It's never been easy with the Sex Pistols.
The story's been told a million times, but all the angst and discontent the band channeled into its music was as real as it sounded at the time.
But as Sex Pistols co-founder, songwriter and longtime bassist Glen Matlock tells Q104.3 New York's Out of the Box with Jonathan Clarke, the band members are generally happier with one another when they're focusing on their own separate endeavors.
Matlock continues to be one of the most musically prolific Pistols, as with his latest solo effort, 2018's Good to Go — by our count, his sixth studio album since 2010. Good to Go's upbeat, acoustic guitar-driven rock evokes more images of Elvis Costello than of Johnny Rotten, but Matlock says his songwriting approach has never changed — only his subject matter.
"I started off playing the guitar," he explains. "Every song I've ever been involved in has started life on an acoustic guitar and the bass guitar bit is just to kind of enable the band project."
As for the Sex Pistols, Matlock says the band members get along well enough, but when asked if they talk, he described an indefinable distance between the them.
"Yeah, but we've never really spoken ... not in a meaningful man-to-man kind of way, which was our kind of problem, really," he says. "Yeah, we talk. I see Paul [Cook, drums] every now and again. John [Lydon, vocals] and Steve [Jones, guitar] live in America; I live in England most of the time. Last time I was in L.A., I saw Steve. We went to the opening of a ... new jeans shop (Laughs)."
Watch the full Out of the Box interview, including Matlock's in-studio performance of his song "Keep on Pushing" in the player above or here.
Get all of Glen Matlock's tour dates here.
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Here's the official music video for Glen Matlock's "Won't Put the Brakes on Me":