Paul Cook on if Sex Pistols might ever reunite again
Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook has shot down any hopes that the band could reunite, saying “there’s absolutely no chance of that happening.”
“I wouldn’t want to do it anyway, especially after the Pistol court case last year, which was a shitshow. Being in the High Court was the last place I wanted to be, with guys in wigs grilling you,” Cook told NME in an interview as part of the ‘Does Rock N’Roll Kill Brain Cells?‘ series. “It was a horrible experience.”
“I would have preferred to have worked it out down the pub with a couple of pints. I think we’re too old to be singing ‘Anarchy In The UK’ at our age anyway. It wouldn’t feel right!”
Cook and the Pistols’ guitarist, Steve Jones, took the band’s frontman, John Lydon, to court last year after he refused to license the group’s music for use in Danny Boyle’s biopic series Pistol. Cook and Jones won the lawsuit, which is said to have left Lydon in “financial ruin”.
The drummer admitted that he’s only just been able to watch the Disney+ series, in which he is played by Wunderhorse‘s Jacob Slater, which was released back in May.
“I needed to give it time to let it sink in,” he said. “After the court case, it was all a bit raw and I couldn’t watch it, but having finally seen a few episodes, director Danny Boyle’s done a great job. There’s a bit of artistic licence going on – it’s a drama, not a documentary, which a lot of people can’t get their heads around.”
Cook also recalled memories of Sex Pistols’ ill-fated reunion in 1996. “It started off great. The timing was right, and it was a great opportunity to play live and do things properly with less chaos,” he said.
“But then a lot of old resentments came up between band members along the way, and it deteriorated slowly over the course of a year. It wasn’t much fun towards the end. Everyone had a sense of humour bypass and it was all a bit uptight. I was glad when all that finished.”
He was also asked about whether or not he had any regrets now that a line had been drawn under the punk band. ““One of my big regrets with the Pistols was not doing a second album. We could have made another great album, even with Glen [Matlock, original Sex Pistols bassist] gone [and] when Sid was in the band and all over the place,” he said.
“When we got back together in ’96, we should have tried it then – we did start coming up with some ideas, but John wasn’t enthusiastic about it and it didn’t come together. It’s a shame.”
“In John’s view, the timing for endorsing any Sex Pistols requests for commercial gain in connection with ‘God Save The Queen’ in particular is tasteless and disrespectful to the Queen and her family at this moment in time,” his band Public Image Ltd said in a statement posted to Twitter.
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Emma Wilkes
NME
