\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div> \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPaul Heartfield*<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tWhat music do you listen to most these days?<\/strong> \n\tWhy should we have all the answers? Hello? We\u2019ve got politicians to blame for that.<\/p>\n \n\tThe topic of politics has earned you some headlines lately. People think you\u2019re MAGA, because of comments you made <\/strong>about Trump<\/strong><\/a>. Is that the case?<\/strong> \n\tThe next time someone wants to take a photo of you, put a Trump hat on, and we\u2019ll see how much they\u2019re into my free speech. Not a lot, it seems. I am a bit of a shit-stirrer, aren\u2019t I? It\u2019s just my nature.<\/p>\n \n\tDo you regret saying that, then?<\/strong> \n\tWhere do things stand for you with the Sex Pistols? \n\tOn a scale of zero to 100, how likely is it you\u2019ll ever sing with them again?<\/strong> \n\tHave your ex-bandmates reached out to you at all about losing your wife?<\/strong> \n\tIt sounds like there\u2019s a level of respect missing there.<\/strong> \n\tNever Mind the Bollocks, Here\u2019s the Sex Pistols <\/em>turns 50 next year. Have you ever thought about doing your own tour to commemorate the album without them?<\/strong> \n\tI\u2019m sure you could find musicians to back you up.<\/strong> \n\tYou wouldn\u2019t even do it for spite?<\/strong> \n\tBut they say the best revenge is living well.<\/strong> \n\tSteve Jones suggested in <\/strong>a Rolling Stone <\/em>article<\/strong><\/a> that you\u2019d come back to the Pistols if you needed money, like if you wanted to build a new kitchen.<\/strong> \n\tGlen Matlock said in the same article that he made the casting vote when it came to moving on without you. He said, \u201cIf people don\u2019t really give you proper respect over the years, they\u2019re hardly ever going to get on your side.\u201d<\/strong> \n\tWhat is your role in the Sex Pistols organization now?<\/strong> \n\tWould you consider playing Pistols songs in a PiL set list?<\/strong> \n\t[The Sex Pistols] are on the same bill as us for some festival. I think they\u2019re on the night before. The promoter was ringing us up going, \u201cOh, my God. Will this be a problem for you?\u201d Absolutely not. I think the yin and yang comparison would be more of a problem to them. I would never deny them the right to earn money. I\u2019m very flattered that promoters ask me such a question, but I wouldn\u2019t do that. It\u2019s not my agenda, mate.<\/p>\n \n\tPeople are calling this year the 50th anniversary of punk, since the first Ramones album came out in 1976. Do you see it that way?<\/strong> \n\tWhatever New York was up to, well, they were all so much older than us anyway. It was a completely different thing. It was wonderful for what it was, but again, it was a totally different continent with completely different incontinence.<\/p>\n \n\tRolling Stone <\/em>ranked the <\/strong>100 Greatest Punk Albums of All Time<\/strong><\/a> this year. Never Mind the Bollocks <\/em>came in at <\/strong>Number Seven<\/strong><\/a>, and Public Image\u2019s Second Edition <\/em>was <\/strong>Number 56<\/strong><\/a>. Are you curious how the Top 10 shook out? \n\tWhat\u2019s the best thing to have come out of punk?<\/strong> \n\tThat\u2019s it?<\/strong> \n\tDid turning 70 mean a great deal to you?<\/strong> \n\tAnd here I am at 70 and it dawned on me, \u201cWell, that\u2019s an amazing achievement, John,\u201d with the amount of chemicals I\u2019ve poured on top of my head and down into my intestines and through me schnozzle and I\u2019m still here. I\u2019ve done everything apparently completely the wrong way all my life. I\u2019ll always be a square peg trying to fit into a round hole, but that\u2019s the way nature made me, and it seems to work.<\/p>\n \n\tNow that you\u2019re 70, how do you feel about the anarchy you once preached? \n\tBut it seemed like you wanted a real regime change in England then.<\/strong> \n\tIs it possible? Don\u2019t know. Now it\u2019s in the hands of people younger than you and I. And we\u2019re very fearful of that lot because they seem to have given up thinking.<\/p>\n
Anything and everything, but it\u2019s usually lyric-based. I like the words to have content and meaning in order for me to swim merrily inside that. Generally, I just adore pop music. I love its trashy wastefulness. Somehow or the other, that\u2019s the teenage angst in there and I can immediately relate to that.<\/p>\n
Let them say what they like. I don\u2019t like no politician, but I got into this situation I started myself. Someone said, \u201cWhat do you think of Trump?\u201d Off the top of my head, I said, \u201cI think he\u2019s the Sex Pistols<\/a> of politics.\u201d It sounded hilarious to me at the time, but people took it serious, and it just went on from there. So what can you do?<\/p>\n
