Jugular

"That's the trouble with working-class people throughout the world.  They always try to spur their hatred onto what they see as being lower down the scale, rather than going for the fucking jugular of the upper- and middle-class bastards who are keeping them down in the first place."  ~John Lydon, from his autobiography Rotten: no Irish, no Blacks, no dogs ©1994

John Lydon

 

(clicking imbiggens)LINK

Hawaii

This is John Lydon's love letter to his wife, who he is slowly losing to Alzheimer's Disease. 

Full lyrics HERE.

That's Nice

"I'd rather be hated or loved, rather than just thought of as all right or nice. 'Nice' is the worst insult you could pay anybody. It means you are utterly without threat, without values. Nice is a cup of tea."  John Lydon, in his autobiography Rotten:  No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, ©1994

The Jugular

 Excerpted from John Lydon's autobiography Rotten:  No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, ©1994:

That's the trouble with working-class people throughout the world. They always try to spur their hatred onto what they see as being lower down the scale, rather than going for the fucking jugular of the upper- and middle-class bastards who are keeping them down in the first place.

Anyone Can Do It

 John Lydon (aka "Johnny Rotten") on the Sid Vicious personality cult, excerpted from his autobiography Rotten:  No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, ©1994:

Since I always have to have a point and purpose to everything I do, that's why people accuse me of being calculated. But it's the way I am. I always know my next move. I could never conjure up a death wish. This is all I have, life. I don't know what comes next, and frankly, I'm in no rush to find out. I didn't believe in playing the martyr just for the sheer hell of it, either. And to die over something as vaguely childish as rock 'n' roll is not on. Even though there's a lot of popularity in Sid's character, the people who buy the Sid myths, they don't buy records. They're wasters. That's the drug culture thing for losers and junkies, people who bemoan their sorry lot. I'm not part of that. I never was. I'll always go out and make sure it gets better. That's the difference between the Sid fanatic and the Johnny Lydon Appreciation Society. Life and death! There's nothing glorious in dying. Anyone can do it.

Wonderfully Chaotic

 John Lydon on politics, excerpted from his his autobiography Rotten:  No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, ©1994:

Around the time of the punks, socialism wasn't working in England. The Labour party were unimpressive and tedious. The Conservatives, the same. It fluctuated from one party to another, four years of this, four years of that, and you wouldn't notice any change. Young people-- in fact, most people-- just walked clean away from politics as if it were a waste of time. A cloud of apathy had truly set in. Of course, that's exactly the environment the Conservatives want. That's when they can strut their stuff using prejudice, hate, family values, all the nonissues of political life. Grim.

—•—

I'm not a revolutionary, a socialist, or any of that. That's not what I'm about at all. An absolute sense of individuality is my politics. All political groups that I'm aware of on this planet seem to strive to suppress individuality. They need block voting numbers. They need units. It doesn't matter if it's left or right, sometimes the tactics are the same. The things these people strive for is mass uniformity. The feminist movement became oppressive very quickly. Gay liberation is not after equal rights at all. It's to be accepted as this one great lump. If a homosexual inside that movement dares stray away from what they term as the norm, then they victimize that person. It's replacing the same old system with a different clothing. I hate all these groupings, any kind of gathering like that. It destroys personality and individuality. Maybe a roomful of people having very different ideas is chaotic, but it's wonderfully chaotic, highly entertaining, and very educational. That's how you learn things-- not by everybody following the same doctrine. I don't suppose my kind of world could really exist at all because there are so many sheep out there that need leaders. Let them bleat among the flock, that's not for me. I'd rather be the lone sheep out there fending off the wolves. It's much better. When you grow up in a working-class environment, you're supposed to stay inside and follow the rules and regulations of that little system. I won't have any of that. It's all wrong, equally bad.

Old Women Knitting Quilts

 Excerpted from John Lydon's autobiography Rotten:  No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, ©1994:

I'm not a social snob; I can move inside any group and feel comfortable, I don't care if it's old women talking about knitting quilts. It's all about human beings. I can find that as fascinating as anything else. Sid, Paul, and Steve had a very hard time understanding that. "It's not rock 'n' roll." Of course it is! Rock 'n' roll is supposed to relate to everybody! If everybody isn't involved, then it's sectarianism. The people who condemn and slag you off do so because they have little knowledge of you. If you confront them and give them that knowledge, things will change. That's the whole point of living! You can learn off each other and enjoy.

Soulmates

 

John Lydon/Johnny Rotten and Nora Forster have been married for forty years now (via):

"Now there’s a saucy girl.  It’s love, you know. I’ve always loved that woman. And she knows it. When we met we didn’t expect to get on. We’d both been told the other was a bad ‘un. But blimey. Sparks flew. It was instant attraction. And that’s never gone. I never expected to feel like that. I never thought I was in any way attractive. Or anyone’s idea of a good date.

"It’s volatile, the marriage. Which one isn’t? Nothing better than a good, full-on row. Get it all out. Say rude and nasty things. And then be sorry. Genuinely sorry, afterwards.

"But you know I can’t think of a better woman on God’s earth than Nora. If we ceased to function as a couple tomorrow there would be no one else. Not ever. I mean it."