Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1471137198 ISBN 13: 9781471137198

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd, 2014

John Lydon has secured prime position as one of the most recognizable icons in the annals of music history. As Johnny Rotten, he was the lead singer of the Sex Pistols - the world's most notorious band, who shot to fame in the mid-1970s with singles such as 'Anarchy in the UK' and 'God Save the Queen'. So revolutionary was his influence, he was even discussed in the Houses of Parliament, under the Traitors and Treasons Act, which still carries the death penalty. Via his music and invective he spearheaded a generation of young people across the world who were clamouring for change - and found it in the style and attitude of this most unlikely figurehead.With his next band, Public Image Ltd (PiL) Lydon expressed an equally urgent impulse in his make-up - the constant need to reinvent himself, to keep moving. From their beginnings in 1978 he set the groundbreaking template for a band that continues to challenge and thrive in the 2010s. He also found time for making innovative new dance records with the likes of Afrika Baambaata and Leftfield. Following the release of a solo record in 1997, John took a sabbatical from his music career into other media, most memorably his own Rotten TV show for VH1 and as the most outrageous contestant ever on I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here!He then fronted the Megabugsseries and one-off nature documentaries and even turned his hand to a series of much loved TV advertisements for Country Life butter.Lydon has remained a compelling and dynamic figure - both as a musician, and, thanks to his outspoken, controversial, yet always heartfelt and honest statements, as a cultural commentator.The book is a fresh and mature look back on a life full of incident from his beginnings as a sickly child of immigrant Irish parents who grew up in post-war London, to his present status as a vibrant, alternative national hero.

From the Back Cover:

From the legendary front man of the Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd comes the complete, unvarnished story of his life in his own words

“Vintage Johnny Rotten.”—Daily News (New York)

“Packed with . . . vivid storytelling.”—San Francisco Gate

“A dishy chronicle.”—Details

“Ridiculously entertaining.”—The Telegraph (UK; four stars)

“A ripe, breathless romp through an extraordinary life.”—The Observer (UK)

 “A companion to Lydon’s 1994 memoir, Rotten. His life is rich enough to warrant another . . . and he’s a gifted enough writer to make it a fun read.”—Billboard

“Establishes that there’s much more to the person than the public persona.”—Paste

“Lydon is at his best when writing about his family . . . and . . . [is] quite moving

in his account of Vicious.”—Los Angeles Times

“His passion and his intellect remain an inspiration.”—NME

“Unique, uncompromising, and . . . fascinating.”—Mail on Sunday (UK)

“A lucid, literate pleasure.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

About the Author:

John Lydon is a hero to millions, across every continent and several generations. Without parallel, he changed the game in popular music, not once but twice, first wreaking political chaos upon starchy mid-'70s Britain with The Sex Pistols, then shapeshifting with Public Image Ltd (PiL) as a free experimentalist. 'Rock' simply wasn't big enough to contain such an immense, shapeshifting character, as he scored global hits with the likes of Afrika Bambaataa and Leftfield, and then diversified into television, where the erstwhile Johnny Rotten ended up presenting his own nature series.