Interviews

KB: I WOULD LIKE TO START BY ASKING YOU WHAT YOUR EARLIEST AMBITION IN LIFE WAS?
RA: My earliest ambition or dream probably was to play football. I guess that would be my earliest ambition but well, I was singing at school although I never really took music very seriously until I was about 16 or 17. Originally, it was all about football. I always wanted to play for my team, Manchester United.

KB: REGARDING MUSIC WHEN YOU WERE GROWING UP. WHAT RECORDS DID YOU USE TO PLAY WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG? WHO WERE YOUR MUSICAL HEROES?
RA: When I was growing up, we had very few records in my house. I was very lucky that some of the records my mum and dad had were really good. There was a Stones compilation, there was a Beatles compilation, there was one Pink Floyd album. I remember there was a pair of headphones round the house too when I was about 5 or 6. It was then I really felt the power of music then with these amazing headphones. Then, my mum bought me my first guitar for my 16th birthday. She bought it in Liverpool from the same guitar shop The Beatles used to get theirs when they started and the story really would start there. However, (Richard points out) I didn’t really write songs fully until I was in my early 20s but music was always part of my life. I was never taught a musical instrument (he says); in fact, I was not allowed to take music at school. I was banned from taking music so I didn’t have an instrument.

KB: YOU ARE BACK WITH A NEW SOLO ALBUM AFTER A FEW YEARS, AND LET ME ASK YOU, HAD THE SONGS FOR ‘THESE PEOPLE’ BEEN WITH YOU FOR A LONG TIME?
RA: I had a few songs. In fact, I had the title song ‘These People’ for a long time and the song called ‘Everybody Needs Somebody to Hurt’ but most of them are quite new; songs such as ‘Hold On’ and ‘Out Of My Body’, ‘Songs Of Experience’, ‘They Don’t Own Me’, these are all relatively new songs. I had two or three of the songs for a while but I was waiting for the right time to release them. I think the next few years should be quite a productive point for me because I’ve had a few years off. It’s very exciting now back in England to have had a few years away. I have some Arena shows in December which are selling really well. I am going to sell those out. I will finish the year in the UK on a real high after playing in a number of different countries round the world. These are very exciting times really. 

KB: WAS THE EXPERIENCE OF RECORDING THIS ALBUM SIMILAR TO ANY OF YOUR PREVIOUS RECORDS SUCH AS UNITED NATIONS OR KEYS TO THE WORLD?
RA: Probably I find some similarities with ‘Human Conditions’ because that was the last time I worked with the strings arranged of Wil Malone. The thing with this record was that at first, I was going to record it all of it in my cellar downstairs. I was going to make it a little bit more electronic than it turned out being so basically, the difference is that in the early days back in the day with the Verve or my early solo stuff, I could be in a good studio for weeks and weeks experimenting. Now with the change in the industry, it makes you think in different ways. I still want to make records like ‘These People’ even though the industry is changing; obviously a lot of people are streaming and not many people are buying records. I think it’s important to mix technology and real people and there are many great musicians out there. The more we just completely recreate human beings, the less and less there are jobs for those kinds of musicians as well. I call records like ‘These People’ super records and I call them that because if you take a track like ‘Out Of My Body’, I think I could have finished that song in the cellar but I still wanted it to be as good as any track on ‘Urban Hymns’ or ‘Human Conditions’ or ‘Keys to the World’. I still want these songs to have that element of excitement. I wanted people to feel the same. At the same time, It’s a very punk record,  very limited, there are a few old synthesizers and drum machines that I was working on and it took me some time not just to learn how to use them but also to find out what they can do. You can hear that in songs like ‘Out Of My Body’ and ‘Ain’t the Future So Bright.”

You can hear different sounds I’m using on this record that are different from the other ones but I still think it keeps a great line with the other songs that I’ve written because at some point I will do a collection of my greatest songs and people will be able to see that line from ‘History’ and ‘On Your Own’, ‘Urban Hymns’ songs and onto my solo career. In my opinion, you can find this an unbroken line, you can feel there is one force behind all of those songs. These are really exciting times. It’s exciting to play live. I have a great band. I can do it in many different ways. I can do it completely on my own. I can do it acoustically. I can have the full monty.

