Fall frontman rejected invitation to replace John Lydon in third series of reality TV show
Mark E Smith turned down the opportunity to join Katie Price and Peter Andre in the jungle. The Fall frontman has revealed that he was invited to replace John Lydon in the third series of I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here in 2004.
"I was asked years ago when Johnny ... was on it," Smith told the Quietus. "The bloke from the jungle [came] in and [said], 'Johnny Lydon's just left the jungle ? do you want to replace him?' But I said no. I don't know what the point of that story is but there you go."
Lydon ? better known as the Sex Pistols' Johnny Rotten ? quit the reality show on day 11 of the third series, fleeing the company of Lord Brocket, Kerry McFadden (now Katona) and BBC correspondent Jennie Bond. He was never officially replaced.
At the time, Smith was already working on the pilot for another TV show. "The set up was that there were six people in these dentists chairs and each one had a TV remote controller," he explained. "You just had to press random buttons and TV from abroad would come on ... y'know, like soap operas from Africa and shit like that. We were supposed to comment on them." But Smith "just couldn't work the fucking TV controller", he said. The programme was never picked up.
"I like the TV but it's just not a path I want to pursue," Smith said. Though fellow Mancunian musician Shaun Ryder was recently a runner-up on I'm a Celebrity, "you feel a bit like a part of your soul's gone even after doing two days of it," Smith explained. "Not to be insulting to Shaun, but that's the way I see it."
The Fall's 29th studio album, described as "Greek heavy metal", is due in 2011.
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