Johnny Rotten almost came to blows with Black Flag‘s Henry Rollins and Marky Ramone at a documentary screening earlier this week.
The Sex Pistols icon was in attendance at a screening of upcoming docuseries Punx – joined by Rollins, Ramone and other stars including Gun N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan.
But it wasn’t long before the contrasting personalities clashed, with Rotten, real name John Lydon, turning his razor-sharp tongue on Rollins.
“Henry, we ain’t never met before, have we?” Lydon told Rollins at a documentary panel. “You’ve said silly things but excellently good things, too.”
“And you called Black Flag a bunch of suburban rich kids and we wanted to tear your ears off,” Rollins said.
.@LydonOfficial didn’t mince words when voicing his opinion about @HenryRollins and #BlackFlag at our PUNK panel last night. ?
PUNK Premieres Monday, March 11 at 10/9c, only on EPIX. https://t.co/1bxVt6Hvgc #PunkOnEPIX pic.twitter.com/77wP2ve0MC
— EPIX (@EPIXHD) March 6, 2019
“Yes, I did, but I didn’t like the fucking music,” Lydon replied. “It was boring.”
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And while Rollins claimed that the Sex Pistols weren’t too dissimilar from Black Flag, Lydon wasn’t a fan of the comparison.
“Don’t talk Black Flag, Pink Flag, White Flag,” he said.
Later in the panel, Lydon was at loggerheads with Marky Ramone, after reminding him that he wasn’t an original member of the seminal New York punks.
“But I did the Blank Generation album with Richard Hell, and you took his image,” Ramone replied. “All you guys took Richard Hell’s image. That’s all you did.”
“And you’re still covering your fucking ears,” Lydon said.
After Ramone claimed that Sid Vicious “was the star” of the pistols, Lydon replied: “He was the star for asshole fake idiots like you. Enjoy your drugs and fuckin’ have a happy death.”
Lydon added: ““Punk music for me was positive, proof positive, that we could change our lifes by music, meaning what we said, attack the political systems. This daft cunt is into fucking drugs.”
The heated panel discussion came only hours after Lydon paid tribute to Keith Flint as he arrived at the Punx screening. He claimed that Keith had been left “alone” and “unloved” after the mammoth success of the band in the 1990s.