| B-SIDES | t Music Big Shot We spoke to Sex Pistol Steve Jones about TV series Pistol and new album release. BY EVA RAGGIO anyone else. For the rest of us, the group’s name S alone unwraps a pin-held patchwork of images that encapsulate an era and an en- tire movement. The burning mania of frontman Johnny Rotten, the artwork of seminal album Never Mind the Bollocks and the fatal pairing of Sid and Nancy — all of it comes to mind before the thought of Sex Pistols guitarist and founder Steve Jones. In the past few weeks, however, Jones has become the protagonist in the Sex Pis- tols story through Pistol, a limited six-epi- sode series directed by Danny Boyle. The story of the Sex Pistols has been told through various vantage points, but the show is based on Jones’ memoir Lonely Boy: Tales From a Sex Pistol, in which he recounts a life of childhood abuse, near lifelong illit- eracy and sex addiction. Though the Pistols were icons of the un- organized anti-establishment league, to cel- ebrate Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee the group released a commemorative NFT, and to capitalize on the momentum of the show, Universal recently released Sex Pis- tols: The Original Recordings, a 20-song col- lection that includes classics from Bollocks such as “Anarchy in the U.K.,” B-Sides and covers. Jones spoke to us from his Los Angeles home, where he came to seek sunlight nearly 40 years ago. His cockney voice, how- ever, is intact and makes him sound not a day out of London. “We got a new deal with Universal. They wanted to re-release a bunch of the stuff,” he says. “There’s some rarities on there. If you’re a fan, you’ll probably enjoy it. I don’t know, I think it’s to coincide with the Pistol TV show, of course. I personally don’t care to listen to the Sex Pistols. I’m over it. But, like I said, if you’re a fan, you probably will like it.” Jones is not over the band’s story, how- 22 22 ever. As Boyle captured in his dramatized version of events, the Pistols led a true Rus- sian roulette of a life, their rise in the punk movement fast and fatal as a bullet. Rotten, aka John Lydon, also lives in Los Angeles these days and in a delightfully bizarre turn in the pop culture multiverse, he was once a plaintiff on an episode of Judge Judy. But Barry Plumber don’t expect to see the pair shopping for wheatgrass juice together at Whole Foods: Lydon tried to stop the series’ production, essentially, by refusing to license the band’s music. A judge ruled against him. Lydon criticized his former bandmates for cashing in on their story and called the series a “mid- dle-class fantasy.” Jones has gone on to have a brilliant ca- reer beyond the Pistols, playing with Iggy Pop and Bob Dylan and as a part of super- groups that included Guns N’ Roses mem- bers. So he’s since expanded his repertoire. “It’s not that I don’t [enjoy it]; there’s only so many times I can listen to Sex Pistols mu- sic,” he says. “We don’t have a huge catalog to be honest with you. So, you know, I per- sonally would rather listen to Steely Dan than the Sex Pistols.” Though Lydon has admit- ted to not having seen the se- ries, some music history purists are on his side, and were let down by the creative license taken by Boyle. Though it’s based on says of the show. “From the first time I saw the rough cuts of it I always enjoyed it and I think its final — uh, what’s shown to every- one else — I think it’s great, I really do. I love it.” Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren (played by Game of Thrones’ Thomas Bro- die-Sanger) is portrayed as a marketing mastermind who cherry-picked the band to suit his revolution, much like Simon Fuller cast the Spice Girls. McLaren’s bloody-raw vision for the band was to stir up shit through a U.S. tour, and he deliberately kept them away from punk meccas such as CBGB and only booked them in the South when they toured the country in 1978. One of those infamous concerts was at Dallas’ Longhorn Ballroom, which is depicted in the series. And all sorts of shit got Jones’ book — and it’s not un- surprising that those early punk days may be blurry — Pistol is a bit of a multi-genre collage with which Boyle goes beyond lay- ing the cultural context of the time and al- most seems to explain the ‘70s with every bit of inspiration at his disposal: It’s filthy, crusty and exhilarating, but with a kind of camp unique to musical theater, sprinkled with old news clips and fantasy vignettes. At times it feels more Baz Luhrman than Danny Boyle. Jones has said many times that fans “THESE SINGERS, THEY’RE ALL THE SAME, THEY’RE ALL NARCISSISTS. YOU HAVE TO [BE]. THAT’S PART OF THE GIG.” - STEVE JONES stirred. Far from throwing nutritious fresh tomatoes, crowds spat on and heckled the band, and bassist Sid Vi- cious got a bloody nose on- stage from a member of the audience. But that seems now a standard Pistols show, and Jones says he came to expect it. “I don’t think there was ever a sit-down, should view the series as less of a biopic and more of its own work of art. And he’s right. Those who can appreciate Pistol for its tex- tured storytelling will get a fascinating view of the era through disarming characters that include punk icons Jordan, Vivienne West- wood and Chrissie Hynde. “I’ve always thought it’s great,” Jones well-behaved crowd,” Jones says. “We just don’t ignite that when we play, you know. It was all right, I mean, we’re not, you know, [‘50s crooner] Perry Como. …. It was more about people not liking us. I would say that was more of what it was like when we first came to the States, there are a lot of people who came to see us who just wanted to see what the circus was in town. They didn’t necessarily want to be there because they were fans.” Despite Lydon’s protests, the show makes the singer out as a sort of underappreciated wild genius. “I mean exactly, it made a point to not … you know, in his mind, though, he probably thought we were going to depict him in not a The Sex Pistols back in the day. good light, which wasn’t what we wanted to do,” Jones says. “It was just telling my story as best as I could from my autobiography. And I think the fact that he wasn’t in control is what he was probably more upset about than anything else. These singers, they’re all the same. They’re all narcissists. You have to [be]. That’s part of the gig.” For all the band’s mishaps, there’s noth- ing Jones would do differently now, he says. “No, it was good. Short-lived,” he says. “It was a little spark in music for a couple of years to change the course of music and fashion and asking questions. It was great for a couple of years and then imploded, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.” Much of the societal ills at the time of the band’s raging are still the same, plus we’ve piled on some new ones. Jones doesn’t think the Sex Pistols would be rebelling against anything much different if they’d come out today. “Well, the issues are always the same,” he says. “It doesn’t matter if it was in the ‘70s or right now. It’s always the same crap that’s going on in politics.” The pomp and pageantry of the English monarchy obviously contrasts wildly with the band’s working class anti-heroism, and it’s possible that — thanks to figures such as Meghan Markle and Princess Diana — pub- lic perception has shifted to come to see the Pistols as the more virtuous English icon. Jones doesn’t care, symbolically or not, whether the queen is “saved.” “I never cared about it one way or the other; I never have,” he says. “To me it’s just a soap opera. … That was John writing about that. I couldn’t care less about it, that was my view, but John wrote the words, you know, ‘God Save the Queen,’ which is great lyrics but me personally I literally couldn’t care less about the royal family. They’ve never done me any favors.” Even after seeing his life unfold on screen teve Jones would probaby rather listen to the sound of nails on a chalkboard, on a loop, than to the Sex Pistols. He’s heard them plenty, since before MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 JULY 14–20, 2022 DALLAS OBSERVER DALLAS OBSERVER | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | MOVIES | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | SCHUTZE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.comdallasobserver.com
