Staying Fit
Many know John Lydon, 67, as the rebellious frontman of ’70s British punk band the Sex Pistols (as Johnny Rotten) and since 1978 as the lead singer of Public Image Ltd. So it may come as a surprise to some that this angry rocker was a full-time caregiver for his wife of nearly five decades, Nora Forster, who died in April after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 80. “I’ve always been a caretaker — accidentally, I suppose,” Lydon explains. “And I liked doing it a lot.”
During a laugh-filled Zoom interview from his home in Malibu, California, Lydon reflected on the challenges and rewards of being a care provider, the “screwball ways” he kept his wife entertained and the poignant new song he wrote about her.
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What attracted you to Nora?
Both of us are the kind of people that don’t let others tell us what to do and think. The longevity of our existence together proves the point — 45 years–plus. It seems like it whizzed by so wonderfully.
What was Nora like?
Outgoing, highly entertaining, wonderful sense of humor. She used to race cars when she was young, which was a major problem for her family, because in Deutschland, that kind of female independence was looked down on. She broke every rule in the book and dressed so gorgeous, like she was in a film noir. She was physically very assured of herself and mentally astute. I’m an introvert who escapes from his self-inflicted prison from time to time, with a vengeance. They say opposites attract!
When was she diagnosed?
About six years back. Before then, I didn’t know what was going on. “What do you mean you don’t know where the car keys are?” We were driving along the highway, and she stopped dead in the middle of it, because she didn’t know where she was. I was screaming, “A lorry [truck] could rear-end us at any moment!” I had to realize there was a problem here that I had no answers for. I took her to UCLA Health, because they have an Alzheimer’s center, and then we knew that slowly but surely, it was going to get worse. And it did.
How did you remain positive, even as she declined?
When I was young, I had meningitis and I lost my memory for four years. That gave me the tools to be able to handle what she was going through. I recognized those moments in her eyes when she was baffled and nothing made sense.
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