John Lydon, einst bekannt als Johnny Rotten, ist eine Schlüsselfigur der britischen Punkrock-Bewegung und berühmt als charismatischer Frontmann der Sex Pistols. Später gründete er die Band Public Image Ltd (PiL), deren Frontmann er bis heute ist. Lydon betätigt sich auch als bildender Künstler. Seine Autobiografien bieten tiefe Einblicke in sein Leben, seine Karriere und die Entwicklung seines einzigartigen musikalischen Ausdrucks.
Die grösste Ikone des Punk zieht Bilanz John Lydon hat sich einen Spitzenplatz als eine der meistbeachteten Ikonen der Musikgeschichte gesichert. Unter dem Künstlernamen Johnny Rotten führte er die Sex Pistols als Leadsänger an – die berüchtigtste (Punk-)Band der Welt, die Mitte der 1970er-Jahre mit Singles wie »Anarchy in the UK« und »God Save the Queen« zu großem Ruhm kam. Bis heute erfindet er sich ständig neu, bleibt immer in Bewegung und ist eine der kontroversesten und interessantesten Figuren der Musik- und Kulturszene.
More than twenty of the UK’s finest musicians discuss the magic and reveal the secrets behind their art in a rare collection of conversations about fifty years of classic British songwriting.
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 Megabugs series 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. John Lydon is Johnny Rotten's real name
"Much more than just a rock autobiography, this book is an oral history of punk : at once angry, witty, honest, poignant and crackling with energy. Malcolm McLaren, Sid Vicious, Chrissie Hynde, Billy Idol, Britain in the late seventies, the Pistol's explosion onto the moribund music scene and their implosion under the pressures of superstardom - all these and more are dissected with Lydon's scalpel-sharp pen, in perhaps the best book ever written about music and youth culture, by one of its notorious figures." - back cover.
The autobiography of the lead singer of the Sex Pistols, pioneers of punk rock in the 1970s. Johnny Rotten, born John Lydon, tells of his childhood and the early days of punk - through to the band's final days. It is his own story and that of friends, including Billy Idol and Chrissie Hynde.
Vztek je energie – otevřená, vtipná a svérázná autobiografie Johna Lydona, který pod přezdívkou Johnny Rotten změnil tvář popkultury nejprve jako frontman Sex Pistols, později jako zpěvák PiL.
Bez jakéhokoli posměchu, ironizování a sentimentality Rotten vypráví o svém dětství v chudé čtvrti irských přistěhovalců v severním Londýně (s dickensovskou věcností popisuje, jak vynášel kbelík s mrtvolkami dětí, které nechtěně potratila jeho maminka), o své nemoci (v sedmi letech onemocněl zánětem mozkových blan – půl roku ležel v kómatu v nemocnici, a když se probudil, nepoznával své rodiče) a o dospívání mezi hrubozrnnými fanoušky Arsenalu, o hře na triangl ve školním orchestru a přátelství se Sidem Viciousem.
Přestože se Lydon dlouhá léta pohyboval v podivuhodné společnosti, ať už to byli punkáči nebo manažeři ze šoubyznysu, dokázal si uchovat vnitřní integritu a zachovat jasnou hlavu a podat o tom přesvědčivé svědectví.