For instance, at the end of the year, I’m playing with a 22-piece orchestra and the band. But I have also been doing things completely on my own. It’s been good really. The main difference in the recording of this record is that it was predominantly started in my cellar and I worked for weeks and weeks there and not in a studio. But then also the realisation in the middle of it that I really wanted to write some songs that really connected with people like my other songs. I think ‘These People’ is a very anthemic album. There’s lots of melody in the record, memorable melodies and it’s a record that is right for now. It’s timeless but at the same time, it is right for now. There’s a lot confusion around the world right now. There is a lot of anxiety and there’s not much music out there that really reflects that. A lot of rock music now is very safe.  There isn’t enough real reflection on the realities that we face as human beings on this planet right now.

KB: IN A SCALE OF 1 TO 10 HOW WOULD YOU RATE THE REACTION TO YOUR NEW SOLO ALBUM?
RA: The reaction from fans has been fantastic. Everyone who has heard it has given it like a 9 out of 10.There’s always a certain element of people in my country, who usually are
educated in certain schools and they find it hard for someone like me (a working class person) to educate themselves and to become what I am today: one of the best songwriters in my country, a producer, someone who does his own thing and no one tells him what to do. I didn’t even take music at school. I am a self made guy who has been lucky enough to meet some great musicians. I made some great music with the guys in the Verve. Culture has changed now and things move much quicker than they used to and people make the decisions now and they make them very quickly and they recognise and love those songs I recorded in the past and they are now ready for new chapters as a solo artist. I don’t get asked much about The Verve these days. People are just excited about what I am doing now. It was good to come back with a nice skinhead and look fresh and different. I think the world is a worse place geopolitically but for music, this is a great time for someone like me. I think the faker and the more unreal the industry gets, the more hungry people are for something that is real. When people come see me play live, I want them to know that it isn’t just a musical, a bunch of robots or 2 djs, this is real, this is real emotion. I think people now are really connected to that. People these days want to see artists that they feel are performing in a real way, in a natural way and I’ve noticed this lately in my concerts when I play songs like ‘These People’ or ‘They Don’t Own Me’. It feels those songs have been out for years. The reaction in South America has been really good, too.  It’s really exciting to be back, to be making music.

KB: YOU SAID RECENTLY THAT YOU WENT TO SEE THE STONE ROSES WHEN YOU WERE 16-17 , WHAT DID THEY MEAN TO YOU AND TO MOST PEOPLE YOUR GENERATION? IS IT GOOD TO SEE THEM BACK AGAIN?
RA: I was only thinking of that today. I was very lucky to be there. The Stone Roses came at a time when me and my group of friends were going to clubs all the time, we were very interested in music and The Stone Roses were like a living, breathing embodiment of the whole history that we were learning. They were a little bit older than us. They had listened to all these records we were listening to and it was their interpretation of this culture. So to go and see them live and to hear all those Byrds influences on John Squire’s guitar but at the same time it also felt fresh and original. It was inspiring to see people from similar backgrounds who had real dreams, big dreams. It was really inspiring. It is like when there is a boxer or an athlete from your hometown. It gives you that sense that things can be a little bit more achievable. If you see somebody who seems to come from similar places like you who achieved something in life is really inspiring. It was a really awakening moment for me. I thought ‘This is 100 % of what I’m gonna do from now on’. It was like The Byrds when they saw the Beatles. They traded their guitars and bought electric ones and cut their hair. I had that thing of being 16, 17 and growing my hair like The Stone Roses and then just carried on growing and growing it from that period on. What is interesting is that I went to that concert when I was 17 and ten years later I had already put the third Verve album out ‘Urban Hymns’ at the age of 27. In those ten years, I did a lot.

KB: IN AN INTERVIEW I DID WITH NOEL GALLAGHER  FOR KULBRITANIA, I ASKED HIM ABOUT COLLABORATING WITH YOU AND HE SAID HE THOUGHT IT WOULD BE A GREAT COLLABORATION BECAUSE YOU HAVE A GREAT VOICE AND IT WOULD BE GREAT TO HAVE YOU SING A FEW SONGS? DID THE IDEA OF DOING SOMETHING WITH HIM EVER CROSS YOUR MIND?
RA: I think me and Noel could do something really good but I’ve said before in England that I also love his brother very much and you don’t want to be the guy who is between the brothers and that’s what I am like. We are like family really because we have a lot of connections in our past from our music. Liam and I appreciate each other’s role as lead singers in bands and losing out and also fame and everything. I have a lot of love for Liam as well. I would be doing something with Noel if I felt Liam was happy in his musical life as well. I am not Noel’s and I am not Liam’s brother. I am Liam’s friend.

