John Lydon, who helped change popular music in the 1970s with the Sex Pistols as Johnny Rotten, will be honored at this year’s BMI London Awards with the BMI Icon Award. Lydon will receive the award at a ceremony on October 15th in London.

Lydon is not only being honored for his work with the Pistols, who are still regarded as the most influential punk band of all time despite only existing for a very brief period, but also for his work in Public Image Ltd. The avant-garde band started by Lydon and former Clash guitarist Keith Levene is considered one of the pivotal bands of the post-punk movement of the 1980s.

BMI is taking a bit of a risk by giving Lydon the award; the punk icon has notoriously refused various attempts to honor him in the most vulgar ways possible. After the Sex Pistols were inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 2006, Lydon and his bandmates called the Rock Hall “a piss stain” and refused to attend the ceremony.