He proclaimed himself an antichrist in the first line of his first record. The song, "Anarchy in the U.K.," was a snarling smash that made the once and future Johnny Rotten not merely a reviled and adored iconoclast, but also a cultural symbol that transcended the brief, chaotic and abortive career of the Sex Pistols -- which ended in January 1978 with a calamitous American tour. Bassist Sid Vicious was dead a year later, the victim of a heroin overdose while awaiting trial for the murder of girlfriend Nancy Spungen. It was an ugly, scandalous, blood-spattered ending to The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, as the band's apocalyptic art project was called. But over the years, the Sex Pistols never really went away, their saga recurring in films (such as Alex Cox's Sid and Nancy and the Pistols-approved documentary The Filth and the Fury), books (Greil Marcus's epic Lipstick Traces, Jon Savage's England's Dreaming) and song."The king is gone but he's not forgotten," Neil Young once declared. "This is the story of Johnny Rotten."

And the story still isn't over. Rotten, née John Lydon, is now a happy resident of Los Angeles. The former PiL frontman and television personality (he briefly hosted VH1's Rotten TV) is up to his sick old tricks again. The Sex Pistols have reunited! Actually, it's the second time around on that front, as the band also reformed in 1996. Then as now, original bassist Glen Matlock fills Sid's slot, while guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook assume their old roles. With a 12-city U.S. tour beginning August 20 in Boston, the band is keeping it nasty, brutish and short. That's just the way their fans -- whom Lydon insists now includes a good number of angry middle-aged housewives -- want it and expect it.

But there's another twist to the tale: Lydon plans to take Baghdad. That's right, the Pistols are campaigning to play an Iraqi charity gig. Always full of surprises, the ever-contentious, often hilarious and never less than utterly forthright Lydon recently chatted with Playboy.com about that potential overseas show, the Sex Pistols's questionable musical legacy and why Kelly Osbourne is most definitely not "punk."