The Sex Pistols hit the road this summer - will the road hit back? It is pointless to try to confront an antagonist such as Lydon in an interview format, especially a timed interview format:

As first reported here, the cross-country, 13-date trek will launch Aug. 20 in Boston. The run is the first for the Sex Pistols since the group's 1996 Filthy Lucre reunion tour. The band had called it quits in early 1978 after Rotten walked off the stage at a San Francisco concert.

....From his Los Angeles home, Rotten was only willing to give Billboard.com's Todd Martens a 10-minute phone interview, and strictly held to the time limit. Before introductions could be completed, Rotten interrupted to say, "You now have 9 minutes and 33 seconds."

Are we going to hear anything new on this tour?

It's new if you've never seen us before. Then it's all new. Every time we perform the songs they're new, simply because of that.

With all that's going on in the world, I just figured you might have something to say about it, and this tour would preview new work.

Look, we're the Sex Pistols. It is what it is. We only needed to make one album to absolutely define how the world is. There's no need to duplicate or jump on that like it was a system for money. It isn't about that. We've never been into it for that. It would be wrong to try and come up with another Sex Pistols album. I don't feel right about it. There's no need for it.

What we've done is an achievement in itself. It's a historical one. We've had no help from the music industry. Never. Never. We've been disenfranchised from the day we started and we still are. We're going out on tour by hook or by crook at the cheapest price possible. You compare our tickets to the other wankers out there. We're doing that with no recording company sponsorship. We have no record label. Any young band should watch this and know that the music industry is out there to do you no good. No good at all. They specialize in compromise. Once you compromise, you're finished. You're dead. You're nothing but a coat hanger that they dress up.

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