Episode 41: Steve Jones part 2

Originally uploaded September 21, 2024
The Sex Pistols break up but later Steve Jones becomes quite popular in Los Angeles. He is having quite the productive musical career but will his drug and sex addictions throw him off balance? Listen and find out what happens to our buddy, Steve!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Hello, rock and roll! Welcome back. Welcome back to Jay's Rock and Roll Stories. I'm your host, Jay. Let's wrap it up, man. Let's wrap up our Steve Jones episode. This is part two and the end. And uh this is the end of the part of the book where he sex pistols are are have have fallen apart, they're done. What's his life after? What is his life after the sex pistols? So this idea was uh okay, this is uh 1982. This was uh uh an idea where okay, well maybe we'll just continue the sex pistols but with a different singer, right? So what they did was it was uh you know Steve Jones, Paul Cook, and they got this guy named um Percy. Last name is Percy, he was a lead singer from uh The Sham 69, tried him out, didn't it didn't really work. So they said, fuck it. It's just gonna be Steve and and and Cookie, Paul, Paul uh Paul Cook, and they call themselves the Professionals. So this is 1982, and uh guess who's on bass is uh Paul um uh Simenon because the Clash have broken up. Paul Simenen is a bass player from Clashes, is gonna be the bass player for the professionals. 1982 um they get asked to help out with a movie. The movie is called Ladies and Gentlemen The Fabulous Stains, and this movie stars uh a very young Diane Lane, who the story is she's a lead singer of this um uh three-girl uh punk rock band. Um the other the bass player or the drummer, whoever, is uh Laura Dern. It's just a story about uh a band, and uh they get a big following. Um in the movie, there's uh they open for a punk rock band called The Looters. The Looters are Steve Jones, uh Paul Cook, um Paul Simenon on bass, and a very young Ray Winstone on vocals, which is pretty kind of cool. So um all of the music done in this movie is made by Steve Jones and Paul Cook, which is which is kind of cool. It was an interesting project. It never got released. The whole it's it's just a simple story of a punk rock band, they get a big following. Um, the band has like you know, spiky hair, red shirts, and then they get a following of girls who wear the same thing. And it's just like one of those movies about teen angst and consumerism. That's all it is. But it's kind of cool. You know, it's kind of cool that uh, you know, Paul Jones and Steve Cook did all the music, did all the vocals and everything. So, anyway, that that was the looters, that was the name of the band that they the fictional band that they did for the movie. Anyway, so the professionals stay together and they tour, okay? They go on tour, and Steve Jones is singing, he's the lead singer of the loot of the professionals. They do a U.S. tour, uh, this is still around 1982, and when the band is wrapping up the tour, they go back, they're going back to England. Steve says, No, I'm gonna stay. I'm gonna stay in New York and I'm done. I'm not going back to England. So Paul Cook and the other guys, they go back to England. Steve stays, he's he actually sells his uh Eng his British uh passport, like to some you know, fucking criminal or whatever, and he's like, I'm staying here. Yes, he is addicted to heroin. He's uh fully addicted to heroin, he's a junkie. He meets up with some other guys, and um they ask him to join their band called The Checkered Past. It's the drummer and I think the guitar player from Blondie, the bass player from Duran Duran, and they want Steve Jones in it. So um they make an album, and I listen to this album. I put I put it on Spotify. It's it's it's okay. There's one song that I like though. This is 1983. There's one song that I like on the only one album by Sheckered Pass. Called the song is called No Knife. As in the lyric, there's no knife that can cut our love in two. It's a good song, it's like uh it's like a love ballad or something about it. Check it out. Like put put that song on, put on uh no knife by checkered pass, cool song. But yes, uh Steve gets really into heroin of the checkered pass, they move out to LA, but Steve does um do some like um AA meetings, NA meetings, uh recovery programs, and he he you know he he gets off it, he gets on. Um so at this point he grows his hair long, he has long hair, he he buys a Harley, and he he becomes friends with uh Mickey Rourke, who also has a Harley. At this point, um Steve Jones makes two solo albums, one's called Mercy, and the other called uh Fire and Gasoline. So picture of Steve Jones all big, uh long hair, and he also he also plays guitar on the 1983 album by uh Iggy Pop called Blah Blah Blah. And I watched this on YouTube. The musical guest, Iggy Pop, on the David Letterman show of 1983, has a has a Steve Jones playing um rhythm