Johnny Rotten Says He’ll Rather Miss the Queen When She Dies, Actually

Here is a short list of things John Lydon, AKA Johnny Rotten of Sex Pistols, has done since Sex Pistols disbanded in 1978:

• butter adverts;
• been a contestant on I'm a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here;
• sanctioned the release of a Sex Pistols fragrance billed as "the spirit of punk in a bottle".

None of these things are particularly "punk" as we have come to understand the term – a term which the very Sex Pistols of which Lydon was a part helped to coin. Curious.

Do you know what the least punk thing is, though? The least punk thing is liking the Queen, or any sort of authority. This is the case because Johnny Rotten said so, on the Sex Pistols' joint most famous song (along with "Anarchy in the UK") "God Save the Queen," which is ironically titled because it is not about saving the queen at all, it is about hating her and the monarchal tradition she represents! Punk!

But it seems as though the years have mellowed Lydon. He now has a more measured view of our definitely-not-lizard overlords, and he absolutely does not want you to play "God Save the Queen" when Elizabeth II eventually dies. He recently told The Quietus that the song is "about a political situation," rather than the Queen as a person. He continued: "She's a human being and I will sorely miss her as a human being on planet Earth. It's not her fault she was born into a gilded cage." He's a sellout, sure, we've known that for ages, but at least he's a poetic one.

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(Image via Wikimedia Commons)