John Lydon hits out at BBC for banning him after Savile warning
John Lydon has claimed he was banned from the BBC after speaking out against Jimmy Savile during an interview with the broadcaster.
The former Sex Pistol frontman accused the BBC of the cover-up in an interview with Piers Morgan for his Life Stories show which is due to air on ITV.
Lydon, who was known for his stage name Johhny Rotten, referred to an interview he’d given to the BBC in 1978 in which he stated that Savile was “into all kinds of seediness. We all know about it but we’re not allowed to talk about it. I know some rumours.”
He told Morgan that he felt “very, very bitter that the likes of Savile and the rest of them were allowed to continue. I did my bit, I said what I had to. But they didn’t air that.”
As a result of his comments the 59 year-old said he was “banned from BBC radio for quite a while, for my contentious behaviour. They wouldn’t state this directly; there’d be other excuses”. He added “weren’t I right? I think most kids wanted to go on Top of the Pops but we all knew what that cigar muncher was up to.”
His interview with Piers Morgan, which will air on ITV at 9pm tomorrow, will also delve into the death of his bandmate Sid Vicious, who took a fatal overdose of heroin in 1979.