KB: HOWEVER, I MUST SAY THAT HE POINTED OUT THERE WAS ONLY A PROBLEM, HE SAID THE FACT THAT YOU ARE A UNITED FAN MAY PREVENT HIM FROM RECORDING WITH YOU.
RA: Well, I don’t like the fact that he has a big City flag in his dressing room anyway. (I can hear Richard laughing)

KB: SPEAKING OF UNITED, I UNDERSTAND THAT YOU WERE AN AVID FOOTBALLER, IS IT TRUE YOU WANTED TO PLAY FOOTBALL PROFESSIONALLY? WHO DID YOU PLAY FOR?
RA: When I was growing up, I played for my local team. I played for Wigan Athletic. I didn’t play to any other level than that really but I feel I can play better now than then. I still can run a little bit. That´s the irony of football at times, sometimes the legs give away when the mind is the sharpest. I guess at the end of the day, I had another mission probably to do with my own insecurities. Sometimes you find that a lot of the footballers have eager parents who take them everywhere like Serena Williams’s dad (laughs). And you have to meet the right guy at the right time, know the right people. I did get an opportunity, though to play for Man United at a charity game against Celtic in Glasgow in front of 53,000 people; Roy Keane was playing so I did experience in the end what it was like to play for Manchester United in front of thousands of people.

KB: SOME PEOPLE SAY THESE ARE HARD TIMES FOR MUSIC AND MUSICIANS BECAUSE LABELS DO NOT WANT PEOPLE WHO HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY …HOW HARD IS IT FOR ARTISTS LIKE YOU TO PUT RECORDS OUT THERE THESE DAYS?
RA: It’s like my opening song in the album where it says ‘Don’t go looking for your Watergate, they’ll exploit you’ and it’s questioning this whole thing that unless you are following a certain narrative or agenda, you’ll be left out of the radio, the TV. What we are left with is only a few artists that dominate the charts and the world musically and neither of them has a radical political view or idea between them. That’s the way the system likes it. They don’t want people who have a say.

In a way, what I say on ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ ‘You are a slave to money then you die’, or ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’ is still the same, the same force, the same battle that has been on since the first day on earth. I think there’s a bigger game at play and it’s not just about music but about everything. It’s about news, journalists, it’s about the freedom of speech, the freedom to have an opinion, the freedom to contradict your government, the freedom to say ‘NO’ because that is corruption, the freedom to come out and tell your people that somebody in high office or in a big company is corrupt and ruining people’s lives or whatever. It’s the protection of the whistleblower. It’s the lies and the utter corruption that leaves people helpless and full of fear. The narrative of terror is pushed down your throat on a day to day basis and division among families because uncle Joe voted for whoever. So in a way, it’s like ‘let’s stop musicians being political people. Let’s not do that anymore. There’s no more left or right , forget it”.

Reality shows like The X Factor, or America’s Got Talent or whatever, they’ve got nothing. I want to know about the kids locked up for doing nothing. The talent is locked up. Young people are locked up. Everything is controlled to a point where it is difficult but it is not that I have an audience that do not understand that. There are millions of people who understand the situation and they are hungry for something whether it is music or words or paintings or movies or books. I think everyone has their duty in their way to be in control of their own script. I made my album. I am in control of my script. No one told me to make my songs two minutes long. No one told me to dress this way. No one told me to take off my gas mask on the cover of my album sleeve.The only thing people can do these days is love each other, be creative, try and beat your demons.

KB: IN AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHN LYDON EARLIER LAST MONTH, HE TOLD ME HE FELT FREE AND HE HAD A LOT OF FREEDOM BECAUSE HE FINALLY PRODUCED HIS LAST RECORDS AND HE POINTED OUT HOW HAPPY THAT MADE HIM FEEL BECAUSE THERE WAS NO ONE DICTATING HIM WHAT TO DO.
RA: Well exactly. My album is still in the charts three months later it was released and most albums come in and out now except those ten artists who dominate the music world these days and to compete with them and to represent something that is musically different and also to compete with them on the radio but to be independent is a big victory. I can’t say to people ‘Join this or that party’ but all I can say is ‘You can start making some decisions’.

