“Rotten,” written with Keith and Kent Zimmerman, is essentially an oral history with chapters narrated by friends and family members. it’s touching to hear Lydon’s poor, Irish father grapple with the anarchic rage of his son’s band (“My wife, Eileen, was musical as well”). But it’s Lydon’s voice that keeps this show on the road. Strange to say, but he has moments of tenderness, particularly with regard to band-mate Sid Vicious, who was charged with Nancy Spungen’s murder, then overdosed on heroin. Lydon says he embarked on “Rotten” because “so much rubbish has been written,” and he settles scores with the living (on David Bowie: “What a pompous prat!”) and the dead (on Spungen: “Nancy was a horror freak show, just crying out for a slap in the kisser”). Uncharitable, perhaps, but Lydon wouldn’t be Lydon if be weren’t a little Rotten.