Absolutely not. The more I thought about it, the more I like it.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>I\u2019ll never forgive them for the way that they piled that court case on me while my wife was dying of Alzheimer\u2019s. It was a most unfortunate act on their part, and then using Disney to strip-mine me [for FX\u2019s Pistol<\/em><\/a>]\u2026. If I didn\u2019t raise, say, $10 million after the first week, the case couldn\u2019t go on. That\u2019s money I could have spent taking care of my lovely Nora. They knew she was ill.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s in the minus infinities. The dirt that they unloaded on me in a time where I was in real serious grief \u2026 No, I cannot forget about that.<\/p>\n
Nope.<\/p>\n
Yes, there was no respect. And to try to put together what I call a mockumentary about the Pistols, and for three years, deliberately not tell me a word, not share any of this with me, and not consider that I might have an opinion on this and then to force that into the law courts, that was really, really untasteful. So no, I don\u2019t hang out with low-renters.<\/p>\n
What? Me and my green tambourine?<\/p>\n
No. God, I\u2019ve got what, 20 albums out now? I\u2019m a prolific songwriter. I\u2019m so far ahead of that first rung on the ladder that it just seems like that would be like going back to Antiques Roadshow<\/em> and buying a second-hand cupboard when you could have a perfectly good new one.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t have spite in me. I can\u2019t be like that; I can\u2019t continue a hate. It would wear off very, very quickly on me as wasting my time and energy.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not even looking for revenge. My God, it\u2019d be nice to think that they were angry and furious at my wonderful solo adventures, but that would be it. No, if they\u2019d gone about this another way and were open and friendly with me, who knows what gifts that may have brought, but they decided skullduggery was the order of the day. That\u2019s what frigging in the rigging<\/a> gets you.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s desperation for you. How little they know me. They must be the only fools on the planet that could think that about me. Well, then, they are special people with special needs.<\/p>\n
What is he talking about? No, I\u2019ve never liked him and I don\u2019t care. He\u2019s a very unlikeable fellow, but I\u2019ve never, ever shown him financial disrespect or put through deals or offers that I thought would hurt him in any way.<\/p>\n
It used to be that nothing could go through unless all four agreed to it, and now it\u2019s three against one, and they all have the same management and representation. How cozy for them. Well, it\u2019s taken them nowhere because they don\u2019t have any ideas. It\u2019s regurgitating all my early stuff. That\u2019s all they\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n
We used to. Now? No. I would feel like I was going back and dealing with something that was wild, wonderful, and great at the time, but it\u2019s since been contaminated. It\u2019s like picking your old favorite socks out of the sewer.<\/p>\n
Well, the New York bands would like to tell you it all began there, but I come from a culture called the British culture. This is my background. My songs are about Britain, about the youth anxiety and the British music scene that I grew up in.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>I couldn\u2019t care less. Rated by who for what purpose? What politics are behind those decisions? I know very many people that became very, very pretentious very quickly once the awards start rolling in. I only accept the ones that give me a free flight. And not even then, I won\u2019t turn up.<\/p>\n
Me.<\/p>\n
Well, I came out of the [punk] category and refused to be labeled and refused to continue making similar sounds. And of course I was admonished for that for a while, but now I\u2019m kind of celebrated for that. That sounds egotistical because it\u2019s meant to be. At 70, you go for it, baby. No point in being shy anymore. I\u2019ve got a long way with a little willy.<\/p>\n
It used to. It used to drive me crazy. I remember at 21 screaming with rage and self-pity and all of that and not answering the phone, pulling down the blinds, pretending I wasn\u2019t at home, and all of that.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>I think I have a voracious sense of humor, and it gets me through.<\/p>\n
Well, boredom was the enemy then, wasn\u2019t it? [American accent<\/em>] \u201cThe suburban lifestyle offered to everyone.\u201d [Back to British<\/em>] You know, same old car, same old-looking house, same manicured lawn. That was a kind of a repression, and it did need an upheaval, but it didn\u2019t end up quite that well, did it?<\/p>\n