John Lydon claimed in a June 2022 opinion piece during the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee that he had tempered his views on royalty and did not hold any animosity toward the royal family, alluding to the republican themes in the Sex Pistols song “God Save the Queen.”
God preserve the Queen was his non-ironic closing statement. Lydon paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II on Twitter after her passing and afterward disapproved of any usage of The Sex Pistols’ songs for commercial gain in the wake of the Queen’s passing.
Although Lydon vehemently denied for years that the Sex Pistols would ever perform together once more, the group reformed in the 1990s (with Matlock returning on bass) and still makes the occasional appearance.
The Sex Pistols reconvened in 2002, the year of Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee, to perform at London’s Crystal Palace National Sports Centre. Three weeks of their “Piss Off Tour” around North America in 2003. In Europe, additional performances continued from 2007 to 2008.
The Sex Pistols were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006, but the band refused to show up for the event or accept the honor, claiming they had been approached for enormous amounts of money to attend.
Does John Lydon like the Queen?
Yes, John Lydon has changed his mind 45 years after claiming that the queen “isn’t a human person.” The lead vocalist of The Sex Pistols, a.k.a. Johnny Rotten, has recently spent time apologizing for the lyrics of his band’s most famous song and showing respect for Queen Elizabeth II. He made a comment after her passing that garnered some attention at the time: “Send her victorious.”