John Lydon on his Eurosong experience, and PiL's new album: 'I will love and adore Ireland forever'
John Lydon and Public Image Limited performing their song Hawaii earlier this year on the Late Late Eurosong special. Picture: Andres Poveda
John Lydon’s late wife Nora Forster had picked out a pink tartan suit for his February appearance fronting Public Image Ltd’s bid to represent Ireland at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. The track ‘Hawaii’ was essentially a love letter to Nora, who he first met in 1975, and who passed away in April, just a few months after PiL failed in their bid to become Ireland’s representatives.
Back in 2018, Lydon had revealed Nora was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. ‘Hawaii’ might have lost out to Wild Youth’s offering on the Late Late Show special, but it remains a powerful and moving song. The former Sex Pistol recalls the germination of ‘Hawaii’ when Pil guitarist Lu Edwards was messing about on his instrument after watching Elvis film Blue Hawaii.
“Mentally and physically, it developed,” explains Lydon via Zoom from his home in Malibu. “Every word must mean something. It’s about loss and was very hard to sing live knowing I was away from her.”
Rather than the disappointment of not qualifying for the Eurovision, the singer’s abiding memory of that time is being reunited with Nora in America soon after, and viewing a recording of the competition in Dublin. “It was such an absolute joy to sit down and watch it with her. She was thrilled and loved that pink suit which was picked out from a shopping catalogue.
“I’d share all manner of things and we’d sit and laugh. She pointed to the suit and said: ‘you’ and that was it. I will love and adore Ireland forever just for that alone.”
Lydon has strong ties to Ireland. In recent years, he has acquired an Irish passport, and he fondly recollects summers at his mother Eileen’s family homestead at Carrigrohane near Cork city.
As well as helping to create wonderful memories of precious last days with Nora, the song ‘Hawaii’ provided a platform for Lydon’s first studio album with PiL in eight years. He began working on End Of World back in 2019 while caring for Nora, and continued at various points during the pandemic.
Lydon has been observing these times closely while reflecting on his past with the pre-fame Sex Pistols. Some of the wounds from the time still haven’t healed. One tune, ‘LFCF’ (Liars, Fakes, Cheats and Frauds), is about his first rehearsal with the band in 1975. “None of them turned up, I was roaming around saying, ‘What’s this about?’. I was very angry and that anger helped me because the next time I came fully loaded with songs. I knew there wasn’t much chance of friendship with people who let you down.”
Lydon admits feuds with the Pistols had been exaggerated somewhat until the very real fall-out over the Danny Boyle-directed drama series Pistol. The singer was against the use of his former group’s songs in the series, but drummer Paul Cook and guitarist Steve Jones won a bitter court case that ended the need for unanimous agreement on what was done with the Sex Pistols’ music.
“We would take the piss in the press but we were still mates, Paul [Cook] would come to gigs which was great,” says Lydon. “We were very friendly but I didn’t know that behind my back they were plotting to push me out from the control of the Sex Pistols. I’ve been outvoted on everything and I have no say now.” It’s a state of affairs the 67-year-old is very unhappy with. “This was a band that, quite frankly, changed society’s way of thinking. It’s now degraded, it’s not loved and appreciated in terms of the products they are selling and they don’t see any problem with that!”
To some extent, Lydon has been here before. He argued that the Alex Cox film Sid and Nancy (1986) failed to represent his friend who joined the band after the departure of bassist Glen Matlock. “I had such an argument about that film but we couldn’t find enough money to argue in court. They destroyed Sid as a person. He was such a good friend, he was witty, sarcastic, ironic and hilariously good company but all of that was pushed aside. There should be more depth in the character analysis, it was the same problem with the Boyle series. Why do they push aside the genuine humanity for these spontaneous pop affectations that mean nothing?”
PiL’s eleventh studio album brings other areas of Johnny Rotten’s early history to life, the jagged Celtic drone of opening track ‘Penge’ suggests something of ex-Pistol Steve Jones and that snarling Les Paul. “The more Steve was out of tune the better I liked it” says Lydon, “It was the old Gaelic drone, the wrong tones and those soaring rhythms would clash and form something new inside your head.”
Beyond being a suburb of south-east London, Lydon explains how he loves the sound of the word ‘Penge’, and how its Anglo-Saxon roots inspired the lyrics.
“It’s about this small village facing attack and the Druid priests are supposed to lead the children to safety, only they turn out to be how we know priests can be. It’s about choices, you shouldn’t always think the next best thing can solve your problem, it’s a reference to politicians, just because this one is bad don’t think the next one is any better!”
Lydon’s vocal style, which first became apparent during his Johnny Rotten years, was also influenced by a similar situation growing up Catholic in Islington, north London. “We were scared stiff of the priests. Myself and a few other rebels would sing out of tune deliberately. I had to keep that up for years because if you could hold a rhythm you’d be in the choir and that meant the priests had direct access to you.
“I was aware of the molestation issues that came out years later but at that time it was more about the frightening aspect of priests; they were like vampires to us with the long black dresses; there was a nasty evilness about them. They didn’t strike me as being anything to do with God at all. It was all about keeping as far away from them as possible and I learned how not to sing from an early age.”
Another tune on the new album, ‘Being Stupid Again’ has a jibe at ‘woke’ culture with the line “All maths is racist!”. “I’m trying to get the woke lot laughing at themselves,” says Lydon. “At the moment the far-left is extreme and politically motivated. They are not sure who is motivating them into these situations. This is me generously holding my hand out and saying we need to sort this out and stop this ‘them versus us’. This world is all of us and we have to figure out how to live in it. I don’t judge others and I don’t expect to be judged but the very concept of ‘all white men are racist’.”
Lydon warms to his theme, referencing incidents in the UK where speakers invited to universities have been shut down by protesting students. “When I was young, I loved diversity of opinion, it’s how you learn. If you just wear blinkers for the rest of your life that makes you a slave to the system, you might not be accurate so don’t shout down speakers when they come to your place of higher education.”
End Of World covers a lot of ground lyrically while demanding your attention often through Lydon’s playful humour and his irreverent, spiky tone. He summons a surge of early PiL on the likes of ‘Car Chase’. “There’s some wonderful dance stuff on there,” says Lydon. “There might be a possibility of turning them into remixes.”
On the back of the album’s release, Lydon will go on the road with PiL in the autumn and return in early 2024 with a spoken word tour. “I love the spoken word gigs; my head goes straight into the guillotine! There’s no script and I have no clue what’s going to happen but it’s an incredibly friendly atmosphere. I like to go out after a gig and talk to people waiting outside; I get the best reviews. I might think something is my best work and a fan will say: ‘It was horrible’ which brings you right back down to earth and blessings be upon them for that”.
- End Of World is released on Friday, August 11
