is turning his ‘anger into humour’ in a new Public Image Ltd song slamming the Sex Pistols.
The , 67, shot to fame with the Pistols in the 70s, securing a massive following – but there were plenty of ups and downs in between.
Now playing with Public Image Ltd, John has a new album coming out this month, and one song between the Sex Pistols bandmates.
He recalls ‘the first Sex Pistols rehearsal, where we all really did not get along,’ and then immediately corrects himself.
‘Actually, the first rehearsal, they didn’t even turn up,’ he tells Metro.co.uk.
‘On the new album there’s actually a song, LCCF, about them not turning up at the first rehearsal. “Liars, Cheats, Fakes and Frauds!” I approach it in this particular way with a great sense of fun. It’s a fantastic rhythm going on there from the lads, my lads, the PiL lads. An effervescent approach rather than deep hatred and animosity – which are things I don’t naturally feel anyway.
‘I could be angry, but I use anger as an energy and I turn anger into humour.’
Another track, Being Stupid Again, takes aim at what John describes as ‘the opinionated malevolence’ coming from universities, who he claims ‘won’t tolerate any speech by anybody that differs from the manifesto that they’re being indoctrinated with.’
‘That’s not learning, that’s a slave to the sh*t-stem stuff … if you can’t have what you’re doing and believing in questioned, well then you’re not believing in it at all.’
He says he is ‘best entertained by people talking absolute rubbish, I like it, I want to hear more of it,’ and pleads with students to ‘be stupid again.’
‘Laugh at yourself, laugh with me. And then we’ll laugh together. This world isn’t about us and them, it’s about all of us.’
He admits ‘most’ of his ‘best friends disagree with me,’ and they ‘wouldn’t be my best friends if they didn’t, that’s what keeps the joy of friendship alive.’
‘You can learn from people who disagree and they’ll give you examples of where you’ve gone wrong. That’s the most excellent gift in the world, apart from life itself.’
He calls the upcoming album, End Of World, ‘one of my finest pieces of work,’ not least because of ‘all the pressures over the last eight years we’ve had to endure.’
‘The situation was nearly unbearable. That really stripped us of our finances. And that never should have turned up that Walt corporation took me on and there’s no way on God’s earth I could ever win such a challenge.
‘I can’t go up against conglomerates like that. And then of course there was my wife’s illness and imminent death, may she rest in peace.’
John lost his wife, Nora, to Alzheimer’s in April of this year, and is, naturally, still grieving her – but describes himself as ‘the Duracell bunny – you can’t keep me down.’
He turned his pain and grief into the track Hawaii, written before Nora’s death, and which he and Public Image Ltd put forward to represent Ireland in Eurovision 2023.
While they weren’t chosen, they did get the opportunity to perform the song live on Ireland’s Late Late Show, and the musician – whose parents were Irish immigrants to London – says he will ‘forever love the Irish’ for letting him perform it.
‘I don’t think any of us were expecting Eurovision Song Contest winners out of it, because let’s face it, it’s a different universe. But to give me the opportunity to do that and to come back to America and sit down and show it to Nora was magnificent.
‘She wanted to know why I was crying. Because I did. I’m a human being and I cried doing it live, knowing I was going to lose her. She picked out the pink suit that I wore. She was very, very particular about the look – “you’re wearing this suit!”
‘Alzheimer’s or not, there were moments of great coherence in her. And I was extremely particular with the lyrics in that song. I had a long time, really, to think about. it. The last seven years were very painful. I didn’t want to wrap it up in misery and woe-is-me stuff. It’s not like that. There’s 45 years of heaven, heaven on earth … And if I could share that sort of approach to life with other people, that’s wonderful.’
He also took part in The Masked Singer ‘specifically for my darling Nora,’ as he wanted her ‘to be entertained, and or her last two years to be full of joy.’
Looking back on his own life and career, he believes he was ‘thrown into the deep end initially because I was dressing in an interestingly different way.’
‘Little did they know, there was a lot more behind an I Hate Pink Floyd t-shirt. Poor fools!’
That said, he ‘doesn’t admire’ certain other people for standing out and dressing in their own way – he takes aim at Sam Smith, who is non-binary, and misgenders them as he pleads: ‘Please Sam, put that bottom away.’
He adds the star is ‘definitely putting [themself] out there.’
‘I gotta say it’s brave,’ he admits. ‘It’s so ludicrous, I hope it’s an in-joke, it’s a terrific one.’
Never one to mince his words, when asked about the ongoing Hollywood strikes, he says he supports the performers and writers striking for fair pay, but plads: ‘Keep it serious, don’t get your heads too big.
‘And if they win this f***ing start writing some decent scripts, you c***s.’
End Of World is out on 11 August.
