Former Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon has accused his ex bandmates of “cashing in” on the Queen’s death.
Following the Queen’s death last week, several famous tracks which feature the monarchy have had a huge increase in streaming figures.
This includes the controversial Sex Pistols track ‘God Save The Queen’, which saw a 650% increase in streaming figures, from 11,000 to 81,000 since the monarch’s passing.
“distance himself”
Following this, John Lydon’s current band Public Image Ltd have released a statement, where the frontman wished to “distance himself” from the Pistols, regarding the alleged increase in commercial activity regarding their 1977 hit.
“John Lydon wishes to distance himself from any Sex Pistols activity which aims to cash in on Queen Elizabeth II’s death”, the statement said.
“The musicians in the band and their management have approved a number of requests against John’s wishes on the basis of the majority court-ruling agreement”.
“In John’s view, the timing for endorsing any Sex Pistols requests for commercial gain in connection with God Save The Queen in particular is tasteless and disrespectful to the Queen and her family at this moment in time”.
The statement added, “John wrote the lyrics to this historical song, and while he has never supported the monarchy, he feels that the family deserves some respect in this difficult time, as would be expected for any other person or family when someone close to them has died”.
“nothing new”
In response, the Sex Pistols have released a statement of their own, where they played down the levels of commercial activity of ‘God Save The Queen’.
“We cannot understand what he would be referring to” they say”, their statement said.
“Other than a couple requests for use of imagery or audio in news reports on The Queen and her impact on culture, there’s nothing new relating to God Save The Queen being promoted or released in any way”.
It is certainly no secret that John Lydon aka Johnny Rotten, has had somewhat of a frosty relationship with his former bandmates Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Glen Matlock.
This hostility has been epitomised in the dispute between Lydon and the surviving Pistols over the Danny Boyle biopic Pistol. Lydon claimed that the biopic is incongruous with everything the band had previously stood for, adding that his former bandmates can all “f*** off*. More on this here.
