Punk icon John Lydon turned down an offer for his band Sex Pistols to take part in the London Olympics celebrations, branding the event a waste of money and accusing organisers of trying to hijack his image.
Rumours swirled last year (11) that the Pretty Vacant hitmakers were among acts being lined up to perform at the sporting spectacular's opening ceremony in July (12), alongside members of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.
Now Lydon has confirmed he was approached about getting involved, but he snubbed the offer as he is adamant the U.K. cannot afford to stage the event in the midst of a global economic downturn.
He tells NME, "I can't back the Olympics. They tried to involve us but without any respect - they just wanted to use my ideas, our artwork, our lifestyle, but take it away from us and reconstitute it in this happy-go-lucky world of Olympic nonsense.
"You cannot co-opt us into the s**tstem (sic). There's a lot of unemployment, and I'm seeing money wasted on people running and splish-splashing about and throwing things? We cannot afford that. It's going to leave an incredible debt; as soon as it's ended, the prices (of goods) and the taxes are all going to go up."