Though he either wrote or co-wrote much of the Sex Pistols’s legacy album, Never Mind the Bullocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, Glen Matlock was out of the picture before the album was released.
Discussing the change in personnel, and how his replacement, Sid Vicious, came to be the face of the punk icons with Bass Player, Matlock is eager to clear up one key detail.
Vicious died in 1979 after a short-lived rollercoaster tenure in the band, and Matlock has assumed bass duties in the various reunions and iterations of the band over the following decades. The latest sees contemporary punk hero Frank Carter fronting the band, with John Lydon, a.k.a Johnny Rotten, side-lined and a host of shows coming over the horizon.
That’s left him in a nostalgic, but also forward-thinking mood. He says that Carter’s “new energy” has left him open to the concept of writing new music together, and equally, he is happy to discuss what it was like watching from the outskirts as Vicious soaked up the plaudits.
“It was kind of going a bit weird with me and John, so there was politics involved in band things,” he admits. “And I think John always thought it was me, Steve [Jones, guitarist], and Paul [Cook, drummer] against him, but it wasn’t quite like that. It was Steve, Paul, me, and John, so there was a triumvirate there.
“But I think John didn’t quite see it like that. And Sid came in, and he didn’t actually get on with John in the end anyway, so it worked against him.”
Matlock departed in February 1977, eight months before Nevermind… hit record stores. Depending on who you ask, he was either sacked for liking the Beatles or left of his own accord.
Either way, Matlock's musicianship was the cornerstone of the record, and indeed the whole band, so did the fact that the Sex Pistols' image ultimately hinged on Vicious’s off-the-rails demeanor more than it did his songcraft?
“I think Sid had his moments – but I can have my moments, too,” he insists.
“You know, I remember somebody was threatening me at a gig we did in ’96 in the States, and I was off in the crowd trying to get this bloke. And then, I was told in no uncertain terms, ‘You can’t do that in America because you’ll get sued for a million dollars.’ [Laughs] So, I’m no shrinking violet!”
While Matlock and company are continuing to celebrate the Sex Pistols' legacy and push it further forward with Frank Carter at the helm, Steve Jones' iconic 1974 Les Paul has been adding to the band's story.
The six-string was bought at auction for $390,000 by Parisienne vintage guitar emporium, Matt’s Guitar Shop, and has since been loaned out to some big names to keep its fire burning.
