March 28, 2025
The Sex Pistols are coming back to Canada but without Johnny Rotten
What a time to be alive – the Sex Pistols announced that they will be touring again, and Canada and the United States are among the places they will play. What year is this? Where I am? And whose shoes are these?!
So, why, after all these are the Sex Pistols touring again? Filthy lucre. That’s my guess. But, having been too young to catch them in their heyday, I’m more than happy to support this new jaunt – although it should include Johnny Rotten.
See Also: Rock legends Foreigner embark on a Canadian tour this fall
That, however, is on Rotten – who has stubbornly snubbed his nose up and at any attempt to get the band back together over the years. So, enter Gallows frontman Frank Carter. Founding members Steve Jones, Paul Cook, and Glen Matlock will all be part of this tour – Rotten though, unsurprisingly, isn’t please by any of this.
Rotten said that he is “shocked by how awful” the Sex Pistols’ shows with Frank Carter are. Is he just feeling cheated? He went on to add “It just seems like they’ve rented a puppet and there it is. It is truly karaoke I think with really mediocre results.”
While a lot can and has been said about the iconic rebel rouser, perhaps the most well-known and easily recognized of all punk musicians – he has never been one to mince his words, and has no problem saying things as they are. Direct. To the point. Without filter.
“He doesn’t understand any of those lyrics. He couldn’t possibly, because if he did he wouldn’t be doing it,” snarled Rotten. “He’d feel ashamed about the imitating someone else and pretending that original songwriter and ‘Personality of the Year’ award person didn’t exist.”
While Rotten has been apart of Sex Pistols reunions in the past, returning in 1996 for two years, and again between 2002 and 2003, and another reunion between 2007 and 2008, the tensions that arose during a court case while Rotten’s wife was terminally ill, over usage of the Sex Pistols music for a television miniseries called ‘Pistol’ in 2021.
“Listen, after using Walt Disney’s financial backing to mock me in court, while Nora was dying – and they knew this – that to me is an act of evil I can’t easily forgive. And why should I? I’ll do them no more favors ever again. Never ever.”
“I think everybody needs this band right now. I think the world needs this band right now,” Carter said in an interview with the Associated Press. “And I think definitely America is screaming out for a band like the Sex Pistols.”
Read More:
>> The Damn Truth at Mtelus, Montreal
>> The Red Clay Strays at Mtelus, Montreal
>> Our Lady Peace at Place Bell, Laval
Anybody but Rotten singing for the Sex Pistols is going to take a moment to adjust to – time will tell how Frank Carter handles this challenge. Whether his attempts will be worthy or the karaoke Rotten says it is.
So far, there are two Canadian dates announced with ten more across the United States and the potential for more to be added by the time the tour kicks off this fall.
North American Tour Dates:
09/16 Dallas, TX – Longhorn Ballroom
09/23 Washington, D.C. – 9:30 Club
09/26 Philadelphia, PA – The Fillmore
09/30 Montreal, QC – MTELUS
10/01 Toronto, ON – History
10/03 Cleveland, OH – Agora Theatre and Ballroom
10/04 Detroit, MI – The Fillmore
10/07 Minneapolis, MN – The Fillmore
10/10 Denver, CO – The Mission Ballroom
10/13 Seattle, WA – Showbox SoDo
10/15 San Francisco, CA – The Warfield
10/16 Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Palladium
