The time Johnny Rotten tried to join Krautrock pioneers Can: “He was phoning and leaving messages at night. And I had to tell him, ‘It’s too late’”
A new interview with Can co-founder Irmin Schmidt in Prog magazine has revealed that John Lydon, best known as Johnny Rotten, tried to join the Krautrock band after leaving the Sex Pistols, only to be turned down because Can had already disbanded. The revelation offers a striking counterpoint to Lydon's famously dismissive stance on much of progressive rock, showing his genuine admiration for Can and other boundary-pushing acts such as Hawkwind and Van der Graaf Generator.
Schmidt told Prog that Lydon repeatedly phoned and left messages at night asking to become the band's singer, but was told it was "too late" as Can, who split in 1978, no longer performed together. That year also marked Lydon's departure from the Sex Pistols and the end of his Johnny Rotten persona; his subsequent project, Public Image Ltd, echoed Can's experimental approach on albums like First Issue and Metal Box. Schmidt, who releases his solo album Requiem on 26 September, also dismissed concerns over the "Krautrock" label, comparing it to once-pejorative terms like "Fauvist" that lost their sting over time.
- Johnny Rotten secretly tried to join Krautrock band Can after Sex Pistols split
- Can co-founder Irmin Schmidt says it was "too late" as band had disbanded
- Revealed in new Prog magazine interview ahead of Schmidt's solo album release
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Public Image Ltd, the band John Lydon formed straight after leaving the Sex Pistols in 1978, took clear inspiration from a German group called Can. Can were one of the leading acts of the "Krautrock" scene, a wave of experimental German rock bands in the late 1960s and 1970s known for long, hypnotic, improvised music that broke away from conventional pop and rock songwriting.
Irmin Schmidt was a co-founder and keyboard player of Can, and remains one of the few original members still active, now working on his own solo material. Lydon, despite his public reputation for scorning most progressive and experimental rock, has long pointed to Can as an exception, alongside bands like Hawkwind and Van der Graaf Generator, and it later emerged he had personally tried to join them.
Can had already stopped performing together by the time Lydon came calling, which is why the approach came to nothing. The episode matters mainly as a small but telling piece of music history, showing an unexpected link between the raw energy of punk and the more experimental German scene that quietly shaped it.