John Lydon rules out Sex Pistols return as PiL plots busy year
The punk frontman told Rolling Stone the chance of singing with his old band again is in the “minus infinities” while Public Image Ltd. tours and records.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
3 min read
John Lydon has put the Sex Pistols reunion dream on ice, then shoved it into the deepest freezer he could find.
In a new interview with Rolling Stone, the former Johnny Rotten said the odds of him singing with the band again sit in the “minus infinities,” citing the legal fight with his former bandmates over FX’s Pistol series and the timing of that dispute while his wife, Nora Forster, was dying of Alzheimer’s.
Lydon told Rolling Stone he will not forgive the way the court case was brought against him during that period. He said the other members knew Forster was ill, and claimed money he had to raise for the case could have gone toward her care.
The Sex Pistols have since carried on with Frank Carter on vocals. Rolling Stone also noted that Steve Jones previously suggested Lydon might return if he needed money, while Glen Matlock said he cast the deciding vote to continue without him. Lydon rejected both ideas in the interview and said he would not mount his own tour to mark next year’s 50th anniversary of Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols.
PiL is keeping him busy
Lydon, who turned 70 in January, is much more focused on Public Image Ltd. The band has already played about three dozen shows this year, according to Rolling Stone, with roughly two dozen North American dates booked under the banner “This Is Not the Last Tour.” More shows are planned on other continents next year.
He told the magazine that live work still rattles him before showtime, bringing fear, anxiety and self-doubt. Once he gets onstage, he said, the nerves give way to the feeling that he is where he belongs.
Public Image Ltd. also has a live album, Alive, on the way, and has started work on a new studio record. Lydon said the working title is AI: Actual Intelligence, stressing the “actual.”
According to Rolling Stone, the band wrote around 20 songs during a stay in Portugal earlier this year. Lydon said they expect to finish about 10 of them in London, with Noel Gallagher offering his studio for the sessions.
Grief, work and no Pistols songs
The new PiL album would be the group’s first since 2023’s End of World, which included “Hawaii,” the song Lydon wrote for Forster. She died in 2023, the same year as his close friend and PiL manager John “Rambo” Stevens.
Lydon told Rolling Stone he spent close to a year overwhelmed by grief after their deaths before work began pulling him back. He said he now feels a drive to create and perform that had been difficult while he was caring for Forster at home.
He also said PiL used to play Sex Pistols songs in its sets, but that he no longer wants to. Lydon told the magazine those songs belonged to a wild and powerful time, while the later fallout has changed what they mean to him.
Asked about politics, Lydon pushed back on claims that he is MAGA. He told Rolling Stone he does not like politicians, and said the fuss came after he described Donald Trump as “the Sex Pistols of politics,” a comment he said he does not regret.
This story draws on original reporting from Rolling Stone.