>At some point Airport Through the Trees linked the discussion to the
>T-shirt Johnny Rotten wore, a Pink Floyd shirt with 'I HATE' scrawled
>on top.
Here's a bit of an interview with Steve Jones when he still had a daily radio show. The station's gone now, alas.
http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/Features/The%20Sex%20Pistols_%20Steve%20Jones_/
Your show has an element of perpetual surprise that’s virtually extinct in radio.
I did play Journey this morning. I don’t know if that was a surprise.
And I remember you playing a lot of Boston early on, much to the distress of a few listeners.
And they were hatin’ it, yeah.
Yet there doesn’t seem an ounce of intentional irony in any of it.
I’m not saying I like Boston just to be “different.” I’ve always said I liked them, even when I was in the Pistols. I didn’t tell too many back then that I liked Boston, but I did! And I loved Journey, too. All them bands. Unfortunately, your Journeys of the world have a bad rap, for whatever reason. Yeah, that one video they did was awful, that one where they’re making like they’re playing their instruments in some dockyard, with some ‘80s chick with the hair and the leather jacket. It was the worst video.
What was the first music you remember hearing?
Something that really had an effect on me was the guy, who was older than me, that lived next door to me in Shepherd’s Bush. He had a single of “Purple Haze.” I was like nine or ten at the time and I would hang out with him. He was about 15 or 16 and he would play it on his little record player. And I kept saying, “Play that again, please, play that again!” I was obsessed with it.
Being from Shepherd’s Bush, were the Who sort of neighborhood heroes to you?
Not really. I was too young to grasp the Who. Later on, I figured out they was from so-called Shepherd’s Bush. But I was at their last show with Keith Moon, the one they filmed at Shepperton studios (1978 performances of “Baba O’Riley” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again” included in The Kids Are Alright documentary). It was a great, great show!
Did Pete have an effect on you? The “Steve Jones sound” always struck me as Townshend’s tone tempered by Mick Ronson’s economy.
Mick Ronson was definitely a big influence. I was a mad Bowie fan growing up, with the glam and all that. And the Faces. Ronnie Wood was one of the guys I loved growing up as a teenager. Pete Townshend was definitely an influence, but not as much as Mick Ronson and Ronnie Wood. The Faces were like my band. The Who had already been goin’ a long time. I’m not takin’ anything away from Pete Townshend; he’s a fantastic guitar player and brilliant songwriter. It was just that those other bands – and Roxy Music – them three bands were my favorite bands growing up. I’d go and see them everywhere. And Mott the Hoople. Mick Ralphs was a great guitar player. And I liked Free, even though that was a little before my time. I thought Paul Kossoff was a great guitar player, too. Status Quo, there was another great band.
Did the Pistols seem like a logical extension of that history? The hype was that you were consciously destroying it.
To me it was like the next step. The New York Dolls were an influence on me as well. I actually saw the New York Dolls opening up for the Faces. I was just there to see The Faces and I happened to catch the Dolls and I thought, wow, these guys are wild! I’d never seen anything like it. The Faces were kinda loose, a party band and they were always drinkin’ and stuff, but the New York Dolls, those guys were like out of control kind of stuff that I’d never seen before.
ohn Lydon was on your show last year, he tried to downplay a lot of the Pistols mythology by saying something very wise: that if you were true to yourself and your artno matter if he liked it or notthen you were his friend, not an enemy.
People are so ready to sell their souls these days. No one stands up and says, “No, screw that, I wanna do it this way.” People don’t do that anymore.
Isn’t that the essence of what “punk” really meant, once upon a time?
Or even the hippies. They kinda did the same thing. They said, “No, we’re doin’ it this way, ‘cause we don’t like the way things are.” It wasn’t much different other than the length of their hair and the flared pants. Or in the ’50s. All generations need to be rebellious.
The current one can seem rebellion-challenged.
I know. It bothers me. The parents and the kids go to the same concerts, which is wrong