guitar, rhythm and lead in the background. It's pretty cool. Check that out. Alright, so he's friends with Mickey Rourke, um who's also into like got a Harley Davidson, Steve Jones has a Harley Davidson, even Paul Simenon join comes back to LA and gets a Harley Davidson as well. So here's a funny story. Steve Jones um is sometimes contacted by Bob Dylan, and this is 1987. Steve Jones explains in the book where let's say they're at a bar or a club or a concert or whatever, Bob Dylan would just come up to Steve and just like, hey, what's up, Steve? And give him a hug. Steve Jones was like, Yeah, what's up? Wow, Bob Dylan, cool, what's up? So Bob Dylan wants to make an album with Steve Jones, so they put together a band. It's uh Bob Dylan, of course, and Steve Jones on the guitar, Adam Taylor, I think is his name from the bass player from Duran Durant, Paul Simon on bass. Oh, I'm sorry, Adam Taylor, guitar from uh Duran Duran, Paul Simmons bass on from The Clash, and uh I think it was like Pat Benatar is a drum or something like that. So they get together and into a studio and they're gonna make an album. Here's here's the story, it's kind of weird. In the studio, this is 1987. So Bob Dylan is facing the band, he's a kind of explaining what he wants to do, you know, what's his idea. Steve Jones is looking at Bob Dylan, but behind Bob Dylan is a giant window you can see like way in the distance, right? And all of a sudden he sees he sees all of these motorcycles way off in the distance coming towards him, right? And they get closer and closer and closer and closer, and then he realizes it's Mickey Rourke with like 30 other like like like bikers, and they arrive right at the window of the studio, and uh Bob Dylan looks at Steve Jones because he's explaining what he wants to record, and Steve Jones is looking beyond him at the window. So Bob Dylan turns to look at the window and sees Mickey Rourke looking in at Steve Jones and does like a double take, like, oh, oh, okay. And at that moment, Bob Dylan just bails. And Steve Jones was like, This is it was so weird. He just left. Like he left the studio and that was it. Like he just left us there. We like we didn't record. I don't know, this is weird. Okay, so that same year, 87-88, uh, Steve Jones is contacted um Dan Fulberg, who has uh a record label and who works with um Roy Orbison, and he puts Steve Jones to work with Roy Orbison. I I would never have believed anything like that. Steve Jones, Roy Orbison, fine. Okay, 1907, nine eighty-seven, eighty-eight. So they're at uh Roy Orbison's house, they're working on like a song, we work on a couple songs and stuff, and you know, Steve Jones says in this book how like Ro Roy Orbison would be light a cigarette, and he could hear like the wife, his wife in the background saying, Roy, are you smoking? No, no, no, no, puts it out like that. No, no, she doesn't let me smoke anymore. So, anyway, so they they make a song, they make a really good song called Chains of Love that no one has ever or will ever hear. Why? Because Roy Orbison died. Roy Orbison passed away, and his house burnt down. That sounds kind of fishy, but no, it's not. It's this is not a true crime. No, no, no. Yeah, he passed away, the house burnt down, and uh Steve says in in his book, yeah, of course his wife couldn't find the cassette. So they made this uh tape of this really good song called Chains of Love, but that no one will ever hear it, ever. Let's fast forward to 1992, 93. Steve's sober, and he um enlists other guys, other sober guys to create a band called the Fantasy VII. And um during this time, this is '92, '93, like, think about that era where everyone had long hair, like bands, right? Nirvana, Soundgarten, like um like Mud Honey or Meat Puppets. Everyone had long hair, right? So Steve Jones, like, fuck it, let's shave our heads. And they they they do a US tour, and they do. I saw this, I found this on YouTube. They did a spot on an Argentinian, like, TV show or whatever. Um, look that up. Like Argent Argentina TV uh Fantasy VII. The band looks pretty cool. They're like, you know, three or four guys, shirtless, shaved heads, tat tatted up. It's just like cool, like rock, like um, I don't know, 90s rock, whatever, but Steve looks healthy. He's not addicted anymore. He's he looks pretty good. Comes back to the States, and there is um a friend who has like who's uh who's dying of cancer, and Steve puts together a band called the Neurotic Outsiders, and it it's gonna be like a benefit. Like, let's raise some money for our buddy who's dying, right? He never says who it who it was that was dying, but he puts together this band called the Neurotic Outsiders, and they take up the Monday slot at the Viper Room in LA, which is like a pretty popular place at the time. And while they play, it's like it becomes kind of popular. Like um in the audience, like Billy Idol show up, Christy Hine from the Pretenders, um, who else? Um Axl Rose, um uh