March 15, 2010 15:56

John Lydon to fund new PiL album with US tour

Singer says reformed band are likely to record after jaunt

John Lydon has said that Public Image Ltd. are likely to record their first album in nearly 20 years after their forthcoming US tour.

The reunited post-punk band are set to kick off their first US gig run next month and Lydon said that the funds raised from the jaunt will probably be used to record the new album, possibly at his home studio in Los Angeles.

The band have not released a studio album since 1992's 'That What Is Not'.

"We've got no backing – no record company, no sponsors, nothing like that," he told Billboard. "The only way we can make money is the touring, and then we can make a new album. It's sort of like the old days of PiL, when the [Sex] Pistols went kaput; I had to scrimp and scrape out of my own pocket. Not much has changed."

Speaking of the band's new material, he added: "I never stop writing. Most of my influences have never really come from a musical act. It tends to be things like the poetic beat of a newscast. There's a rhythm to the way it's laid out. Movies can do that. Shakespeare and good poetry does that, and a bloody good book does that, or just a long walk."

Public Image Ltd. kick off their US gig run at the Coachella festival on April 16.