12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
'Never say never': Glen Matlock on the Sex Pistols reunion, and the John Lydon spat
Sex Pistols bassist and songwriter Glen Matlock is talking about the contradictions he has lived with daily working in the music industry since he was a teenager in the seminal punk band.
"For all its socialist principles and high ideals if someone doesn't buy a ticket for your gig; you're nowhere. The world doesn't owe you a living and you have to make your own luck," he explains.
The 68-year-old Londoner isn't long back from touring Japan, Australia and New Zealand as part of the Sex Pistols featuring Frank Carter on vocals. The lineup features three of the original Pistols that formed almost 50 years ago in August 1975. Joining Matlock on bass are guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook.
Carter's punk credentials were cemented with Gallows and Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes. "I could be cynical and say we are helping everyone relive their youth but that's not true," explains Matlock. "With Frank being in the band it helps and the music we did is timeless really, we sound like we did years ago."
Not surprisingly, original front-man John 'Rotten' Lydon has slammed the reunion. "I am the Pistols and they're not," is Lydon's take on it all.
Equally unsurprisingly, Matlock is of a differing opinion. "It was Steve's band. We were all the songwriters and we all did our bit," he says of their string of hits including Anarchy In The UK, God Save The Queen and Pretty Vacant.
"It would never have happened without any one of us. The problem is John won't give anyone else any credit which is why we are where we are now. He still can't think it through. But he can do what he likes. He comes across as bitter and twisted while we are all having a laugh, making some good money and sending everyone home with a smile on their face.' So does that mean there will never be another reunion with Johnny Rotten? "Never say never. It's sad the way it's unfolded. Life is short and the hourglass of time is dripping away for us. Who wants to sit at home thinking about what could have been?"
Matlock originally left the Pistols to make way for Sid Vicious on bass. While the replacement bassist became a punk icon, especially after his premature death at the age of 21 in February 1979, the band soon imploded. Jones later expressed the opinion that if Matlock had remained in the Pistols they would have made more records.
Despite the band's short lifespan, Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols (1977) remains one of the greatest long-players of all time. The ongoing public interest in the band was clear when the band played shows last August to raise money for Bush Hall in London, saving the venue from closure. Fan reaction and critical acclaim led to the Pistols continuing a live run with Carter on vocals.
Matlock often sits outside with a coffee in West London, partly due to the fact he still enjoys a cigarette. "It's not big and it's not clever," he admits.
Sometimes his life resembles an episode of celeb comedy show Stella Street. He regularly bumps into fellow residents such as Lulu and Rolling Stone Ron Wood, or is joined by the likes of Paul Weller and Noel Gallagher.
"Yeah, I put Weller and Noel on the guest list for the [recent Pistols secret gig] at the 100 Club. I see him and Noel regularly as we live in the same area. I've known Paul since the early days, we all went to see them [The Jam] in Fulham and they came to our gigs.'
Matlock has enjoyed a prolific career since originally leaving the Pistols in 1977. He first found success alongside Midge Ure in Rich Kids. Their only album, Ghosts of Princes in Towers, was produced by David Bowie's essential guitarist, co-producer and arranger Mick Ronson.
Glen Matlock, left, with other members of the Sex Pistols in 1976: Johnny Rotten, Steve Jones, and Paul Cook. Picture: Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty.
"Mick was always taking people under his wing. The music industry is so pushy with everyone trying to climb the greasy pole. Mick was never like that. I don't think he did too bad but he could have been more astute sometimes," says Matlock in reference to Ronson not being properly taken care of for his contribution to such records as Bowie's Life On Mars and Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side.
The mention of Ronson does bring back a particularly fond memory of an evening out in London with the guitar legend. "We went to down the dogs at Walthamstow [Stadium for greyhound racing]. Mick was unwell and it was really to take his mind off things. We'd laid down our bets, took a seat and the race began, which doesn't take long. Mick then got up and went off; I said: 'Where are you going?' He said: 'That dog on the outside looks good'. He was trying to back it before the end of the race!"
Matlock has also enjoyed stints with Iggy Pop, playing on Soldier (1980), and also with The Faces, and Blondie. In 2023-24 he toured Iggy Pop's classic Lust For Life (1977) album with the late Clem Burke. The news of the Blondie drummer's death from cancer in April was a shock.
"We've been friends for 50 years," explains Matlock. "It's been weird because he would stay with me whenever he was in London and I would stay at his place in L. A when I was over there. Just wandering around the house [since his death] has been a little bit odd. Clem and I were cut from the same cloth. When Debbie Harry got covid, the dates were postponed and we ended up kicking about New Jersey where he was from and where his old man lived and worked. He had an American version of my upbringing really."
Burke was that rare example of someone in the music industry that no one had a bad word to say about, while also being regarded as one of rock'n'roll's greatest drummers. "He was a fantastic showman and drummer. He would also instigate things and make them happen,' adds Matlock.
Glen Matlock playing with Blondie. Picture:.
'When I went to America last year he put the band together for me and brought in people like Kathy Valentine [The Go-Gos] and Gilby Clarke [ex-Guns N' Roses].'
While Debbie Harry and co have a new album ready to be released, the future is uncertain. "I knew Clem had been ill for a little while and Blondie had been put off, there's a new Blondie album in the can but I don't know what will happen and now the Pistols stuff has come up."
Before the Sex Pistols play several dates in the UK and Europe in June, Matlock will be touring with his solo band. His album Consequences Coming and autobiography Triggers: A Life In Music, both released in 2023, were well received. He seems to be a man who rarely rests for long, but admits to being "knackered" after returning from the other side of the world with the Pistols.
"This is a good little band. When something like the Pistols happens I have to put my solo work on hold. The Pistols songs are old and I'm always interested in having my new songs on the go," he explains.
Is there a chance of new music from the Pistols? 'I don't know but nobody has said 'no',' he explains, adding that the band get along much better than before.
'On tour now we have breakfast together and get on the same flights and trains in Japan and that's quite a novelty since the days of yore. Steve Jones came around my house the other day to watch QPR. I'm a QPR fan. He likes to bet on everything. We got beat so he went home with £10 of mine in his pocket!"
