Punk rock legend Johnny Rotten recalls a wild gig in the new documentary Who the F**k is That Guy?
In the annals of extreme music, Johnny Rotten (real name John Lydon) is a legend who deserves his status. As the front man for seminal British punk rock band, The Sex Pistols, Rotten was the poster boy for anti-establishment, youthful rebellion and, when the Pistols collapsed, he continued exploring challenging music with his enduring, cinematic band Public Image Limited (PIL). Their signature tune, The Order of Death, can be heard on the soundtrack of Richard Stanley’s splatterpunk shocker Hardware and Rotten/Lydon himself appeared in the chilling and underrated film The Order of Death, where that track was first heard.
In the wild new documentary Who The F**K is That Guy? (in theaters now), Rotten/Lydon makes a memorable appearance in a true tale about the life of Michael Alago, a gay Puerto Rican kid from Brooklyn who went on to shape and reinvent the world’s musical landscape, first as a 19-year-old talent booker at the legendary Ritz nightclub in New York City and then as a 24-year-old A&R exec who signed Metallica, White Zombie and worked with other notable artists including Nina Simone, Lydon and Cyndi Lauper. The film tells the tender, loving and sometimes self-destructive story of a man who “just loved music.” He had the passion to bring it to the world on his terms and lived to talk about it. Barely.
We have a clip from the film, where the still edgy and defiant Rotten — as well as his colleagues — reveals a pivotal moment on stage, during PIL’s first performance, where he had his “Beiber” moment and the “curtain came down.” Check it out below.
Who the F**K is That Guy? is in theaters from XLrator Media and hits VOD and iTunes on July 25th.
