page_title: John Lydon
section_title: 2009 to present: Public Image Limited reformation
hierarchical_section_title: John Lydon / Career / 2009 to present: Public Image Limited reformation
caption_attribution_description: English: Public Image Limited playing extremely live, at Guilfest 2011.
context_page_description: John Joseph Lydon, also known by his stage name Johnny Rotten, is an English singer, songwriter and musician. He is best known as the lead singer of the late-1970s British punk band the Sex Pistols, which lasted from 1975 until 1978, and again for various revivals during the 1990s and 2000s. He is also the lead singer of post-punk band Public Image Ltd, which he founded and fronted from 1978 until 1993, and again since 2009.
  Lydon's outspoken personality, rebellious image and fashion style led to his being asked to become the singer of the Sex Pistols by their manager, Malcolm McLaren. With the Sex Pistols, he penned singles including "Anarchy in the U.K.," "God Save the Queen", "Pretty Vacant" and "Holidays in the Sun", the content of which precipitated what one commentator described as the "last and greatest outbreak of pop-based moral pandemonium" in Britain. The band scandalised much of the media, and Lydon was seen as a figurehead of the burgeoning punk movement. Because of their controversial lyrics and disrepute at the time, they are regarded as one of the most influential acts in the history of popular music.
context_section_description: In September 2009 it was announced that PiL would reform, including earlier members Bruce Smith and Lu Edmonds, for a number of Christmas concerts in the UK. Lydon financed the reunion using money he earned doing a UK television commercial for Country Life butter. Lydon commented "The money that I earned from that has now gone completely — lock stock and barrel — into reforming PiL".
  In August 2010, Lydon played with Public Image Ltd in Tel Aviv, Israel despite protests. Lydon was criticized for a statement to newspaper The Independent: "I really resent the presumption that I'm going there to play to right-wing Nazi Jews. If Elvis-fucking-Costello wants to pull out of a gig in Israel because he's suddenly got this compassion for Palestinians, then good on him. But I have absolutely one rule, right? Until I see an Arab country, a Muslim country, with a democracy, I won't understand how anyone can have a problem with how they're treated."
  In October 2013, Lydon clarified in an interview.
  I support no government anywhere, ever, never. No institution, no religion – these are things that all of us as human beings do not need. When I go to a place like Israel, it's not to support anti-Arab sentiment or pro-Israeli government, it's to play to the people.
  During an April 2013 tour of Australia, Lydon was involved in a television interview for The Project that resulted in a publicised controversy, as he was labelled "a flat out, sexist, misogynist pig" by one of the panellists on the Australian programme. The altercation occurred with host Carrie Bickmore, and the description was provided by panellist Andrew Rochford after the interview was prematurely terminated by Bickmore's colleague Dave Hughes. Lydon conducted the interview from Brisbane while on PiL's first tour of Australia in twenty years — first announced in December 2012 — during which concerts were held in the capital cities of Sydney and Melbourne.
  Lydon was cast to play the role of King Herod for the North American arena tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber's rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. He was to play the role starting 9 June through 17 August, and be joined by Ben Forster as Jesus, Brandon Boyd of rock band Incubus as Judas Iscariot, Destiny's Child singer Michelle Williams as Mary Magdalene, and former 'N Sync singer JC Chasez as Pontius Pilate. On 31 May 2014, the producers announced that the tour of the production was cancelled, because of poor advance ticket sales.
  A compilation of Lydon's lyrics, Mr. Rotten's Songbook, was published in 2017. The limited-edition book includes the words to every song he wrote during his entire career, punctuated by his own original sketches and cartoons.
caption: Lydon onstage with PiL at Guilfest 2011
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