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Artist News Media
John Lydon claims he was “banned” from BBC radio in 1978 for speaking out against Jimmy Savile
By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 25 September 2015
John Lydon has said that he was “banned” from BBC radio in 1978, after saying in an interview that Jimmy Savile was “into all sorts of seediness”.
Speaking to Piers Morgan in an interview to be aired tonight on ITV show ‘Life Stories’, or so The Guardian reports, Lydon says that “we all knew about [Savile] but we’re not allowed to talk about it”.
“I’m very, very bitter that the likes of Savile and the rest of them were allowed to continue”, he continued. “I did my bit, I said what I had to. But they didn’t air that. I found myself banned from BBC radio for quite a while, for my contentious behaviour. They wouldn’t state this directly; there’d be other excuses”.
“Weren’t I right?” he added. “I think most kids wanted to go on ‘Top Of The Pops’ but we all knew what that cigar muncher was up to”.
The scale of child abuse carried out by Savile only became truly apparent after his death, of course. The revelations sparked police investigation Operation Yewtree, which has led to arrests and some convictions against other radio and television presenters.
