The legendary musician that Paul Weller and John Lydon agreed was “horrible” and “humourless”
(Credits: Far Out / Nicole Nodland / YouTube Still)
Sat 10 January 2026 17:00, UK
There aren’t many things that can unite the poster boy of the 1970s punk revolution, John Lydon, with ‘The Modfather’ himself, Paul Weller, yet the pair seem to have found an unlikely connection in the form of their mutual hatred of one fellow songwriter.
Lydon and Weller have, in fairness, aimed more than a few disparaging comments at each other over the years, with Weller telling Spin back in 2018 that Lydon had “become the antithesis of what he once was”, in the wake of the former Sex Pistol’s recent descent into American right-wing politics. Since the very beginning of their respective careers, though, the two songwriters have been at opposite ends of the rock and roll spectrum.
Both Weller, with The Jam, and Lydon, with the Sex Pistols, emerged onto the scene during the mid-1970s, as the punk rock revolution took hold of London. While Lydon was at the forefront of the scene, donning bondage trousers and establishing his trademark sneer, The Jam frontman seemed merely to use the vehicle of punk’s DIY ethos to develop his own musical revolution.
Weller’s songwriting had all the energy and aggression of punk, but it drew upon a much wider range of influences – and he tended to favour sharp suits instead of ripped shirts and safety pins. It has never been all that surprising, then, that Weller and Lydon rarely see eye to eye, given their vastly different approaches to the music world.
Nevertheless, the pair’s musical opinions have aligned on a few rare occasions. After all, neither songwriter has ever made much of an effort to hide their outspoken opinions on their fellow musicians. Lydon, in particular, has aimed his crosshairs at everybody from his Joe Strummer to his very own bandmates, using his memoir Anger Is An Energy to voice his distrust and disapproval of virtually everyone else within the rock world.
Where the pair’s opinions crossover, however, is when it comes to Sting, the Police songwriter who emerged in the wake of punk, to spend much of his modern-day life as a tantric sex guru. Weller harbours such an intense hatred of the songwriter, in fact, that he reportedly spat on a photograph of Sting while backstage at the Royal Albert Hall in 2007.
Prior to that gig, the former Style Council frontman rallied against Sting during an interview with Uncut, calling him a “fucking horrible man,” and going on to explain, “Not my cup of tea at all. Fucking rubbish. No edge, no attitude, no nothing”. Thereby aligning himself with John Lydon, who, back in 1992, accused Sting of being utterly humourless.
“Sting amuses me,” he told Creem. “Because here’s a man who’s joined now so many causes and so many charities that he’s dissipated the energy behind them, and you can’t really take anything he now contributes to too seriously anymore.“
Lydon also added, “He’s gone and taken himself far too seriously, hasn’t he? ‘I am an intellectual, honest, please believe me. Look how unshaved I can be.’“
It’s not clear what exactly is the root cause of such vitriolic hatred for Sting – other, perhaps, than his musical output – but it is fair to say that both John Lydon and Paul Weller have been pretty unwavering in their detest of the man and his apparently “horrible”, humourless approach to the music world.
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