Iggy Pop, and they would get on stage and sing and like you know, help out with band stuff. So it was kind of a cool thing. But at the same time, coming to 1996, the Neurotic Outsiders, like with that like local popularity, the Sex Pistols decide to do like a tour. So it they made one album, the Neurotic Outsiders, but they it never really got pushed or anything because like the Sex Pistols are gonna go on like a reunion tour. So they get back together and um the Sex Pistols go on tour of uh the States, Japan, and everything, and um after all of that fighting and everything, Steve talks about how okay, Steve. I would describe the guy as like a like a like a big old lug, you know, like a softie. Because he explains how he it was coincidentally his birthday at a show in England, right? And Johnny Rotten got the audience to happy birth, you know what I mean, to sing. And and he says in the book that was really nice. That that like that felt really good. Alright, I'm gonna push along here. It was uh, and that happened twice because they did another tour, um, but that that coincidentally happened again. He's like, Oh my gosh, Johnny did it again. That guy's such an asshole, but he did the happy birthday thing again. So, anyway, uh Steve is sober, man. This is moving along into the late 90s. He joins this thing called the John Sterling's Men's Weekend. It's like one of these things where you you get together with a bunch of other guys and you kind of harness your your strengths and and and you know like uh pinpoint your weaknesses and just just kind of like embrace your uh limitations and just kind of just kind of improve yourself, right? One of the assignments was called forgive your fathers. Alright, so what Steve did was he wrote a letter, he sent it back home to mom and and stepdad explaining the molestation because no one ever knew about it. Like he never let anybody know about all this freaking book. So he he wrote it, he wrote a letter home back home telling explaining the whole thing, and he got a letter back from his mom saying, Oh, you're crazy. What are you talking about? Like a denial, like, nope, that didn't happen. And then he explains later that the next time that he ran into his mom and his uh stepdad, um he he commented on how his stepdad looked so frail and so small and so little, and um he was obligated, like because of this group that he the John Sterling's men's weekend group, he had to hug him, right? So he goes in for a hug, but the stepdad like kind of moves back, like, what are you gonna do? Are you gonna try to hurt me? So anyway, so he goes in for a hug, and Steve explains that he he didn't even he didn't want to hug him because in his heart he didn't forgive him because there was never any kind of like from him or mom or anything saying like you know you you were done wrong. Like we that was wrong. We shouldn't have you know what I mean. So um after that, after this uh you know fake hug with stepdad, he says, fuck it, I'm gonna find my real dad. And his mom has a big big problem with that. He she doesn't want him to do that. Anyway, so he he hires this is still the late 90s, he hires a private detective to locate his father. All the only thing he's known about his father is uh pictures from his mom, like from when he was a boxer, the guy from the 60s, 70s. Uh and that's it, and there's just some stories, nothing. So they find they find him. And um the private eye helps Steve out, and like here it is. This is the guy. So Steve is Steve is able to call him, and he says, I'm your son, I would like to meet you. And and and the and the guy says, Okay, let's meet. So they they decide a a location. It's gonna be at a a train train stop, you know, um in England. And uh Steve got there early, and the the father, like a he said a Steve is saying how a bunch of people showed up, but then he could see he he saw his father. He's never I mean he's only seen pictures of his father when the guy was in in, you know, in it because he was a boxer. He saw pictures of his father when he's a boxer, right? So he saw the old guy, he's like, that that's him, that's my dad. So um he walks up to him and they decide, let's go to a coffee shop and just talk. They go to a coffee shop and they talk and they spend like a couple hours there together. And uh Steve talks about how he look like his words are he looks just like me, he talks just like me, the same built and everything. And so the father explains that like listen, when I got with your mom, uh it was we it was just a fling. We we got together, then then I went my own way, and it and then you know, I found out she was pregnant. But when I left her, I fell in love with someone else. Like the guy fell in love with someone else and like got married and had a family. So Steve was just thinking, like, oh shit, like it wasn't like he was fucking my mom and fucking this chick and fucking this and getting everyone pregnant. No, he fell in love with