It’s good to hear that from John Lydon. I was lucky to play with two of the Sex Pistols on; actually with one of them. We did a thing for Youth and it was amazing to have Cookie play drums on ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’ and ‘Bittersweet Symphony’, a Sex Pistols playing on those tunes because I might use strings, I might want to produce songs in a certain way but I’m as punk as anyone and that’s what it’s all about. Punk is a state of mind. Just like being in rock n roll and having that spirit. It’s a state of mind and not being frightened of what people may say. It’s hard times … but the more the sheep go one way, and we go the other, there’s a huge number of people going the other way. There are a lot people in London who have been savvy enough to create their own scene, be in charge of their destinies, shoot their own videos and they are not being ripped off. These are exciting times and all over the world people are facing different problems.

KB: ‘URBAN HYMNS’ CAME OUT  IN 1997 (ALMOST 20 YEARS AGO) AND IT WAS INCREDIBLE IN TERMS OF MUSIC WITH GREAT BANDS TOPPING THE CHARTS, DO YOU THINK WE WILL EVER SEE ANYTHING LIKE THAT AGAIN?
RA: Something has radically changed in the business. It’s not like when everything was still analog or there was a thing to have or a product to buy. You can look at the industry and compare it to the 60s or to the 80s when CDs came out. I don’t think anyone in the industry can understand where everything is going to end up.

For me, I agree with what Thom Yorke said the other day ‘I’m concentrating on making a beautiful blue album version, heavy weight pressing, vinyl and CD and just get on with it because there are people out there who still enjoy that. What may not happen again is that alternative thing being successful at the same time again purely because that whole idea has been consumed. What you see as alternative is packaged in a way that will function. They are not like Kurt Cobain, or Oasis or The Verve. These guys these days can be there for a thousand interviews and there’ll be no single piece of controversy or one piece of anything really. However, I still believe everything has its cycle and we will reach a cycle soon. I do think we will have a renaissance musically and artistically at some point.

KB: THE INTERNET HAS CHANGED EVERYTHING … HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE INTERNET AND MODERN TECHNOLOGY,SOCIAL MEDIA AND ALL THAT? WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE SOCIAL MEDIA SITE?
RA: Well, I didn’t have a phone for a few years when I was away from the music business. I started doing IG this year and I’m enjoying it because it is direct to my fans and I can also get pictures and comments. It’s great to see how music travels. I saw a lovely picture from a guy in Ecuador getting my vinyl there and just the thought of him putting my record on his turntable in Ecuador and the fact he sent me a photograph was great. The greatest thing about the internet for the past 15 years is that it is a bit of a balance for the world news because prior to that you were subjective to your own countries and political views told by whoever owned the newspapers and their versions of world events. It’s also great to have a lot of great freelance journalists out there really putting a lot of work in. Unfortunately, there’s a WWW for a lot lunatics but for me, it has offered people an opportunity to voice their opinions on particular things that would have remained in pubs or playgrounds or wherever. The internet was like the wild west a few years ago but today everyone goes through the same search engine.

KB: YOU SAID YOU WANTED TO BRING BACK THE DANGER OF ROCK N ROLL, DOES THAT MEAN THERE IS A NEW ALBUM IN THE PIPELINE? MAYBE 2017?
RA: Yes, that’s it! I’m going to be busy regarding releases. Potentially, there’s another record coming out.

KB: LAST FEW QUESTIONS RICHARD, IF YOU BUMPED INTO LITTLE RICHARD DOWN THE STREETS OF WIGAN, WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU HIM? IS THERE ANYTHING YOU’D SAY TO HIM?
RA: I’d say ‘Don’t worry you are gonna meet a beautiful woman, who’s gonna rescue you in the future’ that’s my wife, Kate’ and I would say ‘Get over certain insecurities about songwriting and music quicker because sometimes you can give up too much of yourself to make things happen. You start thinking every room is your responsibility.’

In the early days of The Verve, I probably sat back a little bit too much. The second album where I wrote ‘History’ and ‘On Your Own’ on my acoustic guitar. I really started writing some amazing songs. The majority of the recording of Urban Hymns I was recording what I thought was my first solo record. I would say then ‘Start writing a little bit quicker but don’t worry because you’ve got a beautiful wife, two beautiful sons, life’s going to be a bit rocky but it’s the same for everyone else but there’s more hope than despair.”

