Former Sex Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten has praised Donald Trump’s election win as “magnificent” and slammed American Idiot rockers Green Day as “turgid.”
Enjoying a chit-chat with the New York Times , Rotten who since his punk rocking days has reverted back to his birth-name of Lydon was discussing the state of punk in 2018 – a full four decades after the belligerent and boozed-up Brits that were the Pistols took the U.S. by storm.
Lydon revealed how he finds it extremely embarrassing that modern bands are still rocking the spiky haircut look like the spirit of 1978 never died.
And the boy from Holloway wasted no time in detailing who he thinks are some of the worst offenders – Green Day.
Lydon then continues to give the likes of Billie Joe Armstrong and co a right proper tongue-lashing – north London style.
“It is embarrassing really”, he snapped.
“How many bands are out there like Green Day now? I look at them and I have to laugh. They’re coat hangers, you know. A turgid version of something that doesn’t actually belong to them.”
In between pints of Stella and sucking on a Marlboro Light Lydon went on to describe modern punk as being defined by a “caricature.” He also takes a few pot shots at rap and describes it as “a perfect backdrop to sell a pair of sneakers.”
Reflecting on his messy divorce from all things punk Lydon announced.
“Punk wanted to maintain the cliché and the uniformity that it didn’t deserve. And I wanted to do new and different things, which is, to my mind, what punk is all about: Do it yourself, which means be true to yourself.”
John, who has forged a successful post-Pistol career for himself by participating in a series of lucrative commercials advertising margarine, has always been to paraphrase Green Day a “Walking Contradiction.”
And even though he has previously described Donald Trump’s election win as “magnificent” and described the President as the Sex Pistols of politics, he now admits he actually voted for the candidate “whose name rhymes with ‘Hilarity,’” in 2016.
Despite voting for her, the 62-year-old still accused Clinton of having a “loser trip” candidacy and suggested people only voted for Trump because they were sick of professional politicians.
“What America did was it voted in a businessman to replace politicians. Is business the alternative? I’ve openly said I don’t think so. That’s the ultimate corruption, but that’s how desperate America has become.”
