John Lydon explains why he didn’t like The Clash’s Joe Strummer

The Clash was formed one year after the Sex Pistols but had the chance to release their debut album a few months before the group which had John Lydon as the vocalist. They became two of the most influential Punk Rock bands of all time but as Lydon told Nigel Carr he was not a big fan of Joe Strummer, especially due to his voice and songwriting.

John Lydon explains why he didn’t like The Clash’s Joe Strummer

“It was Strummer’s voice that would irritate the hell out of me. And his fake angst and ‘last war’ nonsense. What he was doing was creating division, and I told them all at the time, ‘All I want from you is tell me your middle-class experiences so we can share them instead of you coming down and imitating my lot.’ And by that I mean my folk, my culture. Have a picture taken outside council flats, you know, as if that equates integrity. No!”

“Listen, Mick Jones is one of the world’s nicest people. Him and the bass player [Paul Simonon]. Great people, great people. Lovely. (Strummer) He’d be hanging around, but I’d see appalling situations, like he’d come around and he’d sit in front of the six o’clock news with his notepad. We guess this must have been Bernard Rhodes (Band’s manager) telling him how to write a rebel song. And he’d take out catchphrases from the commentary, ‘Sten gun in Knightsbridge.’ You can see devolution. ‘London Calling,’ I mean come on, that’s a song about a fire brigade,” John Lydon’s said (Transcribed by Ultimate Guitar).

The Clash was active from 1976 and 1986 and released six studio albums, the final one being “Cut the Crap” in 1985. The vocalist and guitarist Joe Strummer sadly passed away in 2002 at the age of 50 from a heart attack caused by an undiagnosed congenital heart defect.