Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon has said that he’s forgiven Nirvana for supposedly copying his band with their ‘Nevermind’ album title.

Speaking to Pitchfork, Lydon seemed to imply that he felt that the grunge group had stolen from his punk band’s own seminal 1977 album ‘Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols’ for their 1991 groundbreaking LP ‘Nevermind’.

Lydon said: “I remember being very angry at their album title being ‘Nevermind’. I thought ”Nevermind’? Have you lost your bollocks or something?’ I was drawing a line on it all, perhaps too sharply”.


He went on to say that he’s now realised the greatness of the band: “I have to say ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ is one of pop music’s all-time greatest. That song is firmly embedded in my psyche. So, I forgive them. Most bands can’t come up with one complete song, and sometimes one is enough.”

Lydon also suggested that he had predicted Kurt Cobain’s death, saying: “By ‘Heart-Shaped Box,’ it was all starting to sound a bit suicidal. I felt it coming.”

Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock recently spoke about the possibility of the band reuniting again.

Speaking to NME recently, Matlock revealed that the last time he spoke to frontman John Lydon was at Sex Pistols’ last reunion show at Azkena Rock Festival in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain in September 2008.

Recalling the gig in question, Matlock said: “I was quite friendly and politely pointed out to him between going on stage and doing the encore that the part of Spain we was in was actually Basque country, and they don’t like Spanish, and he went ‘Ah right, okay’. Basically I didn’t want to get hit on the head by a rock.”


On why the pair have not been in touch since, Matlock added: “He’s doing something, and I’ve been doing a bit of playing with Paul Cook with a project we kick-started for Teenage Cancer Trust. In all bands there’s all different, kind of, little mini soap operas.”

Asked whether he thinks the band could get back together again in the future, the bassist said that “doesn’t know” and that he doesn’t “wake up in the morning” wishing for it to happen.

“We’re all old now,” Matlock said. “We’re all in our 60s, I was the last one to turn 60. I think the apple drops down to the young guys.”