John Lydon broke down in tears as he discussed his childhood during an interview with Jon Snow.

The 58-year-old Sex Pistols frontman, also known as Johnny Rotten, gave an interview with Channel 4 to promote his new autobiography Anger Is An Energy: My Life Uncensored.

John was overcome with emotion as he recalled the memory loss he suffered when he fell ill as child - and could not remember who his mum and dad were.

The punk rocker revealed: "I've had problems from childhood and the book deals with that. Now when I recovered, for instance, from meningitis - if you can call it recovery, it took me four years to get my memory back.

"The pain you go through of not remembering your own parents. It took a lot out of me to have to go back into my childhood and face that pain and thereby really regurgitate the death of my parents and the lonely isolationism of that.

"And I don't think I've ever made up to my mum and dad and they're dead now and it breaks my heart. I've never made up [to] them for the fact that I forgot who they were.

"Really my message from my music is really learn to love each other properly, because you only get one go at it.

"I'm gonna cry now," he said.

He turned away from the camera to compose himself before bringing the interview to an abrupt ending, saying: "God bless mate, thanks for having us."