Biography
While Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious commanded the spotlight for the Sex Pistols, guitarist Steve Jones drove the band’s musical direction from the start. Born on September 3, 1955, in London, England, Jones first picked up the instrument in the early 1970s after absorbing the sounds of T. Rex, the Faces, the Stooges, and the New York Dolls. Without funds to buy gear, he began appropriating instruments and amplifiers wherever he could, once lifting equipment from David Bowie’s Spiders from Mars during their 1973 farewell performances at the Hammersmith Odeon. Around the same period he struck up a friendship with drummer Paul Cook, and the pair started a neighborhood group that rehearsed favorite cover songs.
In 1975 the two, along with other local teenagers, began hanging around the boutique Sex, run by Malcolm McLaren, who had briefly overseen the New York Dolls and thrived on provocation. McLaren agreed to manage Jones and Cook provided they assemble a full band, which brought bassist Glen Matlock and vocalist Johnny Rotten into the fold. That same year the Sex Pistols came together, a deliberately confrontational unit that stood in direct opposition to the overblown progressive rock dominating the era; together with the Ramones in the United States, they helped launch punk rock. Most of the songs the quartet wrote in those first months later became punk standards, an achievement all the more notable because Jones was still teaching himself songwriting by playing along with existing records and then developing his own riffs.
The Pistols quickly attracted tabloid attention for their outrageous behavior, leading several labels to sign and then drop them before any album could be completed. Matlock left prior to the recording sessions for their Warner Bros.-backed debut and was replaced by Rotten’s friend Sid Vicious. The band’s sole officially released studio album, 1977’s Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols, is widely regarded as one of rock’s landmark recordings. It introduced enduring anthems such as “Holidays in the Sun,” “Anarchy in the U.K.,” “God Save the Queen,” and “Pretty Vacant,” each built around instantly recognizable guitar parts supplied by Jones that countless musicians later emulated. Internal strains caused by substance abuse, clashing egos, and mismanagement ultimately dissolved the group in early 1978 once their first American tour concluded.
Jones and Cook continued working together after the breakup, contributing to former New York Dolls guitarist Johnny Thunders’ 1978 solo album So Alone. They also recorded several tracks without Rotten for the Sex Pistols film The Great Rock ’n’ Roll Swindle, including “Silly Thing,” “Lonely Boy,” “Here We Go Again,” “Black Leather,” and “Friggin’ in the Riggin’,” the last three marking Jones’s first lead-vocal appearances. Late that year Jones produced the Avengers’ EP The American in Me, while he and Cook joined Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott, Scott Gorham, and Brian Downey in the short-lived Greedy Bastards, who issued the 1979 single “A Merry Jingle” under the name the Greedies.
Early in 1979 the pair backed ex-Runaway Joan Jett on “You Don’t Own Me” and “Don’t Abuse Me,” both of which appeared on her debut album Bad Reputation; a Cook/Jones demo of her later hit “I Love Rock N’ Roll” eventually surfaced on Jett’s 1994 compilation Flashback. Plans for a new band with Sham 69’s Jimmy Pursey and Dave Tregunna never materialized, prompting Cook and Jones to cut demos with bassist Andy Allen. In 1980 the trio, now called the Professionals, landed a deal with Virgin Records and released a self-titled debut. Before touring could begin, Allen was replaced by ex-Subway Sect bassist Paul Myers, and second guitarist Ray McVeigh joined as well. Their follow-up, I Didn’t See It Coming, arrived in 1981, but a serious car crash in the United States cut the supporting tour short and led to the band’s dissolution the next year.
Despite battling a severe drug problem, Jones formed the new-wave supergroup Chequered Past in late 1982 with Michael Des Barres, ex-Blondie members Clem Burke, Nigel Harrison, and Frank Infante (later replaced by Tony Sales). The outfit released one self-titled album in 1984 before splitting. By the mid- to late 1980s Jones had achieved sobriety and co-wrote material for Andy Taylor’s 1987 solo debut Thunder as well as Iggy Pop’s Blah Blah Blah (1987) and Instinct (1988). He also launched a brief solo career with the heavy-metal-flavored Mercy (1987) and Fire and Gasoline (1989), the latter featuring co-writes from Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx and the Cult’s Ian Astbury plus guest spots from Guns N’ Roses’ Axl Rose and the Cult’s Billy Duffy.
Throughout the remainder of the 1980s and into the 1990s Jones maintained a steady session schedule, working with the Nothings, Bob Dylan, Don Johnson, and the short-lived project P featuring Johnny Depp and Gibby Haynes. He assembled another supergroup, the Neurotic Outsiders, with Duff McKagan, Matt Sorum, and John Taylor; the quartet issued only one album, a self-titled release in 1996. Additional studio credits included work with Suicidal Tendencies’ Mike Muir, an Alice Cooper tribute album, Insane Clown Posse, and co-production of Buckcherry’s 1999 self-titled debut. The original Sex Pistols lineup reunited in 1996 for a world tour and the live album Filthy Lucre Live before disbanding again. Around the same time Jones and his former bandmates gave extensive interviews for the 2000 documentary The Filth and the Fury.
