Sex Pistols’ John Lydon Reveals the Real Reason Why He Appeared on The Masked Singer UK

John Lydon revealed the real reason why he appeared on The Masked Singer UK.

During a Monday, Jan. 12 interview with This Morning, the Sex Pistols lead vocalist opened up about how it was a financial incentive that drew him to the gig.

Lydon, 69, joked that his time on the singing competition series was “hardly” a career high but hoped the “fun” came across for fans.

The musician, known as Johnny Rotten, also gave his reasoning for joining the ITV show.

“Fun, firstly. Mostly, accurately, the money,” he said, noting that his compensation has gone toward funding the next Public Image Ltd. album.

Lydon continued, “The money has now gone and paid for us to go and record in Portugal for a solid month. And, a little holiday afterwards.”

According to him, one of his bandmates figured out he was on The Masked Singer UK.

“They were wondering where I got the money from the studio,” said Lydon, but noted that “they never put the two together.”

Lydon was unveiled as the musician behind the yak costume on Saturday, Jan. 10. and was eliminated from the competition after performing renditions of Olivia Newton-John’s “Physical” and Tom Jones’ “Sex Bomb.”

During the conversation, Lydon also revealed why he appeared in the U.S. version of The Masked Singer in 2021, where he was in disguise as a jester.

According to him, his time on the show was motivated by his wife of nearly 50 years Nora Foster, who died in April 2023 after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

“That was before the death of my lovely wife, so I did it for completely different reasons,” he said. “I wanted her to enjoy that and see if she could guess if it was me before she died. And she totally went, ‘It’s you’. Alzheimer’s or not, ‘That’s you,'” said Lydon. 

In a June 2020 interview with The Mirror, Lydon had shared that he’d become his wife’s “full-time carer.”