John Lydon has new book to sell

(Image credit: Paul Heartfield)

Professional contrarian John Lydon is releasing a new book, I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right, and drumming up publicity for the £45 text by offering up some ‘provocative’ opinions, as is his wont.

In a new interview with The Observer, the Sex Pistols/Public Image Ltd vocalist pledges his vote in the upcoming US elections to President Donald Trump – “I’d be daft as a brush not to,” he says – offers a touch of sympathy for the Royal family, bar “smug… dreadful” Meghan Markle, and insists “all lives matter”.

Having previously defended President Trump as a “complicated fellow” who had been “smeared” by the “left-wing media”, Lydon says that he’ll definitely be voting for the President’s second term in the upcoming November elections, insisting that Trump is “the only sensible choice”, and his opponent, Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden, is “incapable”.

Former antichrist/anarchist Lydon, 64, a resident of Venice Beach, California, also uses his promotional time with the newspaper to criticise political correctness – “Death by committee, trying to slam your dictates into another person’s face” – and speaks up to defend the US police and English monarchy, while accusing Meghan Markle of being a “dreadful person”.

“My feeling about the royal family is one of sorrow,” he says. “I’ve always felt they’re poor little birdies trapped in cages, gold cages, but they’re still entombed.” Meghan Markle, however, he considers a “very bad actress” and a “dreadful person.” Lydon doesn’t agree that Markle suffered racism at the hands of the British media.

“Stop being self-righteous and smug, that’s what she needs to do. She’s hopping on a cause. There are valid cases out there, genuine people who need help.”

Expanding on his view on race relations, Lydon describes the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police as “ghastly”, but cautions, “It doesn’t mean all police are nasty or all white folk are racist. Because all lives matter.”

Lydon hasn’t, as yet, offered up any thoughts on whether you’ll be arrested and thrown in jail for saying you’re English these days.

His new £45 book is published on October 15 and is easily searchable on the internet.

Artists

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.