KB: YOU JUST TALKED ABOUT YOUR WIFE, FAMILY  … WHAT OR WHO IS THE GREATEST LOVE OF YOUR LIFE RICHARD?
RA: The greatest love of my life is my wife, my two boys, my mum and my sisters, close family and my animals. After that, all the men and women who have gone out and created things that have helped me on my journey as an artist and all the good people who are in the business who do things without harming anybody. There’s a lot to be thankful for every day, every single day. People don’t really appreciate it at  times until something terrible happens. Every day is a miracle. For me it is going to be a real pleasure to perform in Argentina because there’s been a lot of wait and a lot of people singing the old songs for a long time. The world is there to see it, to play, to enjoy and to share. The great thing about music even beyond football is that you can perform in Glasgow and you can have a Celtic and a Rangers supporter; a catholic and a protestant stood next to each other who would never spend any time together perhaps who don’t realise what the background is because the music trascends that and you can see them together at one of my shows.

KB: PEOPLE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU IN ARGENTINA FOR OVER 20 YEARS NOW, DO YOU HAVE A MESSAGE FOR YOUR FANS IN ARGENTINA AND THE REST OF SOUTH AMERICA?
RA: I want to thank all the fans for their support over the years and let them know that they are in my heart. I’m gonna do my best to play a legendary performance in Argentina.

KULBRITANIA: THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR GIVING ME THIS INTERVIEW. IT’S A PLEASURE JOHN.
JOHN LYDON: Ok … let’s see what you say at the end (I could hear his laughter on the other side of the phone. I don’t know why but at that moment it seemed apparent that it wouldn’t be a 40-minute interview in the company of an aloof rock star but just the opposite)

KB: I WOULD LIKE TO ASK YOU ABOUT THE EARLY DAYS? I’D LIKE TO ASK YOU ABOUT GROWING UP IN LONDON BACK THEN. WAS IT TOUGH TIMES?
JL: Very hard times but everybody around me grew up in exactly the same way and environment. We really didn’t know any better. Our only indication of a better life was really advertising on the TV about commodities that none of us could ever afford. Our parents were all poor.

We’d see, on TV programmes in the news, mentions of the ‘Swinging 60s’ and Twiggy and The Beatles but it meant nothing to us because we had no direct roots to it. That’s stuck with me ever since. That feeling of us and them because it does exist. I’ve done everything in my musical career to break those barriers down and during the initials days of punk,you know, we did wonders for the woman’s movement because women were able to stand up and hold the stage as strongly and toughly as the men. That was a good aspect of punk. And also, we didn’t need to feel like second-class citizens in Britain any longer.

KB: PEOPLE SAY THAT WE ARE A PRODUCT OF OUR UPBRINGING HOW MUCH DO YOU OWE YOUR PARENTS FOR YOUR UPBRINGING?
JL: Oh, I owe my parents a great deal. They were a huge influence which I only realised upon their deaths. It is then that you notice you are a reflection of your parents. And they either fill your head with false statements or they give you the chance to work it out for yourself which is what my mum and dad did. They never demanded I do anything. Except not lie and they knew I wouldn’t lie anyway because I had such difficulties when I was young, trying to remember what my name was because of meningitis. I’d recovered from a coma but lost my memory at age seven and a half to about eleven. It was very, very tough times. The concept of lying was driven out of me. My parents influenced me, of course. Everything influences you. Now, whether you make that a positive or a negative is entirely up to you as an individual.

KB: YOUR AUTOBIOGRAPHY, ‘ANGER IS AN ENERGY’, DEALS WITH SOME OF THE PROBLEMS YOU HAD AS A CHILD AND HOW YOU OVERCAME MENINGITIS FOR INSTANCE AS YOU JUST MENTIONED? DID THAT SHAPE THE MAN YOU BECAME LATER ON IN LIFE?
JL: Here I am today and I can say “thank God for meningitis!” because it possibly saved me. It made me a better person. Meningitis told me that lies are not useful tools … well, unless of course it is the police or the government and there they are almost essential (John roars with laughter and says…) You know … I am a realist.

