Sex Pistols’ frontman Johnny Lydon had some rotten things to say about “wokeness.”
In a recent profile with the Times UK, the aging punk rocker decried “cancel culture” and the activists who campaigned to tear down national monuments which they say promote historical racism. The statues include that of Winston Churchill, one of the UK’s most revered prime ministers.
He also blamed academia as well as the media for giving “the space” to “tempestuous spoilt children.”
“These people aren’t really genuinely disenfranchised at all,” said Lydon, 65. “They just view themselves as special. It’s selfishness and in that respect, it’s divisive and can only lead to trouble,” he said.
“I can’t believe that TV stations give some of these lunatics the space,” the “Anarchy In The UK” singer continued.
“Where is this ‘moral majority’ nonsense coming from when they’re basically the ones doing all the wrong for being so bloody judgmental and vicious against anybody that doesn’t go with the current popular opinion?” he asked. “It’s just horribly, horribly tempestuous spoilt children coming out of colleges and universities with s- -t for brains.”
Addressing calls to tear down Churchill’s statue in London, Lydon dismissed criticism that the wartime prime minister was racist. However, critics point out that the leader once referred to Indians as “the beastliest people in the world next to Germans,” and thought that black people are “[not] as capable or as efficient as white people.”
“This man saved Britain,” Lydon asserted. “Whatever he got up to in South Africa or India beforehand is utterly irrelevant to the major issue in hand.”
If there are any bigger haters in history than today’s cancel culture, Lydon conceded, it’s the Nazis — and Churchill took care of that.
“We are not walking up and down the high street with jackboots and helmets because of that man,” Lydon said. “The Nazis were the biggest race haters of all, ever, in the history of the planet so thank you again, Winston.”
Also a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump, Lydon defended US conservatives as “regular working people,” not “redneck, toting, moronic race haters.”
Now a US citizen, Lydon has increasingly shown support for President Trump since 2017, and expressed criticism of the media’s rumored liberal bias. He told the Times that President Joe Biden “doesn’t respect anything but the latest woke fashion trend,” and has catalyzed America’s “collapse.”
Lydon first revealed in 2018 that he had become a full time caretaker for his wife Nora Forster, a German publishing heiress, now 78, who has Alzheimer’s disease.
During the Times interview, Lydon also slammed ex-royals Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
“My advice to them is they should mind their own business, too, and if you want out of the public awareness then don’t go on the Oprah show. It can only end badly for you,” he warned.
“You don’t put your head in the guillotine or the chopping block, dears, because someone will quite happily press that button.”
While the Sex Pistols initially split in the late 1970s, Lydon a k a Johnny Rotten has continued to perform with the group Public Image Ltd and later as a solo act. In his Times interview, Lydon also announced plans to take legal action to prevent the release of the forthcoming FX network series based on former bandmate Steve Jones’ 2016 memoir “Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol.” Lydon accused the show of decidedly leaving him out of development.
“It’s a disgrace. I fronted this band. I’m the man that wrote the words,” he said. “If they needed to be this secret squirrel about it then they must have something to hide.”