i'm interviewing johny lydon/johnny rotten - got any questions?

It's for an upcoming issue of our zine. A friend of mine hooked me up with the bitter old bastard.

The guy's got an opinion on everything and I was wondering what you guys would like me to ask him

Of couse that's the quesion on all of our minds. :shrug: ;)

It was either that or People's Court.

classic tv

-especially when judy delivered her ruling in favor of him and john says in that perfectly wise-ass voice

"an obvious conclusion" (it's all in the delivery)

That ought to be good for a healthy rant.

It was on the second to last PiL tour, if I recall. He talked about the various towns in England where he was banned from performing (or setting foot), talked about how PiL was a no-partying outfit (unlike the Pistols), how he thought Bono was a religious hypocrite, a few other things.

I asked him if he ever sent a Xmas card to Malcolm McLaren - he snarled, "...no..."

Don't kid yourself - the guy's smart as a whip. Corrosive sense of humor.

I did get him to say "Fuck you" directly at me, at the end of the interview, definitely a highlight of my 26 years of music writing/interviews.

He hates the "you're a legend" stuff, despises it, so don't try kissing his ass too much, he'll hang up on you.

so skip the 'it's such an honor to talk to you...etc" bull and just get right to it

my friend who's hooking me up with this says he's actually a much nicer guy than you'd expect, as long as you don't ask anything stupid.

i've watched him enough for years to kind of guage what might set him off....i think

oh well, this should be fun

and write down everything he says.

he'll still intimidate me and i'll lose control of the whole thing, though

....

this one scares me.

everyone i've interviewed in the past (janeane garofalo, willie nelson, etc) has been overly kind

He refers to himself as "John" - if I were interviewing him tomorrow, I think I'd ask him why rock and roll is virtually gone from clubs in England now (replaced by DJ's), did he think PiL got the attention it deserved, and is there any cultural pursuits in the Western world that actually mean something these days?

I don't remember him as a real Q&A type interview - get him going on something and scribble fast. Have a conversation with him.

Anyay - enough advice. Have fun and write a good piece.

will bear it in mind

to not let nervousness show through by saying something you might think was stupid.

Better maybe to ask him a question he can give a long-winded answer on? Political or philosophical, maybe?

Good luck. I wouldn't want to be in your shoes, although I admire Mr. Lydon trememdously. :scared:

Hello from Germany,

Dear Mr. Lydon, if you look back at the seventies today: the situationist direction within punk, as represented by McLaren and the Sex Pistols, was very entertaining for some boring middle-class european intellectuals, while the Clash have become a kind of boring mainstream american stadium rock band without ever becoming one. They didn't even have to exist anymore to become the next Rolling Stones.
Do you think both are equally disgusting or should we still make a difference?
If you hear all these feuilletonists talking about french "ennui" and punk's boredom, is it boring for you or do you just hate them?

O.K.: a more serious one on edit:
During the seventies, punks did somehow glorify unemployment, when the so-called welfarestates still did exist. It was like: it's not a lot of money, but you don't have to destroy your live doing the stupid work for them. If you look at what has become of capitalism since the seventies, what do you think about that punk-attitude now?

I know what to ask, but I know I don't get it!
Dirk

...or not.

to get him into a rant

real quick

Where are his songs trashing bush? (He lives in the USA after all.) Maybe the Queen was just an easy target all those years ago?

Come to think of it, where's ANY songs lately?

Maybe I'm just jonesin' for some politically-charged Clash music....