- 2 days ago
Steve Jones joins Sluggo from KROQ to talk about the group's current tour alongside original members Glen Matlock and Paul Cook, joined by singer Frank Carter. The icon also talks about his radio career, the reissue of his memoir, and more.
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00:00hey you found us well done you it's sluggo at krock and my guest today is
00:04steve jones jonesy most famously of the sex pistols yes a californian all right well you
00:11got a sold out show here at the hollywood palladium on sunday october 18th so you've
00:16been saying you're out on the road uh with uh glenn and paul and and frank carter just so
00:21people ain't confused it's not johnny rotten singing with us right and mr lighten's out
00:27doing his own thing at this moment he's doing his pill he's doing it seems it looks like he's
00:32doing good i wish him all the best honestly nice that's great to hear that's awesome that's very
00:36so what was it like being back at the longhorn ballroom after all these years you know the
00:42only thing that really stuck out to me and i don't remember a lot of it uh the original but
00:48i remember
00:49one thing when we did do it in in uh 78 was the stage was a lot lower it was
00:57just like two feet
00:58off the ground and you can see by the pictures uh from back in the day but now it's like
01:04the stage
01:05is like it looks like it's 10 feet high now at the longhorn but it was great man it was
01:11a that was our
01:12first show back in the states with this new setup is i think the last time we played in the
01:17states was
01:18in um 2003 i think it was the last time we did a bunch of shows it was great and
01:25um it was it was
01:28well received people like it i think some people are skeptical they're like who's this bloke frank
01:35carter but i gotta tell you we win crowds over every night you know we we've got it down to
01:43a
01:43fine art and and it's a good it's a good show man we're not just going one two three four
01:49it's a it's a good show it really is and we're having a blast having a lot of fun that
01:55uh with frank
01:56and glenn and ball what's the uh what are the differences between the audiences from the 70s when
02:01punk was really just exploding and today in 2026 well there's a lot older people there that's for
02:08sure there's there's still there's still some youngsters um you know we have some good uh opening
02:13acts as well um who are younger i mean frank's 42 i mean that's that's a baby compared to us
02:23old
02:23farts yes i'm seven 71 now and we're all we're all uh glenn i think it just turned 70 me
02:31and paul
02:3271 i mean when you think about it when you were a kid like when the pistols first started i
02:37used to
02:37think the stranglers were old and they right and they were just like two years older right yes when
02:44you're young and you know just you're like oh don't i don't want to be near them guys literally two
02:49years could imagine what it's like when you're 70 right what young people think of you right i'll tell
02:55you what they think yeah they don't think you're you're like invisible right until you wake them up
03:00with pretty vacant or something all of a sudden it's a different story yeah yeah different story
03:05what's one of your favorite songs to be out there playing at this point in time um let's think let's
03:10think what one do i just really enjoy i like doing uh i like doing no feelings
03:16no yeah that's a good rocker bodies is great uh i mean obviously the classics
03:21anarchy uh queen and uh um what's i'm missing two holidays uh i'm missing one
03:33come on sluggo help me out here uh we had four singles we had well four kind of singles
03:40yeah what was it for christ's sake anarchy god save the queen which by the way would that work
03:48as god save the king would you change that now do you think it would have flown quite as high
03:52if
03:52it was no we don't care about that guy yeah yeah yeah yeah and pretty vacant is easily i gotta
03:58tell
03:59you man i've said oh that's it that's it oh well there you go yeah yeah there you go that's
04:03i've
04:04said on so many radio stations over the years that that is my favorite rock song ever recorded
04:09well yeah we definitely do a thing you know when that one i don't want to give the game away
04:16but
04:16yeah we do a thing we're pretty vacant and uh okay i mean yeah it ain't a secret you can
04:23go on
04:23instagram we've got tons of stuff on it on on on on our uh on my or all of the
04:29bands uh yeah that's
04:31when that's when frank gets a mosh going he goes into the crowd i mean he gets it going and
04:37and when
04:38you start the riff they they they oh hell yeah they go nuts um since we're not on live on
04:47the air
04:47right now i can ask you i've always wondered about this was the vacant quite intentional or was that
04:52just something that lends itself to vacant it just sounded like it was a way to throw that in
04:57knowing john i would imagine it is yeah so uh i said famously most famously of sex pistols but
05:05uh one of my favorite uh jonesy's thing over the years has been jonesy's jukebox how many years have
