'I Like to Live In the Moment' - Original Sex Pistol Glen Matlock Celebrates New Documentary + Tour With Frank Carter

On Wednesday (June 24), Glen Matlock, original bassist for the Sex Pistols, joined Loudwire Nights to celebrate the recent release of his new documentary, I Was a Teenage Sex Pistol.

Listen to the full conversation in the player near the end of this article.

"It's based on a book I wrote a long time ago," Matlock said about the documentary in a conversation with Loudwire Nights host Chuck Armstrong.

"It was in the back of my mind, I thought it would make a good documentary with a different slant to the story. You know, everybody in a band's got a different side of looking at things. I felt mine had been passed over a little bit, which is why I wrote the book — and I found it very cathartic."

Matlock shared that he believed had he not written his memoir, also called I Was a Teenage Sex Pistol, the band may not have reformed in 1996.

"One of the main reasons I wrote the book is because I got so fed up with being asked about it," he admitted.

"I thought, I'll write a book, I'll never have to talk about it again. But then as soon as you write a book, everybody wants to know why you wrote the book. So you go talking about it again and then you finally make a documentary and they want to know why you made a documentary."

Authoring a memoir and spearheading a documentary is enough to keep anyone busy over the years, but Matlock has always remained active in the music world, whether it's with the Pistols, the Damned or working with a long list of artists including Iggy Pop, Blondie and the late Clem Burke.

READ MORE: Henry Rollins Discusses Major Milestone In the Cramps' Legacy — Exclusive Interview

"I'm not a multi-millionaire, I can't afford to not work," he expressed.

"That's one thing, [but] I like playing. I like getting out and playing. I like to live in the moment, tip my cap to the past and look to the future. I mean, I think you're kind of as good as the song you've got that might come out in a couple of months' time. I'm always more interested in that. I'm always doing stuff for myself."

What Else Did Glen Matlock Discuss on Loudwire Nights?

• How the Sex Pistols ended up bringing Frank Carter into the fold to sing with them and join them on their upcoming U.S. tour: "Nobody wanted to tour with John [Lydon]. We've run out of road with John. Good luck to him, he's doing his thing, but he's too tricky for his own good, with us anyway. Somebody else was suggested and I'm sitting at home by myself on the phone, chatting to the manager in the States. All of a sudden, my son had come in, I hadn't heard him come in and he overheard and he's going, 'No, no no.' I won't say who it was, but I wasn't keen on that either in the first place. I said, 'I'll have to call you back.' I said to him, my boy Louis, 'Who do you think we should get?' He said, 'You should get Frank Carter.'"
• His first impression seeing Frank Carter perform with the Rattlesnakes at the Roundhouse in London: "He had this really nice white suit on. He also organizes a mosh pit, a circle mosh pit. I didn't really know what these things were in a crowd. Ladies only, right? So he's got a ladies only mosh pit in the middle of the crowd and he took his jacket off and hung it up and dove in. And he's in there five minutes, but then when he came back, he picked his jacket up and put it back on again and sang the next song. I thought, 'I like that.'"
• What led to the sound of the Sex Pistols: "It was a time where people were looking for a change ... As soon as anybody does well, they go to the States, they go around the world, so that creates a bit of a void. We were all hip to Bowie and Mott the Hoople and the Faces, and also in my crowd the Velvet Underground, stuff like that, which wasn't necessarily accessible. There were other bands going on which we hated, like Barclay James Harvest and Yes and Genesis ... We just wanted to cut to the chase a little bit more. With my music, I went back to all the bands I liked in the '60s, the Who, the Yardbirds and the Small Faces, that's what kind of rocked my boat, [but] everybody in the band had a different set of influences."

Listen to the Full Interview in the Podcast Player Below or the Video at the Top of the Page

Glen Matlock joined Loudwire Nights on Wednesday, June 24; the show replays online here, and you can tune in live every weeknight at 7PM ET or on the Loudwire app; you can also see if the show is available on your local radio station and listen to interviews on-demand.