Sex Pistols’ John Lydon will ‘sorely miss’ the Queen when she dies

He doesn't want his band's 'God Save The Queen' to be played to mark her passing

Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon – aka Johnny Rotten – has said that he will “miss” the Queen after she dies and that he doesn’t want his band’s famous ‘God Save The Queen’ to be played to mark her passing.

Political anthem ‘God Save The Queen’ was released in 1977 and features the lyrics: “God save the queen, she ain’t no human being / There is no future in England’s dreaming”. It was released by the punk band during the week of Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee.

When Margaret Thatcher died in 2013, ‘Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead’ from The Wizard Of Oz reached number two in the UK charts following a Facebook campaign. However, Lydon has said that he wouldn’t want anything similar to happen after the Queen passes away.

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“[Sex Pistols’ ‘God Save The Queen’] about a political situation and the demand for obedience to a monarchy I don’t believe in,” Lydon recently told The Quietus, adding: “She’s a human being and I will sorely miss her as a human being on planet Earth… It’s not her fault she was born into a gilded cage. Long may she live.”

Last November, BBC’s Newsnight played Sex Pistols’ ‘God Save The Queen’ after Conservative MP Andrew Rossindell called on the BBC to play the English national anthem of the same name at the end of every day.

Watch John Lydon tell the story behind ‘God Save The Queen’:

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