SID VICIOUS INTERVIEWED ‘77

Interview conducted by Judy Vermorel in 1977 for the biography “The Sex Pistols”, originally published in 1978 by Universal Books, and subsequently reprinted as “Sex Pistols-The Inside Story” by Star Books (1981), & revised again in 1987 by Omnibus Press.

Sid Vicious: (With Nancy present) OK, what did you want to ask?

Q: I was going to ask you about the Jack Lewis (Daily Mail) article and how that came about and what you felt about the result of it.

SV: Well, that came about because just previous to that there’d been same incident at the Speakeasy where somebody had got injured. John Rotten and I were suspected. Course we had nothing to do with it whatsoever. He picked me out to interview because my name was Vicious and it was obvious he was trying to find out from the questions he asked - like he asked me if I was violent and things like that - and If I did this and that, all very subtle, designed for a person of low intelligence, obviously such as myself. I would be totally fooled by this and he would get it all out of me and I would say, ‘Yes, I’m big, tough and vicious and I beat up all these people and split people’s heads open.’ And this was what he came along to do.

And he was so sure he was going to get that. So I told him exactly the opposite of what he wanted to hear. I told him what a nice intellectual boy I was and wouldn’t dream of doing anything like that and I had pet hamsters and things like that, you know what I mean? Made myself seem like butter wouldn’t melt in my mouth. And he fucking fell for it as well.

They’re just so thick they wouldn’t know a string quartet from a string vest. They’re just totally dumb. They don’t know a fucking thing. They just make me sick. They make me physically ill because they’re not in touch with what’s going on. They’ve got no idea of what’s happening. And they can’t, you know, they can’t handle it. That’s why, you know, when people read how I love my mummy and she’s pleased that I’ve at last found something that’s near to my heart... you know what I mean? Like as far as I’m concerned, anybody with any suss looks at the picture of me standing there and looks at what I said and says the two don’t go together.

Of course he lacks the intelligence, like most grown-ups, to do anything at all. As soon as somebody stops being a kid, they stop being aware. And it doesn’t matter how old you are. You can be 99 and still be a kid. As long as you’re a kid you’re aware and you know what’s happening. But as soon as you ‘grow up’… I’ve got absolutely no interest in pleasing the general public at all. I don’t want to because I think that largely they’re scum and they make me physically sick, the general public. They are scum. And I hope you print that. Because that is my opinion of like 99 per cent of the shit you find in the street who don’t know a fucking thing.

Q: But is it actually the people who annoy you?

SV: Yes it is. It’s the people and their God-awful attitudes. What I want to do is put something else out that I like, and, like, whoever else likes it will find it - do you know what I mean? And, like, if nobody else in the whole world likes it, I couldn’t give two shits. If it doesn’t sell one copy, who gives a fuck?

The point is that it’s what we want to do. We have fun making it. We have fun listening to it. I listen to our records a lot because I like them. I think they’re good records, otherwise I wouldn’t have had any part in them. I like our music to listen to as much as I like the Ramones to listen to. The Ramones are my favourite group, by the way.

Q: What do you feel about television?

SV: I hate it and everything to do with it. It’s the worst - it’s depressing, television, it frightens me. The way they kiss arse, you know what I mean? The way they say: ‘And now the wonderful this, that and the other. They don’t mean one word you know what I mean? So why do it? I hate insincerity. If you do something you should only do it because you like it and you want to do it. ‘Cos anything you gain is just a load of hogwash anyway.

What do you do with money, for instance? I can think of one thing to do with money. (He and Nancy laugh.) One thing. That’s what I do with all my money. Every halfpenny of it.

Q: You were at technical college with John. Weren’t you? Did you get on all right there or not?

SV: What do you mean, work-wise?

Q: Any-wise. Well work-wise and with…

SV: I got on really well with John, I got on there really well with the black kids - they were great, the spades at that college. They were really cool, you know what I mean? And they used to have those reggae discos with massive sound systems and they were really good. But everything else was shit.

I hated work. I never did anything at all. I didn’t do a single thing. I used to be always making excuses. And I couldn’t do any of the work anyway, not because I was unintelligent or anything, but simply because I wasn’t interested in it. I’m incapable of doing something I don’t want to do. I just can’t do it. I can’t force myself to do things. I either want to do it or I don’t.

Q: Before you went there, did you anticipate that it would be good?

SV: No, I knew it would be shit. But I couldn’t think of anything else to do and I was not of an age when I could just hustle, you know what I mean?

Q: How old were you when you left school?

SV: Fifteen.

Q: And what school were you at?

SV: Clissold Park.

Q: That’s a comprehensive isn’t it?

SV: Uh, huh.

Q: Do you read a lot?

SV: No, I never read. I read comics mostly. ‘Cos I hate books. Find them tedious. I only like entertaining books. I like horror books.

Q: Don’t you think that books have anything to offer that other things haven’t?

SV: No, I think nothing has anything to offer. Specially television and books.

Q: There’s a much bigger range of books, though, than there is of television programmes.

SV: Well I find that if I want to know something, I know about it anyway or I find out about it. And the things I don’t want to know about just, you know…I can’t say I like books, but if it’s necessary for me to read a book to find out something I want to find out, I will read the book happily. But as such I can’t generalise about that. I can’t generalise over anything. I don’t like anything particularly.

Researched and compiled by Phil Singleton.
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