John Lydon, also known as Johnny Rotten, has taken aim at his former Sex Pistols bandmates.
The frontman branded guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook ‘dead wood’ in a scathing attack and expressed his hurt after being side-lined in Danny Boyle’s six-part TV series Pistol.
‘Cutting me out is a shockingly stupid move,’ John said. ‘It’s so ridiculous. It’s so preposterous.
‘They can all f*ck off. I supported them for years and years and years, knowing they were dead wood.
‘None of these f*cks would have a career but for me. They did nothing before, they’ve done nothing since.’
Pistol is an upcoming drama starring Anson Boon as Johnny, Toby Wallace as Steve Jones, Louis Partridge as bassist Sid Vicious and Game Of Thrones actress Maisie Williams as punk fashion icon Pamela Rooke.
It’s expected to premiere on Disney on May 31.
While John is angry at being left out of the production, he said he will be watching it when it launches to check for inaccuracies.
He added to : ‘I don’t really want to watch it but I will need to fact-check it. I have not seen one single second of it. Not any script, I’ve been completely ostracised.’
The Sex Pistols formed in London in 1975. Their initial career only last two and a half years, however, they are regarded as one of the most influential acts in the history of pop music.
Last August, John was sued by Paul and guitarist Steve in order to allow their music to be used in the drama.
Judge Sir Anthony Mann found Paul and Steve were entitled to invoke ‘majority voting rules’ against John in relation to the use of Sex Pistols material in the series under the terms of a band member agreement (BMA).
However, John criticised the move in a statement issued on Tuesday.
‘I am the lead singer and songwriter, frontman, image, the lot, you name it. I put it there,’ he said.
‘How is that not relevant? It is dumbfounding to me. It is so destructive to what the band is and so I fear that the whole project might be extremely negative.
‘How can anyone think that this can proceed without consulting me and deal with my personal life in this, and my issues in this, without any meaningful contact with me before the project is announced to the world?
‘I don’t think there are even words that I can put forward to explain quite how disingenuous this is.
‘As I said in the lyrics of The Order Of Death: this is what you want, this is what you get.’
