Former Sex Pistols singer John Lydon has opened up about his strained relationship with his former bandmates. He revealed the emotional and financial toll their legal battle took on him during a deeply personal time.
Lydon spoke candidly about the court case the Sex Pistols pursued against him while his wife, Nora, was battling Alzheimer’s disease. He made clear that he has not forgiven them for their actions during that period. When asked directly where things stand between him and the Sex Pistols, Lydon did not hold back.
“I’ll never forgive them for the way that they piled that court case on me while my wife was dying of Alzheimer’s,” Lydon said. “It was a most unfortunate act on their part, and then using Disney to strip-mine me [for FX’s Pistol]…. 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.”
When pressed further on the possibility of ever reuniting with the band — specifically on a scale of zero to 100 — Lydon made his position unmistakably clear.
“It’s in the minus infinities,” he said. “The dirt that they unloaded on me in a time where I was in real serious grief … No, I cannot forget about that.”
Lydon’s late wife Nora passed away following her battle with Alzheimer’s. The interview also touched on his upcoming Public Image Ltd. tour.
The legal dispute at the heart of Lydon’s grievance dates back to 2021, when the conflict between him and his former bandmates spilled into the British court system. The case centered on whether Sex Pistols music could be licensed for use in the FX/Disney series Pistol. The show was directed by Danny Boyle and based on guitarist Steve Jones’s memoir Lonely Boy: Tales From a Sex Pistol. Lydon refused to grant his consent, setting the stage for a bitter legal confrontation.
The lawsuit was brought against Lydon by two of his former Sex Pistols colleagues — guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook — after he withheld his approval for the band’s music to be used in the production. The proceedings were expedited by the court due to the significant daily costs the television production was incurring while the dispute remained unresolved.
On August 23, 2021, the UK High Court ruled against Lydon. The judge determined that a 1998 band agreement allowed licensing decisions to be made by majority rule rather than unanimous consent. This meant Lydon’s refusal could be legally overridden. The court further found that Lydon had effectively signed away his power to control the use of the band’s music rights to publishing and music companies. He retained only limited approval rights — rights that could be set aside if he was deemed unreasonable in exercising them.
Lydon described the FX series as “the most disrespectful shit I’ve ever had to endure.” His opposition to the project was never purely legal. For him, the timing of the lawsuit carried a deeply personal dimension. With Nora’s health deteriorating throughout the period of the dispute, the financial and emotional demands of fighting the case in court represented a burden he felt his former bandmates had knowingly imposed on him at his most vulnerable.
The bitterness Lydon carries from that period remains unresolved. His comments make plain that the legal battle was not simply a contractual disagreement — it was, in his view, a profound personal betrayal. Any prospect of a Sex Pistols reunion now appears entirely off the table.
