"What the fuck are
you doing?" Tom Snyder angrily asked Public Image Ltd. leader John
Lydon during a commercial break in the calamitous June 27th
edition of NBC’s Tomorrow Show. "You’re making a fucking
fool of yourself."
Snyder, for once, was right
on the mark. Former Sex Pistol Lydon and PiL guitarist Keith Levene
had flown in from London just to appear on the show, but when it was
all over, no one could quite figure out why. The show’s first guest,
film producer Alan Carr, apparently anticipated the worst. Winding up
a promotional visit on behalf of his Village People movie "Can’t
Stop the Music," Carr remarked, "If you think I’m strange
you should see what’s coming on next. Trust me, it’s the ‘Rocky
Horror Picture Show.’"
Lydon more than lived up
to that intro. Bumming cigarettes from Snyder and generally jerking
him around throughout the broadcast. "Excuse me for talking while
you’re interrupting," Snyder said with quiet exasperation.
"Humor me," Lydon replied. "Not for long," said
Snyder. But if the on-the-air atmosphere was tense, things were considerably
more hostile during the commercial breaks, with Lydon disparaging the
show’s set as "fucking stupid." At one point, according
to a witness, Snyder called Lydon "a fucking asshole." "Why
did you come on the show if you’re not going to talk?" he
asked. "You can leave if you want to." Lydon and Levene stayed,
but to no apparent purpose. Afterward, Lydon contended that he’d
been set up and was heard to describe Snyder as a "fucking cunt"
and "a wanker." Snyder, however, may have had the last word:
dismissing his difficult guests, he said, "It’s unfortunate
that we are all out of step but you." |