John Lydon is furious that his former band, the Sex Pistols, has decided to tour without him.“When I first heard that the Sex Pistols were touring this year without me it pissed me off,” the singer known as Johnny Rotten declared in a recent interview with The I Paper. “It annoyed me. I just thought, ‘They’re absolutely going to kill all that was good with the Pistols by eliminating the point and the purpose of it all.’”Singer Frank Carter is fronting the reunited Sex Pistols, who have a run of dates lined up for 2025, including major festivals and a few gigs opening for Guns N’ Roses. In Lydon’s view, the band’s other classic members – Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Glen Matlock – launched the tour as a cash grab.READ MORE: Steve Jones Says He Hasn’t Spoken to Johnny Rotten in 16 Years“They’re trying to trivialize the whole show to get away with karaoke but in the long term I think you’ll see who has the value and who doesn’t,” the rocker declared. “I’ve never sold my soul to make a dollar. It’s the Catholic in me – that guilt I don’t want to trip.”‘I Wrote the F—ing Songs’In a separate interview with Classic Album Review, Lydon again decried the validity of Sex Pistols touring without him.”I wrote the fucking songs, didn’t I? I gave them the image. I was the frontman,” Lydon declared. “I am the voice, what made the whole world sing. And now you’re going out, as they did the year before with Billy Idol. It’s just karaoke, really.”The latter remark was a reference to Generation Sex, a project featuring members of the Sex Pistols and Idol’s old band, Generation X. The short-lived supergroup performed 14 shows in 2023 with set lists made up of material from both bands.Punk Rock’s 40 Best AlbumsFrom the Ramones to Green Day, this is musical aggression at its finest. Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci