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hosting the Discovery Channel nature
shows John Lydon's Megabugs, John Lydon
Goes Ape, and John Lydon's Shark Attack he
signed on to play King Herod in a recent
restaging of Jesus Christ Superstar, alongside fellow musicians like Brandon Boyd
of Incubus, and he's set to start filming a
soccer-themed Football Kingdom soon, in
the role of a club manager named Saul. He
won't discuss the upcoming part, he says –
he doesn't want to jinx it. And he's done
that before, by bragging about becoming
King Herod, right before funding for the
musical fell through. At first, acting proved
difficult, he admits. "But I've got a few
friends in the business that give me advice,
and they tell me it's…well, whatever they
tell me, I'll see if it works, I'll give it a go.
But I find it very tiring, because you sit
Don't expect any gallery exhibits of
Lydon's work, though. "The art world is
even more corrupt than any other industry
I've had to endure," he reckons. "There's
nothing about skill that's admired – it's
really just about investment. That's why
corporate buildings are so full of what they
allege to be 'high art' – it's just an investment, like hiding money." He goes off on a
tangent, relating a tale of how pop icon
Madonna accidentally bought a fake
Picasso, but then discarded it once she
learned it wasn't the real deal; Was the
painting any less aesthetically pleasing,
simply because of that,? he wonders. "So I
don't ever want to contribute to the nonsense of that, like, 'Is that a real John
Lydon?' Stop it. It's all bollocks."
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5) Since cultures that don't learn
from their past are doomed to
repeat it, Lydon has studied his
own intently.
And he has not been afraid to celebrate
it at certain career points. In 2007, he
Lydon with The Sex Pistols
around all day long, stressed, and trying to
remember your lines. And then you do
roughly two minutes' work, and that's
very frustrating." Plus, he says, you're up
at the crack of dawn each work day, not
knowing when you'll be called from your
trailer onto the set. "So I suppose I'm trying
to learn to relax before I'm called. And
that's very hard for me, because even in
my own life as a singer, I'm stressed out all
day long before a gig, and I don't like to
take on the same anxiety in another workplace. But it seems to me that no matter
what I do, it's fraught with anxiety."
Except, perhaps, painting. Lydon
enjoys coming up with a splashy canvas
from time to time, whenever the mood
strikes him. Or a pending PiL release date
– he's been doing the cover pieces for their
latest albums, including the classic jester
for What the World Needs Now…, based on
a traditional Hopi Kachina doll. The figure,
too, is significant. "In all cultures, there's
always the persona that's the least understood, the least appreciated, that tells the
biggest truths and is mocked for it," he
says. "And that's the hokester, the trickster,
the clown. But there's a genius in it,
because they're the ones that mock pomp
and ceremony and institutionalism and
politics and religion. They take these subjects on, and they're somewhat negatively
viewed for that. But they're telling you the
truth, when most people don't like to be
reminded that they're being foolish." He
pauses again. "Now am I considering
myself that kind of character? Ehh…that's
up to you. But if you look at him on the
cover, I've taken him from Hopi tradition,
but he's wearing my shoes."
regrouped the surviving Sex Pistols for the
30th anniversary of Never Mind the Bollocks.
And PiL – which he launched with First
Edition in 1978 – was regrouped in 2009
after a 17-year hiatus. He tackles the subject on the new album cut "Spice of
Choice." What is his personal preference?
"Never the same thing twice," he replies.
He won't say he's proud of every last
choice he's made. "But I certainly think that
I've made the correct decisions. I've had to,
because I've spent a lot of time processing
what it is I'm about to do, or have done, or
am currently doing. It's important to me to
get things right. I don't want to be spouting
nonsense, so the way I write is as truthful
as it can ever possibly get. And until I'm
100 years old, I won't know if I've been
successful at that."
But Lydon gleaned a couple of things
from penning his autobiography. "I learned
that I'm not so bad after all, and that what
I am mostly is a survivor," he summarizes.
"And that there was a disease that certainly nearly killed me, and definitely stole my
personality and memories for nearly four
years. And I survived that. And – oddly
enough – I think that that's the greatest
achievement in my life, and that's why I
have respect for all things living, including
myself, and my philosophy that there is no
need to lie anymore.
"I got a second chance at coming back
and being a human being. And those lessons learned will not be quickly forgotten.
Not for as long as I live."
Appearing: 11/18 at Concord Music Hall,
Chicago.
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