KB: REGARDING MUSIC WHEN YOU WERE AROUND THE HOUSE, JOHN. WHAT RECORDS DID YOU USE TO PLAY WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG? DID YOU SPEND LONG HOURS LISTENING TO MUSIC? DID YOU ALWAYS LOVE MUSIC?
JL: My mum and dad were very serious record collectors. They loved music and that influenced me a lot. I used to love to be the dj when I was young. I grew up with music constantly and because of the neighbourhood I lived in. (John pauses a bit) The nieghbourhood was very varied, you know…people from all races, creeds, colours and religions. We used to call it ‘arsenal land’. I hope they still do. For me, you judge a human being by their actions, their deeds rather than anything else. A good person is a good person. It doesn’t matter what they are wearing.

KB: SPEAKING OF MUSIC PLAYED IN THE HOUSE, YOU SAID A FEW TIMES YOU DON’T LIKE THE BEATLES THAT MUCH, IS IT BECAUSE YOUR PARENTS PLAYED THEM FAR TOO MUCH AT HOME?
JL: Bang on! Yeah! You are dead right there! Just constantly…to the point where it drove me mad. We are not talking Sgt Peppers but earlier than that, you know?… the early days, the ‘She Loves You! yeah yeah yeah!’. What an awful song! (I can hear John laughing on the other end).

KB: YOU GREW UP NEAR FINSBURY PARK, YOU ARE A PROPER GUNNER, WE LOVE FOOTBALL, YOU ARE A HUGE ARSENAL SUPPORTER, WHAT ARE YOUR FIRST MEMORIES OF SEEING ARSENAL? DID YOU USE TO GO THERE WITH YOUR DAD OR BROTHERS? YOU STILL GO TO SEE ARSENAL WHEN IN LONDON ?
JL: Yes, of course! I first lived just one or two streets from there and then we moved to Finsbury Park. Always lived in the same area, though. Always Arsenal. My dad took us to our first game; me and my younger brother Jimmy, and he instructed us ‘This is our local team. You should only and always support your local team and be loyal to your local team forever. They are just like you; from the same neighbourhood.’

I know football’s changed since but in this way, I’m proper Arsenal because I do believe in community. I haven’t seen Arsenal in years. Well, now that I come to think of it, I was there a couple of years ago. I went to Wembley to see them and they lost to Birmingham. But the fun for me was that I had the chance to go to the celebrity area but I won’t do that (insists John) I’m with the regular fan. That’s how it has to be because that’s how I grew up with football, standing in amongst my fellow friends. This is my empathy and my integrity, you know.

KB: PEOPLE KNOW THAT JOHN LYDON IS FULL ON WHEN HE IS ON STAGE BUT IS IT TRUE YOU CANNOT EAT BEFORE A GIG BECAUSE YOU JUST THROW UP? DOES THAT STILL HAPPEN THESE DAYS?
JL: Yeah, I get very nervous. It happens still. I´ve read a lot about it. People call it stage fright. Once I understood it was a common ailment, should we say? (John giggles)… I learnt to come to grips with it and I look forward to going through it because I know that it is what I need to do in order to fully be the proper person I am on stage.

I only once in my life walked on stage where I wasn’t full of fear and it was one of the worst gigs I’ve ever done. That was in front of 178,000 people in Estonia. What a lesson! Pay attention John! Don’t take anything for granted. It is full of examples like that in my life.

KB: I WAS WITH IAN BROWN LAST YEAR IN BUENOS AIRES AND HE TALKED ABOUT YOU AND HOW IMPORTANT YOU WERE TO HIM AND THE FACT YOU WERE THERE AT FINSBURY PARK WITH PIL WHEN THE STONE ROSES REFORMED? WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THEIR COMEBACK?
JL: They were nice enough to ask us if we would like to play there. It was fantastic! It was very good, indeed. I know Ian quite well now and we are mates. I love the Stone Roses!

KB: JUST RECENTLY ANOTHER MANC LEGEND NOEL GALLAGHER SAID ABOUT YOU WHEN HE WAS ASKED ABOUT HIS LIFE HEROES “ONE OF MY HEROES IS JOHN LYDON BECAUSE HE’S REAL AS F### AND I THINK HE LIKES ME BECAUSE I HAD SOME NIGHTS OUT WITH HIM AND I JUST LOVE HIM”. WHAT’S YOUR OPINION JOHN ON FORMER OASIS GUITARIST?
JL: We do hang out when we meet each other. I have got great respect for Noel because he is a very level-headed and down to earth human being and I greatly appreciate him. I am not even bothering to talk about the music because to me, knowing people as human beings matters more. Noel is one of the very few.There’s a handful of people who will talk to you and will be friendly. Ian Brown is a good one too.

