Music
23 Jul 26

John Lydon says the chance of him reuniting with the Sex Pistols is "minus infinities"

John Lydon. credit: Duncan Bryceland.

"The dirt that they unloaded on me in a time where I was in real serious grief... No I cannot forget about that," Lydon said.

John Lydon has said there is no chance of him reuniting with the Sex Pistols, or more specifically, the odds are in the “minus infinities.”

In an interview with Rolling Stone, the punk icon said he has not forgiven his former Sex Pistols bandmates for a legal battle with him over the use of the band's music in Danny Boyle's FX miniseries, Pistol, while his wife, Nora Forster, battled Alzheimer’s disease.

The 2021 court case saw the Sex Pistols' Steve Jones and Paul Cook suing Lydon in order to override his veto on the use of the band's music. Lydon lost the case, allowing the show to go ahead when it was released in 2022.

“I’ll never forgive them for the way that they piled that court case on me while my wife was dying of Alzheimer’s,” said Lydon. “It was a most unfortunate act on their part, and then using Disney to strip-mine me… If I didn’t raise, say, $10 million after the first week, the case couldn’t go on. That’s money I could have spent taking care of my lovely Nora. They knew she was ill.”

Forster passed away in April of 2023 at the age of 80, following a multi-year long battle with Alzheimer’s.

When asked to give a number between 0 and 100 as to the likelihood of him ever performing with the Sex Pistols again, he said “It’s in the minus infinities. The dirt that they unloaded on me in a time where I was in real serious grief… No I cannot forget about that.”

He went on to say that his former bandmates never reached out to him while knowing Forster was ill, also mentioning that he believed his former bandmates deliberately withheld anything about the mini-series.

“I don’t hang out with low-renters,” he said.

This is the latest news from a long-running feud between Lydon and the Sex Pistols. After their 2024-2025 reunion without him, Lydon publicly criticized his former band, saying the lineup was “karaoke” and a “clown’s circus.”

Both Lydon, with Public Image Ltd, and the Sex Pistols have upcoming North American tours beginning in September.