Saturday 9th November 2013 by Andrew Trendell | Photos by WENN.com/Press

Tags: Public Image ltd, The Sex Pistols

John Lydon has claimed that the lawyers for former Sex Pistol bandmate Sid Vicious when he was accused of murdering girlfriend Nancy Spungen were paid for by Mick Jagger.

In a new interview with The Daily Record, the Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd frontman confirmed the rumours that the Rolling Stones icon jumped to Vicious' aid, and also slammed Spungen as 'hideous' and 'destructive', while blaming his downward spiral into drugs on the 'shenanigans' of Malcolm McLaren. 

 "Nancy Spungen was a hideous, awful person who killed herself because of the lifestyle and led to the destruction and subsequent death of Sid and the whole fiasco," said Lydon. "I tried to help Sid through all of that and feel a certain responsibility because I brought him into the Pistols thinking he could handle the pressure. He couldn’t.

"The reason people take heroin is because they can’t handle pressure. Poor old Sid. Her death is all entangled in mystery. It’s no real mystery, though. If you are going to get yourself involved in drugs and narcotics in that way accidents are going to happen. Sid was a lost case."

He continued: "He was wrapped firmly in Malcolm’s shenanigans. It became ludicrous trying to talk to him through the drug haze because all you would hear was, ‘I’m the real star around here’. Great. Carry on. We all know how that’s going to end. Unfortunately, that is where it ended. I miss him very much. He was a great friend but when you are messing with heroin you’re not a human being. You change and you lose respect for yourself and everybody else.

"The only good news is that I heard Mick Jagger got in there and brought lawyers into it on Sid’s behalf because I don’t think Malcolm lifted a finger. He just didn’t know what to do. For that, I have a good liking of Mick Jagger. There was activity behind the scenes from Mick Jagger so I applaud him. He never used it to advance himself publicity-wise."