From the Archives: Steve Jones: From Sex Pistol to Lonely Boy

Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin

iHeartPodcasts

Tv & Film, Music, Music Interviews, Arts, Performing Arts, Film Interviews

4.4 • 8.4K Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

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Summary

Coming from a challenging, working class upbringing in the United Kingdom, Steve Jones discovered his outlet in music - as founding guitarist of the groundbreaking punk rock band the Sex Pistols. Despite the release of only one album,”Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols,” the band changed the course of music and history - vocalizing issues of class in songs like “Anarchy in the U.K.” – and influencing fashion, art and society. Since then, Jones has continued to play music (both solo and with bands The Professionals and Neurotic Outsiders) and was the host of the popular, long-running radio show, “Jonesy’s Jukebox.” In 2022, his insightful memoir, “Lonely Boy,” was adapted into the FX television series, the Danny Boyle-directed “Pistol.” Steve Jones talks to host Alec Baldwin about the roots of punk rock, coming up alongside Vivienne Westwood and Chrissie Hynde, and the road to getting clean – and beginning life anew.

Originally aired May 14, 2024

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an IHeart podcast.
0:06.1	This is Alec Baldwin, and you're listening to Here's the Thing from IHeart Radio.
0:15.7	I am an anti-coaster.
0:19.1	I am an an accosta. Don't know what I want, of course. I am an anna coaster.
0:22.6	Don't know what I want, but I know how to get it.
0:26.2	I want to destroy.
0:28.2	Passer-Bike's a...
0:30.5	That is, of course, the Sex Pistols, with Anarchy in the UK off their 1977 album,
0:38.7	never mind the bollocks, hears the Sex Pistols.
0:45.7	The song and the album feature my guest today,
0:50.3	guitarist and musician Steve Jones.
0:53.4	While many have laid claim to inventing punk rock,
0:58.4	Jones and the band are the actual creators of the genre,
1:02.7	although the name was given to them by their friend designer Vivian Westwood.
1:07.6	Jones is nothing, if not surprising.
1:11.1	He overcame a challenging lower-class upbringing in Britain
1:14.9	to become a founding member of one of the most influential bands in music.
1:20.4	Although the Sex Pistols' 1977 debut would be their only release,
1:25.5	the band left an indelible mark on music and culture.
1:29.7	After the Pistols' breakup,
1:31.6	Jones went on to perform in the bands,
1:33.7	The Professionals, and Neurotic Outsiders.
	...

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