Glen Matlock returned to talk about the tensions with John Lydon and the accusations made against the current incarnation of the Sex Pistols, dismissed by the singer as a simple “tribute band”. The bassist, star of the new documentary “I Was A Teenage Sex Pistol”, also ruled out any possibility of a future one reunion with the ex-frontman.
The film, directed by Andre Relis and Nick Mead and based on the autobiography published by Matlock in 1996, traces his role in the birth of British punk and above all his contribution to the Sex Pistols. Matlock was in fact co-author of ten of the twelve songs contained in “Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols“, before leaving the group in 1977.
Figures such as Billy Idol, Debbie Harry, Chris Stein, Clem Burke, Gary Kemp and Rat Scabies appear in the documentary, while Lydon appears only through archive materials. Interviewed by Billboard, Matlock explained that he had not directly involved the singer: “I just think he wasn't interested. He's moved on from the Sex Pistols now. He has Public Image Ltd., and I wish him good luck.”
The musician then responded to Lydon's criticism of the reunion with Frank Carter, which he repeatedly defined as “karaoke” and even “almost malicious in intent”. “People say that we are a tribute band without John, but there are three of us from the historical line-up, while he is the only member of Public Image Ltd. It seems to me that he has locked himself in a corner of a very large corridor,” he commented.
Since 2024 Matlock, Steve Jones and Paul Cook have in fact revived the Sex Pistols with Frank Carter on vocals, initially to raise funds for Bush Hall in London. Since then the collaboration has continued with concerts and tours. Asked if he would consider Lydon returning to the group, Matlock was blunt: “It's not going to happen.”
In recent years Lydon has repeatedly ruled out any reconciliation. In an interview in 2025 he declared that he would “never” return to the Sex Pistols, accusing his former bandmates of having transformed everything into something “childish” and devoid of the original spirit of the band: “As far as I'm concerned, I'm the Pistols and they're not”. Matlock had already responded to the singer's exits in 2024, claiming that Lydon was wrong in considering the concerts with Carter “bollocks”: “John has made his choices. He's happy with Public Image Ltd. and that's fine. I continue to do my things without feeling obliged to live only in the past”.
The Sex Pistols with Frank Carter will also tour in the coming months to celebrate the band's 50th anniversary, with US dates from September and UK concerts scheduled for December.
In the meantime, John Lydon is working on a new Public Image Ltd. album, a project that he said he also wants to use as an outlet after the death of his wife Nora. “We need to go back to being a real rock band capable of demolishing everything,” he said recently. Just last night, Pil performed at Alcatraz in Milan, for the Italian leg of their “This Is Not The Last Tour”. Not a nostalgic celebration of post-punk or a reunion built to reassure the public with a catalog of untouchable memories: that of PiL is rather a performance rough and deliberately irregular, with a group that continues to treat their material as something alive and imperfect.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