05:11you been doing that show well i don't do it anymore but initially it started i know i might i
05:17might do
05:18another podcast with every other crown in the world you know it's like a sea of podcasts it's just
05:25yeah nuts but you know i'm still i still enjoy talking to people and it'd be great if i could
05:34play music i know it costs money to do that but we're talking about maybe doing that when when this
05:41is done um we're done uh we've we've got about eight more shows till we get to la something like
05:49that and then and then i thought oh great i'm just gonna stay in la where i live and that's
05:55it
05:55but no we booked some more shows in in england and ireland in in november into december
06:03and then uh we end at the hammersmith apollo is which which was basically the scene of the crime
06:11for david bowie when i stole his equipment you want to tell us a little bit about that oh man
06:17i don't
06:18know yeah go ahead spill it um you know he did two nights i was a fan i was 14
06:25and i was a kleptomaniac and
06:29and so they left all the gear up on the first night and so they left some guy like on
06:36the fourth
06:36row like three in the morning and i and i i had a minivan at the time that i didn't
06:43pay for
06:44and and then i snuck in there and started snipping snipping away at mics and cymbals and a few other
06:53things you still have any of those things no you're kidding me i don't even have my own
06:57guitar oh my god oh yeah i mean speaking of being back there have you been by 430 king's road
07:04anytime recently and what is there now it's it's it's still uh it's called world's end it's still
07:10vivian westwood oh is it wow yeah yeah it's it's the different it's different stuff from it's more
07:18it's more quirky stuff from vivian westwood line but they do make good t-shirts and stuff still
07:24yeah i go in there now and again just to see and glenn's not behind the counter anymore he's not
07:30behind the counter so i wish they would do that with cbgb i was so sad to see that go
07:35and uh you know
07:36it's sort of just a regular store at this point but well it was john barbados didn't he didn't he
07:42take it over yeah yeah yeah yeah it'd be great if they if they were still had shows there yeah
07:47so
07:48speaking of jonesy's jukebox who are some of your favorite guests or maybe some uh someone you
07:52haven't had on the show that you would like to have uh sit down with you i mean there was
07:56it was
07:57a good few four years when it was on indie 103 one and i had just had every tom dick
08:03and harry he was
08:04coming through town you know i even had i was doing i was doing k-rock on a sunday but
08:10i was basically
08:11that was more about playing new music i had a few guests on there but then i went to klos
08:15for a few
08:16years and that was good my hands were tied a little bit not not crazy as far as playlists i
08:22didn't have to just play you shook me all night long a hundred times a week but you know i
08:28could
08:29play some rarities but the indie one was the good one i could literally do whatever i wanted it and
08:34that was a complete fluke that whole deal how that happened how it came oh really yeah yeah it was
08:40a new
08:40station it was a it was a spanish station introvision and uh i didn't know a long story
08:47short a guy said to me have you heard this station and i've been driving around listening to it and
08:51they were just playing punk music i'm like this is great there's paying punk music and there's no
08:57commercials i want to i want to get in on this and i realized there was no commercials because i
09:03hadn't
09:03sold any at this point right right you know yeah and uh it was just one of them organic things
09:10that
09:10just happened and and um and i actually got a gig doing it four days a week an hour a
09:16day from 12 to
09:17one and i didn't have a clue what i was doing other than i played a lot of music and
09:23i got guests on
09:24and and and uh and the program director michael steel he said uh people are kind of liking this let's
09:31give you two hours a day five days a week and it just it was just one of them organic
09:37things that
09:37just took off really took off the signal you know it ain't a big signal it's a small signal but
09:44everyone wanted to come on it it was a thing it was really great i know we used to compete
09:49a bit
09:49with k-rock but even though you had a massive signal it was just it was just great in la
09:54that you could
09:54be in the city you lived in and you're playing music and i could change it to something that was
10:00going
10:00on right that minute in right down it was like old school i'm not interested in doing radio like
10:10like most radio is it's just the way it is you're talking amongst uh whoever's programmed it
10:17to me that's that's like a job you can't really be artistic already you know you can't turn people
10:23onto some cool stuff that they've never heard that's what i really enjoyed doing more than anything
10:28else yeah and it was fascinating listening to you man i mean i i liked all three incarnations of your
10:33show and on klos i was very excited that we got you over there but just you just sit down
