The Tim “Napalm” Stegall Substack Interview: Glen Matlock

Yeah, I know I already violated my New Year’s Resolution of five ‘Stack posts per week. Can I make up for it with the Sex Pistol who wrote the tunes?

Glen Matlock, with a couple other guys he usedta know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah! I know, I know, I’ve already bollocksed up the year! I promised January 9th I’d be assaulting your inboxes Monday through Friday. Suffice to say, The Book and a last-minute, high-paying bio commission from a noted film music supervisor ended up knocking everything else off my calendar and desktop, demanding my undivided attention. And I have to pay attention to these things, considering yet another of my long-standing outlets informed me last Friday my services are currently surplus to requirements. Another reason to upgrade your free sub to paid status now. 

But we won’t bother with that now. Except you’re about to read material that would normally be behind the paywall. Consider this a preview of the benefits of direct support of The Tim “Napalm” Stegall Substack: An interview with Glen Matlock.  

If you need an explanation (and I doubt most of the Napalm Nation needs one, being the savvy, tasteful bunch you are), Glen is the Sex Pistol who got away. The one who wrote the music to all those songs you love. (Or maybe you don’t, and then I have to wonder why the hell you read my stuff?!) He’s the guy who took a few bass notes from the chorus to ABBA’s “S.O.S.”, gave ‘em to Steve Jones, and told him, “‘Ere – give us a guitar hook for that song we’re working on!” That song was “Pretty Vacant.”

Yeah, the Pistols lied through their teeth to save face when he left (Johnny Rotten: “He wanted to make us fun, like The Beatles!”), all to make way for the guy whom Nick Kent memorably dubbed “the exploding dimwit.” (Although to be fair, as noted in Part Two of my extended Austin Punk Chronicles treatise on the Pistols at Randy’s Rodeo, Sid Vicious is audible on audience tapes as being a better bassist than history or the other Pistols have credited him with being.) Then he moved on to another killer new band called The Rich Kids, who basically resembled his old band had Jonesy learned some of those “Beatle chords” Glen kept trying to show him. And if you had the guy who later wrote “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” fronting, rather than John Lydon. It’s neither The Rich Kids’ nor producer Mick Ronson’s fault their album Ghosts Of Princes In Towers made your stereo sound like it was submerged in the LaBrea Tar Pits. A recent Record Store Day remaster from Matlock and drummer Rusty Egan scraped off the murk. It now roars at full fidelity, proving The Rich Kids were every bit the equal not just of the Pistols, but such tuneful pogo rock peers as Buzzcocks or Generation X.

But all this is long ago and far away. We are gathered here today because Glen’s got a new album out for a few months now, which he talks about here. He’s also got another book coming out, as well. And today – yes, TODAY(!!!) – he begins a brief series of U.S. dates in promotion of these two fine efforts, while he takes a break from his new gig in Blondie. He and his new band The Maestros – Glen’s fellow Blondie-ite Clem Burke on drums, GN’R’s Gilby Clarke strumming the guitar, and Steve Fishman (The Stranglers/The Damned) on bass – hit San Diego’s House Of Blues – Voodoo Room tonight. Jan. 20th: Alex’s Bar, Long Beach; The 21st, they’re at The Troubadour in Los Angeles; Las Vegas’ 24 Oxford Club at The Virgin Hotel the 23rd; and they finish at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall on the 24th. I also believe I saw that Glen is scheduled to appear at Las Vegas’ Punk Rock Museum somewhere in there? I know two of our subscribers work there, so they can update us.

This is the first time Glen and I have spoken, though we’ve communicated via social media for years. Yes, we talked about the Pistols and The Rich Kids, but that material is reserved for The Book. We will deal with Glen’s here-n-now in the balance of this post. And let me say, having spoken with Lydon and Jones on many occasions, Glen Matlock is likely the most charming, affable and down-to-earth of the remaining Pistols. And I like his Oasis-with-hefty-left-wing-balls album.

TIM: You've got a great new record out, Consequences Coming. I would say it's a bit of a hard Britpop record, but you've got some politics on this.