However, there’s an enormous, huge list of bands and super stars who judge me negatively and refuse to say ‘hello’. I run into so many of them now. They don’t realise how absurdily silly they seem to me when they do that. I’m not being pompous. I am a very good example of throwing away the nonsense of super stardom. As soon as I felt Johnny Rotten was being blown out of proportion in the Pistols, I stopped it and I walked away from that…from that notion of ‘the super stardom’. I could have led a very comfortable life but I didn’t want it and here they are, years later …being snobs. Well, tell you what, Ian and Noel are not snobs.They’ve got their working class past in them. We, working class people, tend to see things accurately.

KB: SPEAKING OF NOEL, I WAS WITH HIM IN BUENOS AIRES A COUPLE OF TIMES AT THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR AND I SAW THE SIGN OF THE DEVIL IN HIM BECAUSE HE’S ALSO LEFT HANDED LIKE YOU. IS THAT WHY YOU GET ON WELL WITH HIM? (IN HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY JOHN LYDON REVEALS HE WAS TOLD BY THE NUNS THAT ‘BEING LEFT-HANDED’ WAS THE SIGN OF THE DEVIL)
JL: (John roars with laughter and says ) I didn’t notice that. I never bothered to look that (says laguhing again and remembers they had a few drinks together) I had a few drinks with Noel but I tell you …there aren’t many who can drink more than me. One of the very good things my mum and dad did, they taught me how to drink well.

KB: IT’S BEEN 40 YEARS SINCE YOU PLAYED IN MANCHESTER TWO GIGS WHICH ARE CONSIDERED TO BE TWO OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL GIGS IN BRITISH MUSIC HISTORY. WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES OF THOSE TWO SHOWS?
JL: Well, a lot of people say that. I suppose they say that because Manchester has been more vocal about it. I think we had a major influence everywhere we went and I mean Everywhere. I hope that doesn’t come across as big-headed. I’m trying to be accurate and be fair to other towns, cities and villages as well. We all knew the world needed to wake up. And with the audience, we woke the world up together. Everybody was a Sex Pistol for a year. I still get some resentment that I don’t sound like I did then. The point is you have to progress. If you don’t progress, you stagnate. And from my point of view, I am part of a movement not a museum.

KB: YOU HAVE BEEN LIVING IN LA FOR A LONG TIME. IS THERE ANYTHING/ANYONE YOU MISS BACK HOME IN THE UK?
JL: When it gets to be like that, I pop on a plane and go back. Usually I put a tour around that so I don’t have to buy the ticket myself. That’s about the smartest in business I can get.

KB: WHAT APPEALS TO YOU WHEN IT COMES TO LIVING IN THE US? THE BEACH,THE SUN, THE POLITICS?
JL: The weather at first because of the childhood diseases I got. They totally affected my respiratory system. It’s absurd really I picked singing as a career. If there’s any kind of bronchial disease or illness going round, I will get it. I´ve had pneumonia so many times that there’s more scar tissue on my lungs than there’s actual flesh. Yet, here I am pushing through. My message to anybody out there is “If you wanna do something and be important in the world, stand up and do it!” Don’t be like a crying baby. ‘Oh me leg hurts or whatever’. I’ve been through some hardcore stuff in my life. It almost killed me and yet I’m still here. I don’t see anybody who can keep up with me, you know. And that’s just because I love life and I love my fellow human beings. I don’t think there’s any greater strength than that.

KB: REGARDING THE LAST TWO ALBUMS; ‘THIS IS PIL’ AND ‘WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW’, HAD THE SONGS BEEN THERE WITH YOU FOR A LONG TIME?
JL: A few of the songs relate to my childhood illness. Songs like ‘Not Satisfied’ for example because indeed I wasn’t when I couldn’t remember who my mum and dad were, let alone my own name. It took 4 years to get that back.

That song is me looking back and imagining myself and what I was going through and putting words to that terrible loss I was going through but it’s also very applicable to what life is right now. It’s very hard to find anyone very satisfied these days. It’s a youth anthem. Both for my youth and for the youth right now.

