John Lydon As An Instrumentalist?

I was listening to PiL this morning and found myself again thinking about John Lydon as an instrumentalist. I found this old (closed) thread "Please rate John Lydon as a musician and artist" and on here and via google have found one image of him "playing" guitar.

My question is this; other than liner notes stating that he plays on playing on some / all of PiL's output and his solo output, is there any indication that he is actually a multi-instrumentalist? I've seen PiL twice (early 1990s and late 2000s) and have never seen him play.

Also, I've been a fan of PiL (and Sex Pistols) for over 30 years, so I'm not a hater, just curious if there is anything to show that he can actually play all the instruments that he is credited with playing. Am I just being too cynical or what?

 

Good question. No clue never really thought about it.
I know I enjoy the instrumental versions of Happy and Warrior

 

Nonexistent...in the nicest way possible...

 

I remember an interview in which he stated he played around with all sorts of instruments and he didn't know why people think it's difficult--you just have to "hit and bash" them.

So, in answer to your question, no.

 

Thanks all.

I’m glad that I’m not the only one who thinks that it is unlikely that he’s a multi-instrumentalist.

 

He plays keyboards, guitars, bass, drums and percussion on Psycho's Path. Martin Lydon and Mark Saunders play some additional guitars and keyboards, but other than that John plays everything.

 

Right, but other than this being the statement made in the liner notes, what do we actually know about him playing any instrument, let alone all of them?

 

Reminds me of Mark E Smith, who was credited with playing all sorts of instruments on The Fall records.

 

He certainly doesn't play anything on Never Mind the Bollocks, that was (pretty much) all Jones and Cook.

 

I found the interview. He claims he played all of them, plus more on Metal Box and Flowers of Romance, and we know he's always truthful.

Fodderstompf | PiL Interviews | John Lydon interview

 

I don't think he can technically play anything, but he's able to get some sort of racket out of various things and make it work musically.

 

Yikes, he lo0ks like Humpty Dumpty.

 

I think he might be ill. I saw him interviewed on TV about 6 months to a year ago and he was already ballooning out. Didn't look well.

 

Is that a hair piece in the plastic bag that he is holding?

 

It looks like he became a foodist.

 

He’s been expanding for a while now. Hope he’s not ill.

 

Yeah I watched a recent interview he did for the PiL doc and his appearance was alarming.

 

This one here. This was done last week in NYC. It's probably what he was on his way back from when those airport pics were taken.

 

Wow - I saw him at the Tribeca Film Fest premiere last year and he still looked like himself. His face looks completely different now, like he's on cortisone or something.

Spring '17:



Christ - get well, Uncle Johnny!

 

I agree with @JuanTCB. That looks like the side effects of cortisone. In the past, when he's been fat, he's been fat all over.

I'm supposed to see him in less than a month, but he looks in no shape for touring. Very disturbing.

 

Perhaps, in addition to being a multi-instrumentalist, he makes clothes as well...

 

Interesting that AOL interview has been removed from YouTube. If you click the play button it says removed for violating terms of service. I don't think there's any way it really could have violated them though.

 

Yep - I saw him last week on local NYC Fox news and I was stunned at his appearance...wow.

 

God save Johnny Rotten.