Sex Pistols’ Steve Jones Announces Memoir ‘Lonely Boy’
Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones announced his autobiography, Lonely Boy. The book, written with music journalist Ben Thompson, will come out in North America on January 10th, a couple of months after the UK release.
Publisher Da Capo describes the guitarist’s life as a “modern Dickensian tale.” Jones was born in West London in 1955 and grew up not knowing who his father was, all the while facing abuse from his stepfather. He supported himself with thievery, but turned his life around after falling in love with the glam rock of David Bowie and Roxy Music.
In 1972, he decided to form a band – originally named Kutie Jones and His Sex Pistols – with drummer Paul Cook and guitarist Wally Nightingale. He served as the group’s singer and would pick up guitar after Nightingale’s departure at the insistence of manager Malcolm McLaren, who brought in a vocalist whom Jones dubbed “Johnny Rotten.” They’d record Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols in 1977 and break up the next year.
The book will chronicle Jones’ “self-imposed exiles” in New York and Los Angeles, where he worked through alcohol, heroin and sex addictions. It will also likely touch on his solo recordings (1987’s Mercy and 1989’s Fire and Gasoline), and his work as a record producer (Joan Jett’s Bad Reputation, Buckcherry) and as an actor (Californication, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains).
Jones lives in Los Angeles and hosts the radio program Jonesy’s Jukebox on 95.5 KLOS FM, Mondays through Fridays, between noon and 2:00 p.m.