In 1975 the two, along with other local teenagers, began hanging around the boutique Sex, run by Malcolm McLaren, who had briefly overseen the New York Dolls and thrived on provocation. McLaren agreed to manage Jones and Cook provided they assemble a full band, which brought bassist Glen Matlock and vocalist Johnny Rotten into the fold. That same year the Sex Pistols came together, a deliberately confrontational unit that stood in direct opposition to the overblown progressive rock dominating the era; together with the Ramones in the United States, they helped launch punk rock. Most of the songs the quartet wrote in those first months later became punk standards, an achievement all the more notable because Jones was still teaching himself songwriting by playing along with existing records and then developing his own riffs.
The Pistols quickly attracted tabloid attention for their outrageous behavior, leading several labels to sign and then drop them before any album could be completed. Matlock left prior to the recording sessions for their Warner Bros.-backed debut and was replaced by Rotten’s friend Sid Vicious. The band’s sole officially released studio album, 1977’s Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols, is widely regarded as one of rock’s landmark recordings. It introduced enduring anthems such as “Holidays in the Sun,” “Anarchy in the U.K.,” “God Save the Queen,” and “Pretty Vacant,” each built around instantly recognizable guitar parts supplied by Jones that countless musicians later emulated. Internal strains caused by substance abuse, clashing egos, and mismanagement ultimately dissolved the group in early 1978 once their first American tour concluded.
Jones and Cook continued working together after the breakup, contributing to former New York Dolls guitarist Johnny Thunders’ 1978 solo album So Alone. They also recorded several tracks without Rotten for the Sex Pistols film The Great Rock ’n’ Roll Swindle, including “Silly Thing,” “Lonely Boy,” “Here We Go Again,” “Black Leather,” and “Friggin’ in the Riggin’,” the last three marking Jones’s first lead-vocal appearances. Late that year Jones produced the Avengers’ EP The American in Me, while he and Cook joined Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott, Scott Gorham, and Brian Downey in the short-lived Greedy Bastards, who issued the 1979 single “A Merry Jingle” under the name the Greedies.
Early in 1979 the pair backed ex-Runaway Joan Jett on “You Don’t Own Me” and “Don’t Abuse Me,” both of which appeared on her debut album Bad Reputation; a Cook/Jones demo of her later hit “I Love Rock N’ Roll” eventually surfaced on Jett’s 1994 compilation Flashback. Plans for a new band with Sham 69’s Jimmy Pursey and Dave Tregunna never materialized, prompting Cook and Jones to cut demos with bassist Andy Allen. In 1980 the trio, now called the Professionals, landed a deal with Virgin Records and released a self-titled debut. Before touring could begin, Allen was replaced by ex-Subway Sect bassist Paul Myers, and second guitarist Ray McVeigh joined as well. Their follow-up, I Didn’t See It Coming, arrived in 1981, but a serious car crash in the United States cut the supporting tour short and led to the band’s dissolution the next year.
Despite battling a severe drug problem, Jones formed the new-wave supergroup Chequered Past in late 1982 with Michael Des Barres, ex-Blondie members Clem Burke, Nigel Harrison, and Frank Infante (later replaced by Tony Sales). The outfit released one self-titled album in 1984 before splitting. By the mid- to late 1980s Jones had achieved sobriety and co-wrote material for Andy Taylor’s 1987 solo debut Thunder as well as Iggy Pop’s Blah Blah Blah (1987) and Instinct (1988). He also launched a brief solo career with the heavy-metal-flavored Mercy (1987) and Fire and Gasoline (1989), the latter featuring co-writes from Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx and the Cult’s Ian Astbury plus guest spots from Guns N’ Roses’ Axl Rose and the Cult’s Billy Duffy.
Throughout the remainder of the 1980s and into the 1990s Jones maintained a steady session schedule, working with the Nothings, Bob Dylan, Don Johnson, and the short-lived project P featuring Johnny Depp and Gibby Haynes. He assembled another supergroup, the Neurotic Outsiders, with Duff McKagan, Matt Sorum, and John Taylor; the quartet issued only one album, a self-titled release in 1996. Additional studio credits included work with Suicidal Tendencies’ Mike Muir, an Alice Cooper tribute album, Insane Clown Posse, and co-production of Buckcherry’s 1999 self-titled debut. The original Sex Pistols lineup reunited in 1996 for a world tour and the live album Filthy Lucre Live before disbanding again. Around the same time Jones and his former bandmates gave extensive interviews for the 2000 documentary The Filth and the Fury.
Albums