someone and he's still with the same woman till this, you know what I mean, till to the same day. So there was kind of like a kind of like a forgiveness, like, oh like oh shit, I get it. Because Steve talks about I'm interrupting the story here, because Steve talks about uh the one of the days after he was molested, uh, he went to a party, he met this girl, they went to a park, they had sex in the park, they never saw each other ever again, and it turns out she got pregnant, but he never heard anything about what happened to the girl. Did she have the baby? Did she not? Where is she? No, nothing. Um so see, it talks about how so my my you know his father just he he has kids too, like this woman that he fell in love with. So Steve has uh a couple half-brothers, half-sisters, but he didn't ex he didn't say he he wants to meet them. Like that that wasn't an interest or anything. Anyway, so Steve talks about how he he saw the father one more time and had another conversation with him one more time, and that was it. Like it was kind of like that was it. I I this is who he is, this is his life, I'm done. So he moved on. So um I'm gonna wrap it up here by saying uh a funny a funny thing about well, actually, before I say my funny thing, I'll interrupt and I'll I'll say it with a uh a sad thing. Steve can't have sex with someone he likes. He can only have not likes Steve can't have sex with someone he gets to know. He can only have sex with strangers. Uh if he get like if you go on a date with Steve, right? He gets to know you, you guys will never fuck. Right? He only has to fuck that has to that has to go back to the molestation stuff, you know, when he was fucking 10 years old. It's sad. Anyway, so he talks about how that that's a complete failure. He can't date because like I can only get off. I can only get off if it's a stranger. Once I get to know you, deals off. Like I'm not interested. So I'm gonna wrap it up here. Um so Steve made a big mess throughout his life, but he then he kind of just cleaned it up. And there's this I I like this part of the story. He talks about how this this is when he got older because he was such a goddamn thief, you know, he was stealing from fucking he stole from David Bowie. He stole from a band called uh 10cc, which was a very popular band in England. He talks about how um he would call up people he stole from. And so he called uh he called up the guitarist from the band 10cc. He the guy answers and he says, Hello, oh hi, uh, I'm Steve Jones, I'm the sex business. Oh yeah, I know who you are. Listen, I I stole one of I stole a couple of your guitars back in 74, 75, and I feel so goddamn shitty. I feel like a piece of shit. And the guy's like, it's uh, you know what? We're even we're alright. And he explains in his book that he called a bunch of people, and uh every every uh response was, you know what? Let's let's call it a day. We're okay. So Steve says, like, oh god, I can go back, I can go back to bed feeling like I'm not like a fucking piece of shit. I don't know. It's an interesting it's an it's a different life, very different life. Sad life, ups and downs. That's Steve Jones. That's it. I I'm not gonna say anymore. Uh he's in a movie, couple, a couple albums. So I would say, here's some homework. Listen to you know what, listen to that song. Listen to No Knife. What is it called? No Knife by Checkered Pass. I like that song. I can't I can't find the whole movie. The um ladies and ladies and gentlemen, the fabulous stains. I gotta freaking buy it or something. I can't find it on YouTube. I can I only saw clips of it. I saw clips of it. It's really freaking neat, it's really cool. And Steve explains I saw this on YouTube how no one picked it up, no one wanted to put it out, and it didn't get put on DVD until like the 90s or something like that. And this movie is made 1982. Uh Steve, right now, is is a happy guy living in Hollywood. He uh I forgot to tell you, he had a radio show from what was it, 2004 to 2009, called Jonesy's Jukebox. And what he did, I mean, that the radio station that was on, one of 103.1 in LA doesn't exist anymore. So he took all those episodes and he put them on a podcast. So you can hear them. And I've listened to a couple of them, they're pretty good. He interviews uh Chrissy Hine because he had a pass with her. He interviews Brian Wilson and Jerry Lee Lewis and even Glenn Matlock. He goes back and chats with the old bass player from Sex Pistols. Anyway, so that's uh Steve Jones. Uh I'm done. Okay, I'm gonna move on to something completely different. I hope you like this episode. I'm gonna mix it up a bit. As you know, I like visiting the buffet table here, there, and everywhere. Alright, anyway, I'll see you next time. Thank you for being on uh thank you for listening to Jay's Rock and Roll Stories. Um, if you want to send an email, send it to Jay's Rock and Roll Stories at uh.me. I'll see you later. How's that sound? Bye bye.