Did it feel very different the second time around? You were a married man with kids.It was kinda different. But it felt natural. No matter what we've all done individually, nothing is ever going to equate to the Sex Pistols. I think we collectively thought, "Well, that's what people want, let's give it to them." The biggest gig I did with the Pistols first time around was to 600 people. The second time round it was 125,000.Did punk rock have to happen?I dunno, but music was in a trough. Glam rock had been and gone, the big gigs at Wembley with Yes and Genesis and Jethro Tull cost a lot of money to get into, unless you were like Steve and Paul and had ways of bunking in. But none of us could relate to that stuff anyway. We liked the Faces because they seemed like they just didn't care.Do you remember much of the first Pistols gig at Saint Martins College?I organised it: it was my college. I had a bottle of vodka before going on and they pulled the plugs on us. People were shoving each other around. Then it all descended into chaos. I think we played half a dozen numbers, mostly covers. Pretty Vacant and No Feelings were already in the set but I don't think we got to play them.Did you really steal the riff for Pretty Vacant from Abba?Yeah, from SOS. Being at art school and being hip to the Dadaists and Marcel Duchamp, you'd nick something and make it your own. If I hadn't come clean no one would have ever spotted it.After the Pistols you played with Iggy Pop. Was that a very different experience?That was my first proper tour. He had roadies that knew what they were doing! Very clever chap, Iggy. He'd worked out that there was always someone from the band missing at rehearsals, because they'd gone down the hall to get a beer. So he said, "I can't stand for this." Then he sent a roadie out to get a dustbin and a bin liner, several bags of ice and bottles of whiskey and stuck it in the rehearsal room to keep us in the same place. I liked that style. Very professional.Whatever happened to the new song you wrote for the Pistols, which you said sounded like Pink Floyd's Interstellar Overdrive?It's still around, unfinished. Then Paul had a good idea for a tune but John said it sounded too much like the Sex Pistols. You can't win with some people, can you?
Zak Starkey and vocalist Sshh Liguz have teamed with original Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock and drummer Paul Cook for a ragged cover of the pioneering punk outfit's 1977 cut, "Problems."The track appears on Starkey and Liguz's new project, Issues, a covers album featuring an array of guests and benefitting Roger Daltrey's Teen Cancer Program. On the album, Starkey steps out from his usual spot behind the drum kit — he currently performs with the Who — to play guitar while Liguz sings.As Starkey tells Rolling Stone, Issues was initially pitched as a song series that paired covers with original music, but the duo decided to take it in a different direction. "We suggested we cut the tunes that influenced us with the original rhythm sections from the bands we covered," Starkey says. "It turned out so good that everyone involved thought it should be a record. So it is."Sshh Issues Track List1. "Problems" with Paul Cook and Glen Matlock of Sex Pistols2. "Jah War" with Dave Ruffy and Segs of the Ruts3. "Shoot Speed Kill Light/Rocks" with Darren Moonie and Simone of Primal Scream4. "All The Young Dudes" with Mick Ralphs of Mott the Hoople and Martin Chambers and Glen Matlock5. "Dominos" with Robbie Furze of Big Pink, and Twiggy and Gil Sharone from Marilyn Manson6. "One Way Or Another" with Clem Burke of Blondie7. "Back To Black" with Dale Davis and Nathan Allen of Amy Winehouse's band8. "Private Life" with Martin Chambers of the Pretenders and Glen Matlock9. "Get Up Stand Up" with Santa Davis and Fully Fullwood of Peter Tosh Word Sound & Power10. "Babylon's Burning" with Dave Ruffy and Segs of the Ruts11. "Tin Soldier" with Kenney Jones of the Small Faces
You're 60 now Glen, why oh why? Glen: Why am I 60? Because I used to be 59, and life is like one of those old movies where the calendar pages fly off at a rate of knots. I feel like I'm 50, but I'm wrong, I'm 60. I'm the last one out of the Pistols to be 60 though! It's 40 years since it all started with the Pistols.. And it's been 40 years of being reminded about it!20 years since the Filthy Lucre Tour... That's the surprising thing. Time goes quicker when you're older. But during that time I've been really busy with lots of different projects. None are runaway successes but I get around a lot; put a smile on people's faces sometimes. I feel in a good place. I was chuffed this year when I did an acoustic set at Glastonbury and 2000 people came and checked it out. Just me and my guitar. I did the Montreux Jazz Festival - it's not really a jazz festival, it's more "all that jazz" - and I played in a big club and it was rammed. So I think people dig my particular take on things
Glen's new album Good To Go, initially released via Pledge Music, goes on general release 21st September. The perfect time to take stock of all things Glen Matlock and Good To Go.
What made you decide to do a solo album now?Glen Matlock: “I had the songs for it and everything fell into place. When you write songs, once you have more than 14 or 15 songs in your head, you can’t think straight. You need to get them out, to clear out the cupboard of your mind. I’d been working with Slim Jim on a few projects, and I’d done stuff with Earl Slick before, and I didn’t realize the two of them knew each other. It sort of fell into place, really. I would have liked it to be a band, but everybody has to do different things these days, and whenever I do a band, everybody puts down ‘Ex-Sex Pistols’ on it, so I thought I’d just call it Glen Matlock.”Over what timespan did you write the songs?Glen Matlock: “It took about 6 or 9 months. I tend to write in batches of songs. You write something, and you think, ‘Oh it’s going in this kind of direction’ or ‘There’s this song I wrote ages ago that never came out; that might fit in if I change it around a little bit.’ You just start somehow by doing something and end up with some kind of blueprint in your mind. But what inspired me to make a record sounding the way it did was that about 3 years ago, I went to see Bob Dylan at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Now, while I can appreciate Bob Dylan, I think live, he’s dreadful. I think he should give up. But the band he had was fantastic. And I thought, “Oh, maybe I can apply that lighter sort of rock sound to my songs.’ And that was the starting point, really. That’s when I called up Slim Jim [Phantom].“I’ve been doing loads of acoustic shows around the world. So, I wanted a band on it, but I didn’t want it to be too overbearing. Not heavy rock. I’ve done that with the Sex Pistols. That’s about as heavy as you can get unless you’re talking about death metal, which isn’t really my bag these days. And I don’t think it’s very dignified coming from a 62-year-old guy.”
