English post-punk legends Public Image Ltd — fronted by the band’s only constant member, and former Sex Pistols vocalist, John Lydon — are currently about halfway through their first North American tour in eight years. The jaunt, billed as “This Is Not The Last Tour” (which has taken the group around much of the world since May of last year), will have Lydon, guitarist Lu Edmonds (who was formerly with the band from ’86-’88, and then a mainstay since their 2009 reunion, following a 17-year hiatus), bassist Scott Firth (a constant since that 2009 reunion), and drummer Mark Roberts (who’s been with the band since this tour started) will be bringing PiL to Union Transfer on October 2nd, which they last played on that 2018 US run. Recent setlists have featured a retrospect of much of the band’s career, including a large sampling of their most notable music of the ‘70s and ‘80s (“Public Image,” “This Is Not a Love Song,” and “Rise” have featured nightly), a couple post-reunion tracks, and even a few tunes from other collaborations of Lydon (but not the Pistols…) Prior to the tour, John Lydon took some time to answer some questions for the press (not me, individually) about what to expect of this North American run.
Q: It’s been eight years since Public Image Ltd last toured North America. How does it feel to bring the band back across the Atlantic this autumn?
John Lydon: It’s vital, absolutely vital. I’m not someone who sits around waiting for approval, but there is an undeniable bond with the audiences over there. When we get up on stage, it isn’t some corporate exercise or nostalgic routine. It’s real human emotion, raw and exposed.
After everything that’s happened over the past few years, I thought for a moment that might be it for me. After losing Nora, and then losing Rambo, I couldn’t see a clear way through. But the support from fans was overwhelming. With so many people asking for us to return and with the band meaning so much to them, I couldn’t just stay on my sofa and not tour—tempting though that obviously is at times! You have to face the world.
Q: You’ve been extraordinarily open about the loss of your wife, Nora. Songs like “Hawaii”—a track written as a love letter to her—showed a deeply tender, vulnerable side of your writing. How has performing those songs affected you?
John Lydon: “Hawaii” was dedicated to everyone going through tough times on the journey of life, with the person they care for the most. When I sang it originally, tears were rolling. Caring for someone you love when they are ill—it’s automatic and instinctual.
Nora loved our music, and she loved the End of World album. She wouldn’t have wanted us to postpone anything or crawl into a hole. I had my moments of falling into self-indulgent pity, but I knew that if I ceased working, it would really annoy her. She’d be furious at me! So, I throw myself into the work. Life is our greatest gift and it’s not to be cast aside regardless of your situation. You make the best of a thing, not the worst. With my irrepressible nature, I won’t let the bastards grind me down.
Q: This lineup of PiL with Lu Edmonds, and Scott Firth has been augmented by the addition of new drummer Mark Roberts. What makes this collective work so well?
John Lydon: We’re a gaggle of mates, plain and simple. There are no massive ego trips, no posers, no puppets being told what to do. When we get together in a room, the ideas just flow naturally out of that mutual respect. I’ve dealt with people in the past who tried to turn me into something I’m not—producers who wanted to alter the sound or turn me into some comfortable pop star. I will not be dictated to by arseholes. With Lu, Mark, and Scott, there’s trust. We write from the heart, and when we hit the stage, we’re entirely in sync.
Q: In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, you were asked yet again about the possibility of a Sex Pistols reunion, and you remarked that the odds were “in the minus infinities”. Is that chapter permanently closed for you?
John Lydon: Completely and utterly. Look, I’ll never forgive them for the way they piled that court case on me while my wife was dying of Alzheimer’s. They knew she was ill. To use corporate backing and high-priced lawyers to strip-mine me at a time when every penny and every second mattered for Nora’s care—that was a most unfortunate and unforgivable act on their part.
People keep looking for nostalgia or expecting me to play along with some corporate-sponsored memory trip. I gave up a long time ago bothering about other people’s silly expectations. Public Image Ltd was created specifically because I wanted to build something real, something that was a valid threat to the comfortable predictability of standard rock & roll. PiL is my life’s work.
Q: Many bands from the post-punk era either retreat into heritage acts or rely heavily on backing tracks and technology during live performances. Where do you see PiL’s place in 2026?
John Lydon: A lot of modern music is completely lifeless—computer-generated, sterile, lacking any genuine soul or passion. If you’re asking people to pay their hard-earned money to come out to a venue, and all you’re offering them is a pre-recorded track or some half-hearted, drunken piece of debauchery, that’s an insult.
I demand quality. I get terrified before going on stage; I can’t eat, my stomach is in knots. Why? Because it’s so bloody important to me! When you look out into an audience, you owe them absolute honesty. You don’t go through the motions. Have I mellowed? Absolutely fucking not! I’m still a square peg trying to fit into a round hole, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Q: What can North American fans expect from the setlist on this tour, spanning from early PiL classics to End of World?
John Lydon: Expect the unexpected, as always! We cover a vast terrain because PiL’s catalogue isn’t stuck in one decade or one genre. We’ll be performing songs from right across the spectrum—tracks from the early days like First Issue and Metal Box, straight through to our newest material.
Every song feels brand new when we play it live because we put everything into it. We don’t perform to satisfy purists or posers. We play because music is a cleansing process. It’s a shared space where we can all leave our daily problems at the door for two hours and feel something authentic together.
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