"Here we are at this record company-sponsored conference and my best advice
is don't trust the record company," he said. "Don't be daft. They're out
there to make money . . . The trouble is with radio, TV, the whole music
industry, it's politically motivated at some point. Somebody's out there
with a preconceived conception about how the world works according to
their safety records. You have to stop that."
He also had his own individual take on the debate surrounding the downloading
of music, something he calls a "wonderful con."
"It's just like how they removed vinyl and moved it over to compact disc.
Hello? Now we find out that compact discs don't last forever. They deteriorate
really rapidly," he said. "The whole world of MP3 is the worst, lowest
level of fidelity in sound you could ever expect. You're being conned
and you've got a whole world out there thinking 'Hey, hey, I've got it
free.' "
After his speech, Lydon autographed copies of his book, Rotten: No Irish,
No Blacks, No Dogs. |