“They’re absolutely going to kill all that was good with the Pistols by eliminating the point and the purpose of it all”: John Lydon writes off Sex Pistols tour as "karaoke"

The Sex Pistols are back together and with a global tour looming, punks everywhere couldn't be happier - aside from than the band's former frontman.

The news that punk’s most iconic band were getting back together for a handful of charity gigs first broke cover back in June 2024. Raising money to support the survival of the iconic Bush Hall music venue in Shepherd’s Bush, London, the gigs were welcomed by fans and proved a big hit.

However, the small matter of the band choosing to perform without vocalist John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) didn't escape anyone's attention.

Pretty Vacant

Instead, the band’s ringleader role fell to Frank Carter, the capable vocalist best known for fronting Gallows, Pure Love and Frank Carter And The Rattlesnakes.

But with the previous experiment going so well, what could be more obvious than one more fan-pleasing jaunt with original band members Steve Jones, Glen Matlock, and Paul Cook subsequently announcing dates in U.K. and Europe, appearing as Sex Pistols featuring Frank Carter.

Indeed, the band’s 2025 UK tour commences on 24 March with an appropriately irreverent gig at London's Royal Albert Hall and further UK gigs and dates in Australia, New Zealand and Europe planned.

And with US dates promised, but as yet unconfirmed, the new-look Pistols could now be considered to be on one of those in-vogue, never-ending world tours that are so fashionable right now.

Thus, this moment perhaps marks the perfect timing for their US resident, wind-him-up-and-watch-him-go ex-frontman to finally break cover and offer his opinion on the new-look, Rotten-less Pistols.

Silly Thing

“When I first heard that the Sex Pistols were touring this year without me it pissed me off,” he tells The i Paper in a new interview. “It annoyed me. I just thought, ‘they’re absolutely going to kill all that was good with the Pistols by eliminating the point and the purpose of it all’. I didn’t write those words lightly. They’re trying to trivialise the whole show to get away with karaoke.

“I’ve never sold my soul to make a dollar… Like Nancy Reagan, I’ve always found it easy to just say ‘no’,” he writes. “Which, according to the corporate thinking which riddles the music business earns me the title of ‘difficult to work with’ – a title of which I’m very proud.”

Indeed, rather than rejoin his former Pistols bandmates, Lydon has put Public Image Ltd back together instead and begins his own ‘This Is Not The Last Tour’ tour on 22 May to 16 August.

He will also be undertaking a 50-date spoken word tour of the UK and Ireland running 5 September to 24 November.

Find out more and get tickets at johnlydon.com