Admire him for his wankery?

When I first heard PiL I hated it. But like Primal Scream, Radiohead etc. the changes grew and grew on me as the years went by. If PiL had sounded like the Sex Pistols, it would have been band #2 and Lydon would wind up like Paul Westerberg.

whether or not he's a wanker, I don't know. Never seen his penis.

Pictures of Johnny Rotten's penis are not hard to find. You haven't been looking too diligently, I take it.

I don't despise Johnny Rotten. I think he plays up his character on appearances, but in this interview he seems like he's being genuinely sincere. I think that's worth some respect.

Haven't listened to PiL, the Sex Pistols were pretty bad though.

Not bad meaning bad, but bad meaning good?

Yeah the more I listened to PiL the more I liked it. I also started hearing their influence in a lot of bands I kinda liked. Like that song The Rapture did that's in the opening to Misfits is pretty much an homage to Johnny Lydon and PiL. So yeah, he's alright.

His autobiography is good stuff. You can't call him unselfaware.