2023-08-08 13:00:29
The ex-Sex Pistols singer is releasing a new album with his band PiL. The recordings had to be interrupted several times. Also because Rotten was caring for his sick wife: It “wasn’t a burden, it was a joy”.
John Lydon, commonly known as Johnny Rotten, is at odds with his ex-colleagues from the Sex Pistols, and he is now releasing a new album with his longer-lived second band PiL (Public Image Ltd.): “End Of The World” ends with the previously released, unusually lovely song “Hawaii”, which he dedicated to his wife Nora, who died in April after a long illness with Alzheimer’s. “Taking care of my love around the clock was not a burden, but a joy,” he said in an interview with APA. “It was just another part of our relationship. I really loved Nora, she was kind, funny and witty to the end.’ And: ‘Don’t use that horrible word catharsis!’ I hate it! There are too many ‘arses’ (= asses) in there!”
In any case, the eternal rebel is satisfied with “End Of World”: “The joy that PiL has consisted of the same musicians for a long time has helped. The reins are loose!” It is the group’s first new studio effort in eight years. It was worked on intermittently: “There was this ridiculous court case that got us stuck,” Lydon alludes to the dispute with his former Sex Pistols collaborators over the Pistols TV series. “Then the Covid nonsense followed. Before that, when we started recording, my wife Nora fell ill. That required my full attention. People come before the product. Everyone understood that.”
“We don’t have a deadline”
The musician says that Covid has set production back for several years. “But who cares, we’re PiL, not a silly pop band that needs a hit single every three weeks. We work according to the rhythm that life gives us. We don’t have to rush anything, we don’t have a deadline. No big record company dictates to us. I’ve been looking for this joy and freedom all my life. I’m now working with real friends who like me – I hope. You never know,” Rotten laughs out loud.
Featuring Lydon, Lu Edmonds (guitar), Scott Firth (bass) and Bruce Smith (drums), it’s PiL’s most stable line-up to date, having recorded three albums together since 2009. “We constantly push each other to extreme limits,” enthuses the singer. “This is a great experience for PiL. And I’m only 67 years young, who knows what the future holds for me.”
Released on own label
“End Of World” will be released on Friday (11.8.) on the band’s own label. This means that disputes with record companies are a thing of the past: “We are only responsible for ourselves,” says Rotten. At the time, Virgin wanted to hold back the biggest PiL hit in Austria, “This Is Not A Love Song” from 1983: “They didn’t like it at all,” says Rotten, twisting his face into a grimace. Today he only calls big labels “death by committee”: “They hold these board meetings that you’re not privileged enough to attend. They determine in this committee what artists have to do.”
“End Of World” offers typical aggressive Rotten pieces, but also dark tracks. Rock, dance, folk, pop and dub bring PiL together in a unique blend. The song “North West Passage” even sounds like industrial metal. “I like the power of this type of music, but I can’t stand the roar of the singers,” Rotten grins. “Lu plays a wonderful, otherworldly guitar part on it. We’re still trying to figure out what he did there.”
“You are misinterpreted”
“Car Chase” and “Being Stupid Again” are good to dance to, though Rotten says you need three legs to do it. The latter song is about “losing the fun of debate”. “It’s gotten ridiculous. One is misinterpreted, sentences are taken out of their context. I’ve always wanted debate, it started with the Sex Pistols: if you have a different view, welcome, educate me – but you can be wrong. In the modern world, there is no such access.”
The story behind the opener “Penge”, which is reminiscent of a sea shanty, seems wild. “It’s about a Viking raid. Knowing that everyone will be massacred, those attacked decide to have a priest take the children to a nearby safe haven. Well, the priest turned out to be indecent,” Rotten rolls his eyes and drags on his cigarette. “Only I can probably write a song like that! Ultimately, the song is about choice: make the right choice when faced with danger. Consider your steps. Life is like chess!”
Ex-Sex Pistols collaborator ‘wrong’
At the end of the conversation, a few words about his ex-comrades in the Sex Pistols, who are mobbed in the song “LFCF” Rotten-like: “The fact that they use the Disney company to bring me to court just shows how wrong they’ve become.” Finally, Lydon shares a little secret: “There’s one kind of music I’ve never gotten anywhere with: New Orleans traditional jazz. That sounds to me like a traffic jam in Paris.” (APA)
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