John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, may be 54 but he has no plans to grow old gracefully. Interview by Lorne Jackson.

The Mailbox is arguably Birmingham’s grandest shopping centre, where the shops sell products that even Alan Sugar is probably saving up to buy.

There’s one store, for example, that specialises in Aga cookers, that microwave oven for the chattering classes.

Everywhere you look, it’s all posh purchases and preening staff.

So what exactly is John Lydon – punk rock’s man of the people – doing in a place like this?

Having a fag, is the simple answer.

The former Sex Pistol puffs belligerently on a ciggy, huddled in the freezing cold outside The Mailbox’s swanky Malmaison Hotel.

Lydon, who called himself Johnny Rotten when he was lead singer of The Sex Pistols, is better known for agro, not Aga.

Yet he is now 54. Does that mean that he has evolved into something cuddlier?

Um, no.

Rancour is still his anchor, as he proves by having a pop at a rival rocker, Birmingham’s very own Ozzy Osbourne.

“Paranoid was one of the world’s greatest ever singles,” says Lydon, talking about Ozzy’s most famous song, which he recorded with Black Sabbath. But since then, the rumours of biting pigeon heads really, really haven’t impressed me.

“And Ozzy now acting like a senile delinquent is equally unimpressive. The sly innuendo of promoting drug abuse and catatonic stupidity offends me.

“I’m not one for banning drugs. Quite the opposite. But I understand how to use them, and they don’t use me. Ozzy is clearly a victim, and selling that loser lifestyle sh*t to other people equally victimises them. That’s a shame. Ozzy’s a working class man, like me, yet he allows that to happen.

“By acting like he does all the time, he implies that we’re all stupid, the working classes. But we’re not, you know. We’re not! We’re the proper Britain, us lot.”

It’s surprising that Lydon chooses to criticise Ozzy, as their careers have run along similar paths.

Both began by shocking and mocking the establishment. Later, they embraced that very same status quo by appearing in popular reality shows.

Lydon even endorsed a popular brand of butter on the telly. However, he explains that the TV work was accepted so he could finance music projects, which he remains passionate about.

The Sex Pistols were the most famous and influential band of the punk era. In the mid-Seventies they made almost as great an impact on the music, fashion and cultural scene as The Beatles in the Sixties.

After the Pistols, Lydon formed another outfit, PiL (Public Image Ltd). Though not as commercially successful, they were the darlings of the critics.

Even so, Lydon says he’s still paying off debts to record companies. Touting himself on TV was the only way he could raise the cash to get The Pistols and PiL back on the road, which he has done in recent years.

His latest project is Mr Rotten’s Scrapbook, a picture-packed volume detailing his life so far.

Lydon, in town to promote the book, wrote the words, collected the pictures of family, friends and band mates, and even supplied a vinyl record that comes with the package. The recording includes live music and, rather bizarrely, Lydon reciting nursery rhymes recalled from his childhood.

It’s a book dear to his heart, though it’s also dear to buy. The limited edition volume is for sale in McDermott galleries in The Mailbox for a pocket pounding £449.

The singer claims to be a man of the people, so shouldn’t the book be for sale at a price that working stiffs can afford? Currently it’s only in the price range of a workers’ collective.