10:37with the
10:38artists like i don't know if you remember but we did one thing at the viper room with uh matt
10:42pinfield one yeah yeah and i mean just that kind of chat on the radio is just something that's
10:47desperately missed i think so i i hope you're back there is i believe even knowing this this time of
10:56technology and all the rest of it i think there is room for that old school totally doing it yep
11:03i
11:04know i'd listen if it's someone interesting absolutely i don't know i don't know about
11:08young people but i'm sure i'm sure that if you're a music lover you would listen to it yeah i
11:14i really
11:15do think that there's a market there i agree so your uh your book is being reissued lonely boy tales
11:22from a sex pistol uh what's the story on the reissue on that not a lot of difference i've got
11:28a play
11:29coming out uh in in in in in 2027 oh um it's uh it's based on my book again wow
11:41and it's uh the
11:43royal shakespeare are involved in it wow you know yeah i don't want to say too much but it's it's
11:51it's
11:51happening it's really they they heard that i'm doing that so penguin took over it which is a big
11:58company yep and i called up uh nol gallagher i said look i've got already got chrissy iron doing a
12:05forward do you mind doing a forward as well and he he gladly did it and it's really funny his
12:12his
12:12forward but i'm gonna there's nothing new in it there's no uh new chapters or anything it's just
12:18getting a good push so the great rock and roll swindle continues pretty much yeah yeah no that's
12:23i love chrissy that is so cool that she did that and how hard was it i mean working writing
12:27the book
12:28a kevin writer here who just was kevin and bean for 400 years been trying to put together a memoir
12:33of 30 years on k-rock and he is struggling has been working at it for years how was it
12:39for you
12:39putting the book together well i met this with this guy ben thompson english guy who came over he hung
12:48around for about three days with his tape recorder this was like in 2015 maybe it came out i think
12:56in
12:5616 i don't know somewhere around there and then he would he'd hang out we put about four hours in
13:05for like about three days then he'd go back to england then we'd do the um uh skype and so
13:12you
13:12know we'd do again you know i'd spill the beans and he'd have a fake tape recorder going and this
13:17went
13:17on for quite a while not not not like a drag it wasn't a drag that's cool and he compiled
13:24it and then
13:24that was pretty much it i'll tell you what was a drag was when i did the audio book for
13:30it and i'm and i
13:31was still on calo west when i did that so i'd i'd do i'd do two hours and then i
13:37would go to the
13:38village recorder with an ipad and and trans transcribe it uh to a voice and you've got to be
13:46you've got to be on you can't just go anything went down the road and it was right right you
13:51kind
13:51of got you know and i don't i don't know about you but after i don't do two hours i'm
13:56kind of beat
13:57so i'd be i'd be good for about an hour and then it would start just slurring and just like
14:03and it took me 60 hours to finish uh just an audio book for my book dude that is so
14:11understandable i i
14:12am in radio where i'm supposed to read stuff that they hand to me and i cannot fucking read out
14:16loud
14:16yeah i just can't do it i can make stuff up on the spur of the moment but reading what's
14:21written in
14:21if i wrote it doesn't matter right i thought i thought i was like you just said i thought i'd
14:27do radio i was gonna fly through this right no no it's very different beast yeah absolutely well
14:33thank you so much we're very much looking forward to the hollywood palladium show it's so awesome to
14:37be able to say the sex pistols are selling out a show in 2026 that is awesome they're also gonna
14:42be
14:42down in san diego on friday we have tickets for you and uh as i said earlier pretty vacant it's
14:47been
14:47one of my all-time favorite songs so i want to play it do you do you have any special
14:51thoughts
14:52on this song besides what you do live that you don't you know let's not give that away too much
14:57but uh anything another thing behind this song because i can't tell you how many times i've
15:01listened to this damn thing and it is still yeah no it's actually better live than it is on the
15:06record
15:06that's saying something man that is really yeah no the whole set is so powerful we're all we're all
15:13playing good it's great are you gonna come i i hope to i expect to yeah oh that don't sound
15:19good
15:20i know right yeah yeah but if i can i will definitely be there anyone who's gonna hear this
15:26please don't call me i've got no tickets so it's already gone the backstage and all that stuff you
15:31gotta fend for yourself all right man thank you so much dude i so appreciate it so good to see
15:38you
15:38again too man i i hope we can do something with you on the radio again at some point because
15:42you
15:43never know man we never know yeah yeah right on mate thank you very much thanks a lot see ya