John Lydon’s opinion on Lady Gaga and Madonna

Nicknamed Johnny Rotten, the Sex Pistols and PIL vocalist John Lydon is certainly one of the most influential frontmen of all time. With the Punk group he caused a real revolution not only in England but in the entire world with the sound, lyrics and attitude the band had, although they only released one album before breaking up.

Over the decades fronting his own band PIL, the musician showed that he was much more than Punk and could really compose many other kinds of music. During his career he showed he had a really broad musical taste and of course, gave his opinion on many other artists, including Lady Gaga and Madonna.

What is John Lydon’s opinion on Lady Gaga and Madonna

Lydon is really sincere and authentic, so he always gives his real opinion on anything. So when he says that he loves Lady Gaga, you can believe it, because he also says that he can’t stand The Beatles, for example.

In an interview with Absolute Radio back in 2011 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage), Lydon was asked who was doing “good experimental stuff” at that moment in music. He then talked about Gaga saying: “Lady Gaga is fantastic, I love it. The humor in it, (an) absurd imagery, yes of course it uses sex, but in a really witty, clever way. The songwriting is bang up there, bang up there. (The songs) they really are, they are well-crafted, they’re smart and they leave plenty of room for wisdom. I mean, ”Paparazzi’ is genius for a song,” John Lydon said.

He then agreed with the interviewer that it was one of the songs he wished he could have written. “(She does better than Madonna) by a good mile and a half. Madonna is kind of humorless and takes herself too seriously. I mean, didn’t drive you nuts when she came over and pretended to be British? America didn’t take that too kindly, you know,” John Lydon said.

Born in Manhattan, New York City in 1986, Lady Gaga started her musical career in 2001. She had the chance to release her first album “The Fame” in 2008, which was reissued one year later as “The Fame Monster”. Since then the musician released only four more albums as a solo act. But it was already enough to make her one of the most successful pop stars of all time. During the past years she was also really involved in acting, being part of many important movies.

For John Lydon Gaga is fun and has an innocence he never saw in Madonna

Lydon didn’t praise Lady Gaga only once, he also told in an interview with Daily Star in 2011, that he thought she was fun and that she had an innocence he never saw in Madonna, for example.

“Gaga is so much fun. Those lyrics are wonderful. They’re clever and deep. She’s putting female artists on the map, times 10. She’s not the best-looking bird in the world, but then again she is, because her personality has taken over. It’s not a visual thing with Gaga funnily enough, considering all her garb. It’s more a personality thing.”

He continued:

“She has a wonderful innocence which I never saw in Madonna, who was harder and more ambitious. That song Paparazzi is very clever. Is she talking about her papa? The press? Who? She’s so young too. It will be very exciting to see what she comes up with next,” John Lydon said.

Although Gaga is a pop star, she really loves Rock and Roll music and many times declared her love for the genre. She has a really broad musical influence and that can be shown for example, on the two albums she recorded with the late Jazz singer Tony Bennett.

As for Lydon, Gaga is not the only Pop star that he praised over the years, he is also a huge fan of Kate Bush.