According to Pistols tour supervisor Noel Monk and journalist Jimmy Guterman, Lydon was a lot extra than "the band's mouthpiece. He's its raging mind. McLaren or his close friend Jamie Reid may fall a phrase like 'anarchy' or 'vacant' that Rotten seizes upon and turns into a manifesto, but McLaren is not the Svengali to Rotten he'd like to be perceived as.