John Lydon Distances Himself from FX’s New Sex Pistols Series: “John Does Not Support or Endorse This Series”

In January 2021, it was announced that director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire) was working on a new FX limited series based on Lonely Boy, the 2017 memoir from Sex Pistols guitarist (and current radio host) Steve Jones.

Pistol will have its premiere exclusively on FX on May 31 in the U.S., and on Disney+ in UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, but former Sex Pistols star John Lydon, a.k.a. Johnny Rotten, has made it abundantly clear he is not involved with the project.

Here’s the show’s trailer:

On Monday, Lydon’s social media pages were updated with the following, which doubles down on other recent comments he has made about the series:

The Sex Pistols website and social media has now become monopolised by the other members of the band and their management. John has been told not to post anything negative about the forthcoming Pistol TV series. Effectively, the Sex Pistols are now operating and communicating without the input of the driving force behind the band, Johnny Rotten. The below disclaimer is what they objected to.

You may have seen posts on Sex Pistols Official social media about the FX Pistol TV series. To be clear John Lydon has had no involvement in this “dramatisation”. He has had no involvement in the script and has had no involvement with the actor who is portraying him.

John does not support or endorse this series.

John would also like to be very clear that he completely disassociates himself from the Fuck Forever merchandise available through the official Sex Pistols online store. It has come to John’s attention that the image being used is based on a real person from an old magazine cover. Out of respect for the family of that person John wants it to be known that he does not endorse or support the use of it for any Sex Pistols merchandise. However, the other band members and their manager made it clear they liked the Fuck Forever designs and proceeded against John’s wishes.

The imagery that Lydon is referring to is of Margaret Clews, from the January 1959 issue of “Picturegoer” magazine.

This image was the inspiration for and was used in all the Sex Pistols “Fuck Forever” graphics created by artist Jamie Reid. Reid created most of the iconic graphics for the Sex Pistols including “God Save the Queen” and Pistols album art.