John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols ripped Green Day in an interview with the LA Times. Here is his quote in full:

"Many of the punk bands are cop-outs and imitators and have made it easy for the likes of Green Peace – Green Day, who I hate. I really … I can’t stand them.

“To me, they’re like coat hangers, and haven’t earned the right, they haven’t earned the wings, to be wearing the mantle of punk. They haven’t had to go through the violence, and the hate, and the animosity that us chaps way back when had to put up with.

“We had to fight for every single footstep.”

“I don’t think I’ve done anything good if it ends up with Green Day on Broadway. But I have done something good that Lady Gaga is so quite as mentally insane as she is.

“There’s someone out there – yeah, ultimately just shock, but the lyrics are so good. They really are.

“And so every now and again, as corrupt as the music industry is, there is one in there that can manipulate it properly. She’s one. So applause to her.”

Let's dissect this for those unfamiliar with all three artists.

Johnny Rotten's band, the Sex Pistols, were hired by a clothing manufacturer to sell clothing. They weren't really a punk band as much as they were marketing for punk clothing. Half their band members couldn't even play their instruments (See Sid Vicious who was too high most of the times to play bass and when he wasn't high he still couldn't play the bass). Never Mind the Bollocks was and is a great punk album with the raw viscosity of youthful aggression and rebellion. Their followup to Never Mind the Bollocks was The Great Rock N' Roll Swindle, which is essentially a cover album. Then the Sex Pistols broke up. One album, one covers album done.

Moving onto Green Day. Green Day takes a lot of heat because they got their roots from playing punk in clubs and bars. Their first 39/Smooth and Kerplunk are punk albums. Then Dookie came out and it was more pop punk/alternative than punk in the Ramones sense. There was more care for catchy hooks, choruses, and riffs than your typical punk sound. Insomniac saw the band perfect the alternative, heavy chunking sound and diverge further away from punk into more pop. It was Nimrod however that saw the band actively say good bye to the punk community and their punk roots. This is important and a lot of people who still call Green Day punk forget this. The song Good Riddance is Green Day saying good bye to the punk community. It was fun while it lasted, but they are embracing the pop rock community and no longer punk.

People who call Green Day "punk" haven't been paying attention to them since 1995. They don't call themselves punk so I don't know why Lydon does either.

Lady Gaga has an excellent handle on the music industry and the press. She can manipulate each entity to get what she wants. She writes her own music (tough for pop stars) and constantly reinventing herself as she feels. In a lot of ways, she is this generations Madonna. Will we still be talking about Lady Gaga ten or 11 years down the road? That is for Lady Gaga to decide. But pop music is generally a harsh musical genre because their consumers get tired of the same old stuff very quickly.

I think Lydon is a fantastic mind and gets away with a lot of bullshit because he is who he is. That's extremely respectable. If you could just tell anyone you felt like they look ugly and talentless, you would. Imagine bumping into your boss in the break room and turning around and cussing him out for touching you. Then your boss shrugs the whole incident off as "well that's just you being you." Who wouldn't want that freedom?

Lydon enjoys taking the piss out of people who think they are larger than life and getting people to talk about him through...well taking the piss out of people. But Green Day really? I mean they don''t really project themselves as a punk band anymore and they have a unique ability to maintain relevancy musically almost 20 years into their career. I haven't seen Lydon be able to do that and I haven't seen Gaga do that either.