Johnny Rotten back in the day.
Johnny Rotten, age 60.
None of this has to happen.
None of it.
Okay, some of it, but not all of it.
Youth is all piss and vinegar. Everything is exciting, hopeful. Possibilities, endless. The caloric burn from this alone is equivalent to 3 hours in the gym.
Then we get older, more successful, and less driven by the very forces that fueled the journey.
Eventually, many of us just don’t give a shit because whatever we’ve lost in youth and beauty we make up for in dollar bills … and whatever relevance still lingers from our “glory years.”
The fact is if you look at most older celebrities you see an existential nightmare.
So many are – for all intents and purposes – already dead or dying of indignity and depression, which becomes a sort of default state.
Aging is not easy, but fighting it’s effects can be a kind of beautiful thing in its own right.
Everyone respects older guys who who try, who get out of bed and hit the gym with a vengeance; particularly when they used to be fit and trim, and now resemble lawn ornaments. It’s an indignity to all of us.
Take Johnny Rotten [aka John Lyndon]; a man who once extolled the virtues of anarchy and threw birds at the royal family while fronting for the infamous Sex Pistols.
Now he’s dying of “I don’t give a shit” as the birds sit on power lines waiting for him to stroke out.
I bring this up because Johnny Rotten and many others like him make a conscious decision to give up before their time.
And I suppose if they were accountants or bus drivers no one would notice.
But when public figures, particularly those who led revolutions in the world of music, they’re fair game for criticism.
They’ve earned that right and now they must own it.
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4 Top Reasons Older Men Give Up:
1] Low testosterone
2] Poor physical health
3] Depression
4] Financial problems
5] Divorce
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As these relate to Johnny Rotten:
1] Low Testosterone
It’s just a shot away.
2] Poor Physical health
It’s just a gym away.
3] Depression
It’s just a pill away
4] Financial problems
With a net worth of 15 million and wife, Nora Forster, a publishing heiress from Germany, not a problem.
5] Divorce
I’m sure she has a pre-nup, but he doesn’t need it.
Bottom Line: NO EXCUSES, JOHNNY.