John Lydon, the 62-year-old punk legend, was in New York for a new documentary about Public Image Ltd. But first, he wanted to shop and smoke in a bar.
By Alex Williams
He arrived on the pop culture landscape of the 1970s with the subtlety of a mushroom cloud, serving as the globally recognized face of punk rock, as well as its id.
John Lydon — then known as Johnny Rotten, the lead singer of the British band the Sex Pistols — did not just espouse anarchy, he personified it, gyrating onstage like a broken marionette as he screeched against the pillars of polite society, while a hailstorm of spit rained in from the audience.
At their apogee, the Sex Pistols inspired pundits on the evening news to ponder, in all seriousness, whether the decline of Western civilization had finally arrived.
Mr. Lydon has apparently mellowed with age, at least by his standards.
On a recent rainy Wednesday, one of rock history’s most polarizing figures was standing in the Issey Miyake flagship store in TriBeCa, a hushed, gallery-like space that exhibits avant-garde clothing by its namesake Japanese designer.
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Source: Afternoon Beers With a Former Sex Pistol – The New York Times