Avril’s Punk Turned Marketing Concept Infuriates Rotten

The idea that punk has been turned into a marketing concept infuriates The Sex Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten, especially faux punks such as Avril Lavigne. However, he is angrier at the machine than the actual artists. “I look at those punks on MTV’s Top 30 or whatever and I feel sad for them,” he tells Glenn Gamboa of Newsday. “They look ridiculous. They are trying to turn a safety pin into an art form, when the reality is that when you don’t know how to sew, how else are you going to keep a sleeve on? I can’t hardly wipe my own bum, I’m hardly something to look up to, so I see these people trying to look like me and I think, ‘You’re nothing but a coat hanger.’ It’s all image to them. You have to earn your wings first.”