- Music
- 25 Apr 18
"Everybody in life is entitled to the absurdity of a religion but you don’t have any right to inflict that opinion on another person who differs from you," he tells Hot Press.
John Lydon has signed up long distance from Los Angeles to #MenForYes.
When informed of the foetus posters on lamp-posts and fundamentalist goon squads picketing LGBTQ establishments, he continues: “Look, everybody in life is entitled to the absurdity of a religion but you don’t have any right to inflict that opinion on another person who differs from you. So I have great problems with the dictatorship that religion brings in, and the Catholic Church poisoned Ireland for centuries.
“Here’s the reality: nobody goes, ‘Yippee, I can’t wait to have an abortion.’ It’s a sad decision to have to make but a necessary one for very many people. You can’t bring a child into this world if it’s going to be neglected or put into a foster home or abandoned. This is unacceptable and far more cruel. When I wrote the Sex Pistols song ‘Bodies’, it was from both points of view dealing with it. There I am on that. Mummy could have had an abortion and I wouldn’t be here, but it is a woman’s choice so there it is.”
On a totally different subject, John was sad to learn that Big Tom had died.
“Aw no, my Mum and Dad loved Big Tom & The Mainliners so I grew up with those tunes always there. They had a very varied taste, which happily influenced me in later years. They’d quite happily put Big Tom in with The Kinks and The Beatles and anything else they could hop around in the front-room to.”
PiL’s 40th birthday, the Pistols, Shane MacGowan, gun control, his upcoming Vicar St. show, Engelbert Humperdinck, Trump, May, Northern Ireland and John’s determination to represent Ireland in the Eurovision – no, really! – all featured in a highly quote worthy interview which will be appearing soon in Hot Press.