GLEN: I'm doing a bit of spleen venting, yeah. I'm sure you've read all about it, but we had this thing over here called Brexit, which is the most stupid thing this country's ever done. As far as I can see, [there’s] no value in it. Lots of people are now coming round to my way of thinking, apart from the people who perpetrated it on us, maybe to protect their offshore banking and offshore tax interest thing that has no kind of bearing on the general population. It's curtailed our freedom of movement in Europe. We're 21 miles from France, and we used to be able to go there just like that [snaps fingers]. It was the most drastic thing that's happened, and now we can't work. So it's a bit of a downer. 

The album's been out for the best part of the year now, not quite a year. But I started writing it before lockdown happened, and then it took a while to get it out. But the songs have got to do with those consequences coming. Boris Johnson's lost his premiership kind of thing. You know, I'd like to see some of these people kind of pilloried. 

But it's not just in this country. I don't know what your politics are, but there's been this ridiculous lurch to the right all around the world, and I think it's untenable. I think it should be called out and I think that's what I'm trying to do on it – not the whole album, but some of it. I think if you've got a bit of a voice and people know you a bit, you should not shirk away from speaking your mind. I think if you don't, it's an abrogation of responsibility somehow, but the trick is to not be too po-faced. I think there's a bit of tongue-in-cheek-ness involved as well, but I do mean it, man. [laughs]

TIM: Unlike somebody we could probably mention! And yeah, it does strike me that your former bandmate supported Trump and Brexit. (NOTE: Lydon also denounced both in 2016!)

GLEN: Yeah, not only that, when he realized, and people like [Roger] Daltrey and that stupid nitwit who flies his own plane from Iron Maiden, Bruce Dickinson and all that! They all supported Brexit, and when they found out it would affect their touring in Europe? There was a petition that went around, and they all signed it! Hypocrites!

See, and not only is it Brexit. What it's done is enabled these right-wing people who don't really care. The only thing they had was to kind of divide and conquer, and come up with this Brexit idea, which before they thought of it nobody even moaned about. It was just a ploy to get maybe not the brightest people in the electorate. It's a hoodwinker. And I think that's what your Trump's been doing. 

In fact, earlier this year I was in New York, doing a session with Clem Burke and Richard Lloyd, actually at Ivan Julian's place. And while I was there, when I was coming over there, because it was like a gap between some of the Blondie stuff and I couldn't go all the way back to London and come back again. A) It would have been too ball-breaking, with the jet lag, and B) it would have been too expensive. 

But anyway, I called up Raquel [Bruno, his American publicist], you know, and I said, “Look, I'm coming to New York. Can you set up some press?” But when I finished doing that, I was staying down on the Bowery, and I had to get uptown on Monday morning to go to Rockefeller Plaza, to do Sirius or something like that. And I couldn't get a cab. And I'm beginning to think maybe my song “Consequences Coming" was a little bit long in the tooth, but I couldn't get a cab because all the traffic was held up, because they blocked off like Fifth Avenue because Donald Trump was coming down from Trump Towers to be arraigned in the big courthouse downtown. I thought, “Ah, maybe I haven't missed the boat.” What's going to happen to him, I don't know, but the man is a pig.

TIM: Yeah, yeah, he really is. He did a lot of damage to our country and it just amazed me, the people that fell for him. I was shocked that the man who wrote the words to “Anarchy in the UK" supported him! John's got his own problems as well. I mean obviously we don't want to speak ill, since he just lost his wife and his long time friend Rambo this year.

GLEN: Yeah, yeah, no, John's going through it, and I feel for him, but hmm. I dunno. The other thing is people say, “Well maybe John is just saying that for a gag.” Well, that's even fucking worse!

TIM: Yeah. I mean, we know that he likes to be a contrarian for contrarianism's sake. But that doesn't play well after a while. You know, you've got to take a stand at some point. 

