Paul Cook Shares His Big Sex Pistols Regret
Drummer Paul Cook says his biggest disappointment about the Sex Pistols’ short career is that they never recorded a follow up to the incendiary debut, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols.
“We could have made another great album,” Cook tells NME, “even with Glen [Matlock] gone [and] when Sid [Vicious] was in the band and all over the place.”
Discussions were apparently held, much later. “When we got back together in ’96, we should have tried it then,” Cook added. “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.”
The reunion had “started off great,” Cook said. “The timing was right, and it was a great opportunity to play live and do things properly with less chaos. 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 humor bypass and it was all a bit uptight. I was glad when all that finished.”
Unfortunately, a more recent legal battle over the TV miniseries Pistol – in which frontman John Lydon failed in his bid to have the project canceled – seems to have made another reunion impossible.
“There’s absolutely no chance of that happening,” Cook explained. “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. It was a horrible experience. I would have preferred to have worked it out down the pub with a couple of pints.”
Besides, he added with a laugh, “I think we’re too old to be singing ‘Anarchy in the U.K.’ at our age anyway. It wouldn’t feel right!”