Johnny Rotten joins Radio Two

13 April 2012

Once, being heard on Radio 2 - of all places - would have instantly put paid to his cred as the pioneer of punk.

Not that they'd have played his records in any case.

But times change. And now, 25 years after launching musical anarchy with the Sex Pistols, Johnny Rotten is to become a presenter for the BBC station.

The former spiky-haired singer - real name John Lydon - will present Billion Dollar Baby, the story of his rock hero Alice Cooper, on November 2 at 8pm.

However, Radio 2 itself has also undergone a transformation. Once seen as the humdrum home of easy listening, these days it also features classic rock for the thirty and fortysomething audience.

Before joining the Sex Pistols, Lydon would busk Cooper tracks on the London Underground with his pal Sid Vicious.

It was his love of the American star that got him noticed by Pistols manager

Malcolm McLaren in the Seventies. Lydon recalled: 'I know the words to every Alice Cooper song. The fact is, if you can call what I have a musical career, it all started with me miming to I'm Eighteen on a jukebox.'

Los Angeles-based Lydon, who revived the Sex Pistols for a oneoff 25th anniversary show this summer, cites Cooper's Killer as the best rock album of all time.

He is not the first Pistol to have presented documentaries for Radio 2. The band's original bass player Glen Matlock hosted a two-part series on The Stranglers last year.

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