Former Sex Pistol John Lydon has described how he was informed of his house burning down moments before he was due to go on stage to perform in Italy.
Not only did Lydon have to deal with the trauma of his home being destroyed in an inferno of flames two weeks ago, but also the fact that new songs for Public Image Ltd were destroyed in the blaze.
The BBC reports that Lydon told of the event at the MOJO awards in London, where he collected an outstanding contribution to music award. He said, “I was in Italy. My wife rang me up just before we were going on stage.
“[She] said ‘Oh John, I don’t want to disturb you. The house has burnt down.'”
He added, “I hadn’t been in the house for two years. First time I tried to get clean the house goes up in flames.”
Of the destroyed songs he said, “Welcome to rotten world.” He added, “the point of all that doesn’t matter,” when compared to the news that his wife was unharmed, Lydon stating that hearing of her safety “was the best news I’ve ever had in my whole life.”
Also during his acceptance speech Lydon took aim at record labels – a long-term target of his – when he said that record companies had left him “bankrupt” and that “Public Image has been the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do in my entire life.”
Arctic Monkeys picked up Best Album at the awards while Ringo Starr was awarded the Icon gong.
