Following Lydon's departure from the Sex Pistols in January 1978, he sought a more experimental "anti-rock" project and formed PiL in June of that year.

[6][7] PiL released their debut studio album First Issue (1978), creating an abrasive, bass-heavy sound that drew on dub, noise, progressive rock and disco.

By 1984, Levene, Wobble and Walker had departed and the group was effectively a solo vehicle for Lydon, who moved toward a more accessible sound with the commercially successful studio albums This Is What You Want...

Jim Walker, a Canadian student newly arrived in the UK, was recruited on drums, after answering an advertisement placed in Melody Maker published on May 6, 1978.

[16] PiL debuted in October 1978 with "Public Image", a song written while Lydon was still a member of the Sex Pistols, and discussed his feelings of being exploited by their manager Malcolm McLaren.

As a result, the final album comprised eight tracks of varying sound quality, half of which were written and recorded in a rush after the money had run out.

The single "Public Image" was widely seen as diatribe against Malcolm McLaren and his perceived manipulation of Lydon during his career with Sex Pistols.

The two-part song "Religion" refers contemptuously to the Catholic Church; Lydon came up with the lyrics when he was part of the Sex Pistols but he claims the other members of the band were reluctant to use them.

The closing track "Fodderstompf", heavily influenced by dub, comprises nearly eight minutes of a circular bass riff, played over a Lydon/Wobble double act lampooning public outrage, love songs and teenage apathy, whilst openly acknowledging the lack of effort being put into it.

David Humphrey was their second drummer, who went on to record two tracks at Manor Studios in Oxford, "Swan Lake" and "Albatross", for Metal Box.

Metal Box was originally released as three untitled 45-rpm 12-inch (30-cm) records packaged in a metal box resembling a film canister with an embossed PiL logo on the lid (it was later reissued in more conventional packaging as a double LP set, Second Edition), and features the band's trademark hypnotic dub reggae bass lines, glassy, arpeggiated guitar, and bleak, paranoid, stream of consciousness vocals.

For both the Los Angeles and San Francisco appearances, PiL agreed to work with David Ferguson and his independent CD Presents label.

Fearing public outbursts if the show was cancelled, San Francisco city officials instead opted to allow the CD Presents-sponsored event to proceed.

The segment ended with Snyder apologising to the audience: "The interesting part is, is that we talked to these two gentlemen a couple of weeks ago, a pre-interview, apparently that went all just fine and it made great sense, and what I read about them this afternoon, but somehow it got a little lost in translation tonight.

Lydon, Levene and Jeanette Lee were joined by a new drummer, 60-year-old jazz player Sam Ulano, who had been recruited for the gig from a bar, having apparently never heard the band before.

Levene had by then largely abandoned guitar in favour of synthesiser, picking up a new technique although owing a debt to Allen Ravenstine of Pere Ubu.

Atkins' propulsive marching band-style drumming, the lack of bass and guitar, and Lydon's increasing lyrical abstraction made this album a difficult listen for rock fans, and contemporary reviews expressed great confusion.

The record consists mostly of drums, vocals, musique concrète, and tape loops, with only gestures toward bass (played by Levene) and keyboards.

An aborted fourth studio album recorded in 1982 was later released by Levene as Commercial Zone, which included contributions from bassist Pete Jones.

In 1985, Lydon recorded a song entitled "World Destruction" in collaboration with Afrika Bambaataa's band Time Zone and producer Bill Laswell.

[citation needed] Jonas Hellborg, solo bassist and at the time, member of John McLaughlin's reformed band, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, played bass on the album.

Jazz great Tony Williams and legendary Cream drummer Ginger Baker drummed on the album, which also featured Ryuichi Sakamoto of the Japanese electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO).

That same year saw the release of PiL's first compilation album The Greatest Hits, So Far, which featured one new song, the environmentally themed single "Don't Ask Me".

In 1993, Lydon worked on his memoirs, first published in 1994 as Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, and in 1996 he regrouped with Steve Jones, Glen Matlock and Paul Cook for the Sex Pistols' Filthy Lucre Tour.

[32] The new line-up (consisting of Lydon, earlier members Bruce Smith and Lu Edmonds, plus multi-instrumentalist Scott Firth) played to generally positive reviews in late 2009, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of Metal Box.

However, protested Lydon, "This tour is absolutely nothing to do with an anniversary of anything… We didn't even know that Virgin were planning on releasing a very limited edition of Metal Box because they never bothered to confer with us.

The group met with criticism for breaking the artistic boycott of Israel by some British musicians organized in protest over Israeli policies toward Palestinians.

On 28 July 2015, the band uploaded a promo video for lead single "Double Trouble" from their next studio album, What the World Needs Now..., via their YouTube channel.

On 9 January 2023, it was announced that the band was one of the six acts chosen to compete in Eurosong 2023 for the chance to represent Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023.

The song, called by the band "the most personal piece of songwriting", was released as a single, and was described as a love letter to Lydon's wife, Nora Forster.