KB: WAS THE EXPERIENCE OF MAKING THESE TWO LAST RECORDS REMINISCENT OF THE PIL RECORD YOU MADE BACK IN 1992? OR DOES IT FEEL BETTER TO BE FREE AND PRODUCE YOUR ALBUMS NOW?
JL: I understand what you mean. No, this is much more as I always wanted. There are parts that remind me very much of making ‘Metal Box’. We do go in with a great sense of fun and we do understand and respect each other and it really does help. When I say 40 years of my music career, I understood that I had to work with adversity and I became very accustomed to that and I am very pleased to find out that just by my endurance, I now find myself in a position where I am actually really happy and content and willing and eager to go to the studio. I know that it is not about ego and silly rows.There’s a positive, beneficial energy.

KB: YOU SAID IN AN INTERVIEW RECENTLY THAT YOU MIGHT RELEASE YET ANOTHER NEW RECORD SOON? CAN FANS EXPECT ANY NEW MATERIAL ANY TIME SOON?
JL: As soon as we finish touring, we will go back into the studio. That’s what we do. We earn the money by touring and once we’ve done that, we can pay for the studio. We are all writing all the time. Who wouldn’t? … I mean it’s been hard to get ourselves in this position of our own record label. Our own future in our own hands. We are not going to throw this away. It’s been a very long journey. Now we might make this side possible by example to other people. It really is worth having the patience. I wouldn’t say there is comfort zone in it, in my own record label. I’m a very hard boss on myself.

KB: HOW HAS IT BEEN TO TOUR AND PLAY THE NEW SONGS LIVE?
JL: The new songs go down extremelly well.

KB: YOU SAID SOME TIME AGO THAT A CLOSE FRIEND OF YOURS, WHO HAS FOLLOWED YOU FOR A WHILE, WAS SHOOTING A PIL DOCUMENTARY. DO YOU KNOW WHEN IT WILL SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY?
JL: Yes, they are friends of ours. Some time soon is all I can tell you. It’s being finalised and edited. I keep away from these moments because I judge myself too harshly. It would be a PIL documentary not featuring me, you know.

KB: HOW DO YOU GET ON WITH MODERN TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIAL MEDIA AND ALL THAT STUFF? DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE ONE?
JL: I have an iPad and I use it for game apps …. that’s about it really.

KB: IN A SCALE OF 1 TO 10, HOW HAPPY IS JOHN LYDON THESE DAYS?
JL: A lot happier than he used to be but he’ll never be as happy as he should be because I don’t rest on my laurels. I don’t pat myself on the back and I don’t take the time off to think about my own accomplishments. I’m too busy always onto the next project whatever that might be or whatever form or shape it comes in. I keep ahead of myself.

KB: LAST TIME YOU WERE IN BUENOS AIRES WAS 24 YEARS AGO, YOU ARE PLAYING TWO CONCERTS IN ARGENTINA; BUENOS AIRES FIRST AND THEN CÓRDOBA, WILLL THE SETLIST DURING THESE SHOWS INCLUDE SOME OF THE OLD PIL CATALOGUE OR MOSTLY THE NEW SONGS ?
JL: Oh God! 24 years? Time flies when you are having fun! …The show will be very much almost like two hours of a good mix. A lot of the new album. Some of the previous. And huge chunks out of the past. A lot of different things through the years. All of them as live and fresh as you can get.

The wonderful thing about PIL is we can improvise live. If we are aware that the audience wants something from us, we are more than happy to go there. But that DOES NOT MEAN we are going to do a cheap old version of Anarchy. We are not gonna do that. That’s pandering. We will enjoy and we will share our fun with the audience. But very, very varied, all age groups, all creeds and colours. PIL is like a church without religion and without violence.

KB: IF THAT JOHNNY ROTTEN WHO BURST ONTO THE SCENE 40 YEARS AGO COULD SEE YOU NOW, WHAT WOULD HE THINK?
JL: Well, he’d probably give up alcohol when he sees my beer belly (John laughs and adds) and that is one of the very few things he’d say or change.

KB: FINALLY JOHN, IF YOU BUMPED INTO LITTLE JOHNNY DOWN THE STREETS OF FINSBURY PARK, WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE HIM?
JL: I wouldn’t give him any advice … I’d just say ‘Stop wearing my clothes! You imitator!!”

KB: THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR TIME, JOHN AND I LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR SHOWS IN ARGENTINA.

JL: Alright…John says and finishes the interview with some words and not just a simple goodbye “May the road rise with you and your enemies always behind you, may you scatter, flutter, butter and shutter!” …See you in Buenos Aires. Cheers!