John Lydon ‘terrified’ by attention from women since his wife’s death

John Lydon is "terrified" of the women who have hit on him since his wife died.

The 70-year-old rocker spent years caring for Nora Forster after she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and, while he initially declared he didn't think he'd ever "love again" after she died in 2023, he has now admitted he's not as certain, though he hasn't liked any of the attention he's received from the opposite sex.

He told the Daily Telegraph newspaper of his comments: “I think that was a cry of desperation. I don’t know, but I’m not out of my way looking for love in all the wrong places – although dirty people keep throwing their bottoms at me.”

Asked if women hit on him, he said: “Yeah, and it’s a bit terrifying. It really is, because it’s women weeping for me and wanting to mother me. This is not what I want.”

Nora - who had a daughter, Arianna, aka The Slits frontwoman Ari Up, from a previous relationship - and John never had children together and the former Sex Pistols frontman felt he was "incapable" of being a dad.

He said: "I was incapable of being a proper father. [Nora] went through the pain of an abortion, which leaves a stain on your soul, on both of our souls. You have to just accept that.

"Don’t bring another human being into what is already a chaotic lifestyle and expect it all to work out for the better of the child.”

John's former bandmate Sid Vicious - whose real name was John Beverley - died from an overdose in 1979 while on bail from prison after being charged with the murder of his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, but the Anarchy for the UK hitmaker doesn't think he'd still be alive today if that hadn't happened.

Asked what he thinks Sid would be doing now if he was still alive, he said: “He wouldn’t be. No, no, he wouldn’t be able to cope at all. No, no, no. His mother set him on the road to ruin. She was a registered heroin addict. Bah! What an influence. He would always be looking for the way out. Always, poor thing.

"He was my mate, and I loved him very much.”

John thinks there are too many "imponderables" surrounding Nancy's death and doesn't like to speculate as to whether or not his friend did kill her.

He explained: “It’s like, even if he did it, he wouldn’t know he did it… The states he would get himself into. He was constantly trying to run away from his own inadequacies. That’s the heroin trail, isn’t it?”

The Public Image Ltd singer is "appalled" by drug addicts.

He said: “I’m appalled by people addicted to substances. I can’t accept that.”

However, he admitted he was a frequent cocaine user when he and Nora moved to the US in the early 1980s and the drug "eroded" the inside of his nose.

He said: "Oh yeah, lost me inner lining. Everyone did.

"I remember when that first started, like breathing, I would be whistling all the time because it’s a tiny little hole, and it was like a flute solo gone wrong.

"And then it finally just erodes, and it’s much clearer now.

"There is a vocal improvement, oddly enough; it resonates better.”