GLEN: Yeah. You know what? When I was making my voice felt about Brexit and stuff, there were people writing to me on Twitter and Instagram and stuff: “Glen, don't you realize that the far right is the new left?” And I thought, what are you on about? And I kind of looked at these people up, and they were all Public Image fans. None of them were  exactly professors in string theory at Manchester University. [laughs]

TIM: Well I posted something at Facebook yesterday that rednecks these days here in the States all look like they should be in the mosh pit at a Jane's Addiction show about 40 years ago! They've got the shaved heads and the piercings and tattoos and ZZ Top beards, but they're all  right wing as hell! [laughs]

GLEN: Yeah, why is that? Perhaps they feel threatened. The world is an odd place at the moment. It's changed a lot because of immigration and stuff. It's certainly not the same country as when I was a lad. It certainly isn't the same country as when my father was a lad. It's changed. It's the way of the world, you know? You can't only invent the nuclear bomb, sadly, but it's just the way it goes. And I think the more you overreact to it, the more the other side kicks up, and there's less chance of everybody getting on.

Anyway, let's go back a little bit because I missed the point. I mentioned string theory. One of the best things I've ever done, I got invited with a crowd of people to go to Lucerne, you know in Switzerland? Where they got the Large Hadron Collider. It had broken down for a bit, and we went the last day before it really started up again and outside was this massive magnet that had burnt out. It had a sign on it saying “For sale, one careful owner,” right? Just for a joke. Well what happens is all the scientists there take turns to do guided tours to small select sets of people. This German guy took us around and he was interested and all that, and then they give you lunch. So we sat in the canteen, and this quite pretty Italian scientist came over and wanted to sit next to me, because before she became a scientist she was the drummer in an Italian punk rock band! [laughs] 

TIM: Yeah, she wanted to sit next to the Sex Pistol! [laughs] That's brilliant! You've been playing with Blondie for a little bit — I think that's perfect. I'm hoping you guys get to Austin sometime soon so I can see you with them!

GLEN: Y’know what? I’ve never been to Austin, and I want to go there because that’s where Mac’s buried. It keeps coming up and it just doesn't happen, for some reason or other. But yeah, I've got to get to Austin and catch up with a few people. I know Kathy Valentine has quite a lot going on. In fact, she got up with us when we played at the Roxy in LA, and maybe she will again. I've got these dates coming up at the end of January. For one night only last time, we had loads of people coming up. Fred Armisen got up with us, Slim Jim Phantom, Kevin Preston from Green Day. It was not like Rolling Thunder, it was more like Rolling Blunder! [laughs] I'm trying to maintain that a little bit. 

TIM: Yeah, Mac (Ian McLagan) was a beloved resident. He played every Thursday night. You know, had a residency there. I would see him with the Bump Band. I would see him pull up in the step van with his Hammond B3 that would come down on a lift and he'd push it into the club himself. He was just so down to earth. I remember the first time I met him. He came behind me in line at a grocery store, had a couple of crates of lager and a bunch of limes, and I couldn't help myself: I looked at him and said, “Wow, you guys were the Small Faces!” [laughs] 

GLEN: Yeah, he was a funny little fellow, Yes he was. He was a wonderful, wonderful man. I did a couple of little things with him over in England, and he was going to do “All Or Nothing,” and he'd be talking. He goes D, B minor, I played a B minor, and he said, he said you're playing B minor, and I said well that's B minor, and he said, “No, everybody thinks that. It's B major. It's more manly.” [laughs]

TIM: Billy Bragg told me that when he went out on tour with Mac, every night he would shine his shoes, he would brush his teeth, and then he would take photos of whatever shoes that he was wearing before he went on stage. And Billy just said that struck him. You know, he was the perfect mod. He was the perfect professional. You know, it's like, really touching, really affecting. But you’ve got this book coming out. Let's talk about this a little bit as we're getting to the end here. How is it different from I Was A Teenage Sex Pistol? 

GLEN: Well y’know, over the years people have asked me am I going to do a follow up. And I really kind of thought, “Well, maybe one day.” Then I got approached, somebody said, “Why don't you do a new book?” And I said, “Well, I can't really do the same book again.” And they suggested to me, “Well, why don't you do a book on your lyrics? You've written songs, you've worked on the stuff.”

