The legendary Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones has opened up about his estranged relationship with former bandmate Johnny Rotten (aka John Lydon).
Jones revealed that the pair haven’t spoken since the band’s final 2008 tour and that things have only gotten worse as the years have passed.
The punk rock icons were recently embroiled in a bitter legal dispute over the use of the band’s music in the 2022 Danny Boyle-directed drama Pistol, a TV series chronicling the rise of the band.
Speaking about the feud on the Rockonteurs podcast, Jones recalled the last time he spoke to Johnny, which was during their final show together at the Azkena Festival in Spain in September 2008.
The band had just completed a grueling series of performances around the world, including shows in Europe, Japan, and Australia.
Jones explained, ‘I haven’t spoken to him in years. 2008 was the last time I spoke to him. We did 30 shows around Europe. We did a bunch of festivals and all that, Japan, Australia. We ended up at Hammersmith Odeon, Hammersmith Apollo, and then we had one more show in the Basque country and that was it.’
For Jones, that final tour marked the end of the road for the Sex Pistols. Reflecting on the band’s tumultuous history and his own personal exhaustion, he added, ‘I was done after that, no more. Too much. Too old, too much, not enough done.’
The TV drama at the heart of their conflict, which premiered on Disney+ in 2022, was created with the approval of Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook, but Lydon was not in favor of the project.
He contested the use of the band’s music in the series, arguing that it misrepresented the band’s legacy. Lydon’s legal action, however, was ultimately unsuccessful, with the court ruling in favor of Jones and Cook.
This defeat led to a bitter public exchange, with Lydon accusing his former bandmates of being ‘greedy’ and ‘nasty.’
‘They’ve murdered it,’ he told The New Cue’s Chris Catchpole of the show’s depiction of the band’s legacy.
‘They’ve just absolutely torn it to shreds and taken anything of value and purpose out of it and turned it into a commercial farce. It was very sad to have seen that documentary… I expected better from Boyle.’
It was yet another chapter in the fractured relationship between the band members, who have had a famously volatile history since the 1970s.
In recent years, Steve Jones and Paul Cook have continued as the Sex Pistols, albeit without Lydon. The pair began performing again with Frank Carter – frontman of the UK punk band Gallows – taking over as vocalist.
Carter, who first met Steve Jones in 2007, was thrilled to join the band. He described his first conversation with Jones as a pivotal moment in his career, one that would eventually lead to him fronting the Sex Pistols.
‘I first met Steve back in Los Angeles in 2007 and we had a long chat about punk rock and what it means to be kicking against the p****,’ Carter recalled in an interview with NME.
‘Then I eventually met all of them throughout the years. But when I got the call up for this, it was a very special moment. It’s still one that I’m cherishing and I feel very grateful for.’
The band has also announced plans to perform at the Download Festival in the summer of 2025, with Frank Carter continuing to step into Lydon’s shoes as the frontman.