Okereke-Lydon Feud Continues

11/14/08 12:59pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke has spoken out about an alleged incident between him and John Lydon in July.

Okereke said he was backstage at the Summercase Festival in Barcelona, Spain and approached Lydon, who's probably better known as Johnny Rotten, to ask about the possibility of a reunion for Lydon's post-Sex Pistols band, Public Image Ltd. At some point, Okereke says Lydon tried to intimidate him while his entourage unleashed a racist tirade and then roughed him up.

"I only have one thing to say about that man — John Lydon is the devil in my eyes," Okereke told the U.K.'s The Sun tabloid.

"I didn't really think about what was happening at the time. I'm not really someone that's very good at backing down from fights you know. I've been in worse fights before, and it’s important to defend yourself.

"I really wanted to like whip his face off. I was lucky I had lots of people around me who were calming me down. I'm just pleased that there are witnesses. It would be such a dangerous thing if there hadn't been. There was another incident in a bar just a week later where he was accused of being racist against Arabs."

After the incident, Lydon said Okereke made the whole thing up out of jealousy and was doing so for publicity.