Basically what I did, using the songs as triggers. That's the title, Triggers. It's a cross-reference to pistols, a trigger. But they're trigger points, and they're all songs that have kind of set me thinking about this, that and the other, and the stories behind them. And then, there's a whole bit at the end of the book about my thoughts on Brexit as we've discussed kind of briefly, and politics and that. And how things feed into each other. So there you go. I've had nothing but good reviews over here. People seem to generally kind of like it. When I did my first book, I wrote it because I thought I'd never have to talk about it again. People want to know why. You're just kind of propagating the whole thing. So I probably made another one from my own bag, but I'm used to it by now. So, yeah, it earns me a couple of bob. And it opens a few kind of doors. 

I did this thing, I did a little tour just before Christmas over here, which was a bunch of acoustic shows and then also a couple of bookstore appearances, and then I did a thing in a museum and I did the thing in the British Music Experience in Liverpool. Y’know, not massive big places, but all well-attended. And by doing a book or something like that, it opens the door to a different kind of audience really. You can't keep doing the same thing over and over again. 

By meeting different people from different walks of life and having different discussions, then when you travel around the world, playing with different people and all that stuff, you're kind of like a sponge. You soak things up and it gives you ideas. not necessarily there and then. But you might pick up a guitar in a year's time and go, “I've got this idea for that! Oh, what do I think? Oh, yeah! I remember when I was in Bogata and I met that bloke when he was talking about sounds and so on.” Y’know these little ideas kind of come back to bite you, but in a good way hopefully. It's all part of life’s rich pageant, hopefully.

Is it a lice rich pageant or a lice rich tapestry? Or is it a kind of stair runner carpet? I don't know. [laughs]

TIM: You do have a song called “Magic Carpet Ride” on the new album. And I thought at first, is he covering Steppenwolf?

GLEN: Well, do you know what? I knew the song by Steppenwolf, but I never knew what it was called. Clem said, you got that Steppenwolf song? I said, no, it's not that song. I didn't know what it was called. And to me, it's like an allegory of, again, going back to the Brexit thing, and the politicians we've been kind of plagued with. It's like they've pushed you off from this magic carpet ride to who knows where, who knows when, and to what avail. None that I can see.

Thanks, Glen. Not every day we get to talk to a Sex Pistol around here. Good luck tonight in San Diego!

Paid Subscriptions Still 20% Off For Life Until Month’s End

Friends: First off, a massive thank you to everyone who's joined The Tim "Napalm" Stegall Substack lately. Your support means the world to me, and I'm stoked to see this community growing. But let's be honest, this ink-stained life ain't cheap – gotta keep the pens flowing and the guitars screaming.

That's where you come in. Subscribing to The Tim "Napalm" Stegall Substack isn't just about keeping the lights on and maybe buying a BBQ sandwich and a Big Red now and then. Your paid subscription or upgrade gets you exclusive goodies like The Tim “Napalm” Stegall Interviews, ala the Glen Matlock conversation you just read. You also get to read my novel-in-progress Every Father Kills His Son, and hear the "Radio Napalm" podcast which I am reviving soon

But it's also about fueling the fire that keeps these sonic stories alive. You'll be a patron saint of the future of independent journalism, a pen pal getting the inside scoop on everything from backstage anecdotes to the darkest corners of rock 'n' roll history.

And speaking of fire, I'm throwing some gasoline on this offer just for you. Until the end of the month, you can snag a lifetime subscription to The Tim "Napalm" Stegall Substack for a cool 20% off. That's right, lifetime access to all the mayhem and madness for a one-time price — it’s what you will pay for life! Think of it as an investment in the future of punk journalism, one where I’m still scribbling away long after the last magazine on Earth padlocks the doors.

But wait, there's more! Every new paying subscriber this month gets a free spraycan art shirt, just like the ones I wear on stage. Wear your rebellion with pride, and let everyone know you read The Tim “Napalm” Stegall Substack religiously. (Even if you might be a heathen like me!)

Look, I won't sugarcoat it. This past month has been rough. I told you up top I lost another print gig. That was a blow, but it ain't gonna stop me. The ‘Stack is rising, and it's gonna keep rising with your help. So, if you've been digging the content, if you believe in the power of music and mayhem, then punch that subscribe button like Muhammad Ali rearranging Sonny Liston’s face. Let's show the world that the fire of punk rock still burns bright, fueled by the passion of its community. Our community.

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