John Lydon aka Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols has reportedly denied that his entourage racially abused and attacked the lead singer of Bloc Party, Kele Okereke at a festival in Spain, according to Contact Music.

Kele’s rep said that he left the Summercase festival in Barcelona with severe facial brusing, cuts to his face and body, and a split lip. The alleged attack was said to have been witnessed by many, including Kaiser Chiefs, Foals and Mystery Jets and was said to have started when Kele asked Lydon if he’d consider reforming his post Sex Pistols band Public Image, Ltd.

Lydon was reported to have become aggressive at that point and someone from his entourage replied:

“Your problem is your black attitude.”

Lydon’s crew then allegedly punched Kele in the face and head as well as attacked Kaiser Chiefs’ Ricky Wilson and Foals’ Yannis Philppakis when they came to try to help Kele out.

Lydon released a statement:

“We are in the middle of a wonderful tour. After 30 years we are achieving a true unity in our audience. They are multi-varied, all ages, all races, creeds and colours. When you are at a festival with bands who are jealous fools, lies and confusion usually follow. After the show John Rotten and management remained behind to sign autographs … for four solid hours without incident and had a great time talking to other Spanish bands. This seems to have sparked jealousy in certain bands. The trouble was brought to us, resulting in those causing the trouble being physically removed by festival security.”

He added a message to Kele:

“Grow up and learn to be a true man. When you have achieved as much as I have, come back and talk to me. It’s a shame the wonderful world of the media is riddled with nonsense like this.”

Kele’s previous statement read:

“It’s not an issue of the physical assault, even though it was an unprovoked attack, it is the fact that race was brought into the matter so readily. Someone as respected and as intelligent as Lydon should know better than to bring race into the equation, or socialise with and encourage those who hold such narrow-minded attitudes. I am disappointed that someone I held with such high regard turns out to be such a bigot.”

Wow, that’s really awful! I’m disappointed too! It sounds like Lydon and his crew misunderstood what Kele was saying - maybe they were drunk or high, but wow, that still sucks big time!

Photo Source: WENN