INTERVIEW: Ex-Pistol Steve Jones talks Malcolm, Sid, Lemmy, Dylan, Chrissie Hynde & Roy Orbison

We knew with him being the founder member of the Sex Pistols that Steve Jones’ autobiography would contain some rollicking punk rock tales, but what we weren’t expecting was the guitarist to so poignantly reveal that his stepfather sexually abused him as a nine-year-old. WORDS: Stuart Clark.

“One night, Ron’s in bed when he calls me in to see him,” he recalls. “He doesn’t generally acknowledge my existence unless absolutely he has to, but when he does address me directly, there’s usually a bit of intimidation going on. So I wasn’t going to say no, even though I’d have had no reason to think anything good would come of it – and it fucking didn’t. Anyway, I’ve not been in the bedroom long before he starts bullying me into me jerking him off. I’m only a kid. What do I fucking know? So that’s what I do – fiddle with his cock until he cums.”
Talking down the trans-Atlantic blower from LA where he’s about to host his daily Jonesy’s Jukebox show on KLOS Radio, the 61-year-old tells Hot Press: “A lot worse happened to other kids but, yeah, that’s why I’ve never been able to settle with anyone and why I’ve ended up a sex addict. I’m not the only one who’s been a prisoner of that sort of upbringing – and sadly I won’t be the last. People might look at me a different way now, y’know, but so be it. If talking about it helps just one other person, mission accomplished.”
Lonely Boy’s foreword is supplied by old pal and “great shag” Chrissie Hynde who notes that, “He was an Elvis fan. A dandy. The girls had a soft spot for this shy West London thug and he took full advantage. When it all fell apart with the Sex Pistols, he pulled a Lemmy and absconded to LA.”
“She went easy on me,” Steve laughs throatily. “Chrissie’s great. I’ve just left a message for her asking if she’d like to read it for the audio book version we’re doing. She’s out on the road at the moment promoting the new Pretenders record, Alone, which is fucking brilliant. Chrissie’s even older than me but she can still kick ass.”
Lonely Boy well and truly debunks Malcolm McLaren’s claims that he boy band-style manufactured the Pistols and then sat back as his meticulously planned Great Rock ‘N’ Roll Swindle unfurled.
“I had a soft spot for Malcolm, but he didn’t half talk some bollocks. Cookie and me already had a band when we met him and Vivienne. He was always trying to put a retrospective spin on it, but no fucker could have foresaw what happened between ’75 and ’78 to the Pistols, least of all Malcolm. There was no masterplan, it just happened.”
Fans hoping for another Sex Pistols reunion are advised by Steve not to hold their breath.
“I don’t think anyone cares at this point, really,” he ventures. “We did a bunch of European festivals, including Electric Picnic, in 2008 and it was awful, the final nail in the coffin. But you never know; if we were making the same dough as the Rolling Stones, I’m sure we’d put up with each other!”
Jonesy admits to being a borderline kleptomaniac who snuck into venues and nicked top of the range gear off the likes of Rod Stewart, Mott The Hoople, the Stones and David Bowie.
“I had Tony Visconti and Woody Woodmansey, the Spiders Of Mars drummer, on the show recently and gave him two hundred bucks to settle up for me nicking a couple of his cymbals from backstage at Hammersmith Odeon when they were doing the last Ziggy gig,”
Jones takes some of the blame for Sid Vicious’ demise, noting that, “If only we’d called him Sid Kind he’d have been out running soup kitchens, and helping old ladies across the road. He was a character, Sid, and I think he could’ve been a star, I really do. He had that X-factor, but it was all just too much, too soon for him. The bird didn’t help, but you can’t blame it all on her. When I first met him he was shooting up speed and what not. He was destined to go that way, Nancy or no Nancy.”
There are plenty of post-Pistols yarns too, with Steve recalling the 1987 night he jammed with Dylan – everything was going swimmingly until Mickey Rourke and a big gang of his biker mates turned up at the studio – and the following year working with Roy Orbison.
“Roy was a very, very sweet guy. We had the same manager at the time, he was doing a new record and it was suggested that we hook up and write a song. I went over to his house a couple of times in Malibu, knocked out some stuff that we put onto cassette and then he died. No one seems to know what happened to it, so the song’s lost.”
A glass will be raised on December 28 as Steve remembers his old pal, Mr. Kilmister.
“Fuck me, yeah, it’ll be a year since he died. For his 70th birthday just before Christmas, he had a party in the Whisky-A-Go-Go at which myself, Duff, Matt Sorum, Zakk Wylde and Billy Idol got up and played three songs Lem liked including some Eddie Cochran. It was a big to-do and then he died a few days later. I have to say he did look rough and could barely get up the stairs at the gig. A week later I was completely knocked for six again when someone told me that Bowie had died. It happened to be the day that I was starting my new radio show, so I phoned Dave Grohl up and we spent two hours swapping our memories of ‘em. Hopefully 2017 will be a bit less fucking depressing in terms of losing people.”
Another friend with an anniversary coming up is Phil Lynott.
“Shame he’s gone, talented guy,” Steve sighs. “Phil was the boy on the scene in London. I ran into him with Cookie and we did a few shows together as the Greedy Bastards. Phil was still on top of his game at that stage and doing the Hammersmith Odeon with Lizzy, but then it took a turn for the worse with him getting into heroin. I was doing smack with him, so I witnessed the decline first-hand. It wasn’t pretty, but then again addiction never is. I was lucky enough to come out the other side, Phil sadly wasn’t.”

Lonely Boy: Tales From A Sex Pistol is published by Heinemann. Jonesy’s Jukebox airs weekdays at 8pm local time on 955klos.com.