Former frontman for The Sex Pistols and punk pioneer John Lydon spoke recently at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, revealing that he has carried some grief over the 1979 death of bandmate Sid Vicious, saying he feels a "bit responsible."
Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, was at the event Saturday, Oct. 11, to promote his new autobiography Anger Is an Energy when he started talking about his former group, NME reported. The singer said he brought Vicious into the band and the scene that accompanied it, which led to the bassist's death from a heroin overdose.
"He didn't stand a chance," Lydon said, according to the Gloucestershire Echo. "His mother was a heroin addict. I feel bad [that] I brought him into the band. He couldn't cope. I feel a bit responsible for his death.
"There you are, I have confessed my demons," he added.
It was not all gloom, though. Lydon also shared some early memories of the band, like how "Sid could not play an instrument, and I could not sing."
He also revealed that the highly regarded punk tune "God Save the Queen" was written in one take while he was cooking beans.
"I have not written my perfect song yet — I will keep striving as life is about learning," Lydon promised the crowd. "Words are my bullets."
After Lydon left The Sex Pistols in 1978, he formed Public Image Ltd. The group's last album, This Is PiL, was released in 2012.
When the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006, Lydon famously wrote a letter declining the honor.
"Next to the SEX-PISTOLS rock and roll and that hall of fame is a p--s stain," he wrote. "Your museum. Urine in wine. Were not coming. Were not your monkey and so what?"
Anger Is an Energy is out now.
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