Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones has given his verdict on Pistol, the 2022 miniseries directed by Danny Boyle that dramatised the band’s chaotic rise and fall.
While the show stirred mixed reactions from former members—especially Johnny Rotten—Jones is mostly on board with how it turned out.
“I liked 90% of it,” he admitted in a recent interview with Blunt Magazine. Though it is worth noting Jones did not specify what made up the other 10%. When asked about what he didn’t like Jones offered, “It was just little things that bugged me. But overall, I was happy with it.”
Based on Lonely Boy, Jones’ 2016 autobiography, Pistol took a deeply personal angle, making him the central figure in the Sex Pistols’ story rather than the usual focus on Rotten. It delved into his troubled upbringing, his knack for thievery (he famously stole the gear that built the Pistols), and his raw, untrained guitar playing that became the backbone of British punk.
Despite his mostly positive view, Pistol wasn’t without its controversy. Rotten slammed the series, calling it “the most disrespectful shit I’ve ever had to endure.” He even tried to sue over the use of the band’s music, though he ultimately lost. For Jones, the series was never about getting everything right—it was about capturing the energy of the moment.
“The truth is, people remember things differently,” Jones once said about the band’s history. And with a past as wild as the Sex Pistols’, separating fact from legend is almost impossible.
Even with its inaccuracies, Pistol painted a vivid picture of punk’s explosion in the ‘70s—the chaos, the violence, the media hysteria, and the brief but world-shaking run of a band that still defines rebellion. Jones may not have loved all of it, but 90% isn’t bad for a story as messy as the one he lived through.
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