John Lydon tells Jade Wright about Scouse punks, Cilla Black’s tights, and why he did those butter adverts

"I SANG through Cilla Black's tights once. It was one of the best experiences of my life.”

Ladies and gentlemen, meet John Lydon, the man formerly known as Johnny Rotten, who casually tosses a hand grenade into a conversation and watches with interest as it goes off.

“What?” I stammer, unsure what he’s about to reveal.

“We were doing a gig in Blackpool and she'd done a season there,” he explains, giggling with glee. “She'd left her old tights in the dressing room, so I put them over the microphone and sang through them. So you see, I'm imbued with Scouse. It runs through me.”

Now 54, the former Sex Pistols' lead singer is as cheeky, funny and downright entertaining as ever.

As he talks, I'm reminded of that notorious Today TV appearance in 1976, when he was goaded into saying a rude word (a very rude word, as it turned out) by presenter Bill Grundy.

Away from the cameras, he is witty, self-deprecating and very likeable. But his delivery is still the same, and it's clear that the years haven't mellowed him. His tongue is as sharp as those first days of punk.

“Liverpool was very punk in the early days,” explains John. “But it was a very inward looking scene. Selfishly Scouse, they used to call it. But I didn't think it was like that. You can do perfectly well without the interference of the outside world. You can have a scene that just exists in one city.”