Steve Jones Quotes

I always think the Sex Pistols and the Ramones as very, very important because they stripped things down.

We feel we're the only British group worth exporting since the Sex Pistols, definitely.

Were it not for the Clash, punk would have been just a sneer, a safety pin and a pair of bondage trousers.

The Germs' contribution to history sucks as far as I'm concerned.

I love the Sex Pistols. I'm a big Beach Boys fan and a huge Zeppelin and Queen fan.

I think people are too hard on the Pistols. The Pistols started the whole punk thing and never saw much money.

People called me the godmother of punk, but I never name myself anything.

I made the big turnaround in the early Nineties when I started hearing all the tenth generation punk bands like Green Day and Offspring and all those people. It just made me fall in love with punk again and remember my roots, and since that time I've always wanted to do more of that kind of music again.

The bands that were big in '77, like the Clash and the Sex Pistols and Talking Heads, I got into them in the early '80s. And it changed my life. It got into my DNA.

When punk came along, it made perfect sense to me. I found it melodic. The Clash, Buzzcocks.

It's funny I'm talking to 'Rolling Stone' right now, because back then, it was like, 'Punk rock? Put it back. It's just a flash in the pan.'

Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day always says we were influences on him, because he does melodic but distorted, like what we were doing. The Ramones were doing it. We were doing it. The Buzzcocks, all those bands.

The Sex Pistols came through Atlanta, and I got to go see them. That was historic. It blew me away; it was so much fun. I bought 45s of bands you don't hear about anymore.

The first music I heard that made me put away my comic books and make music was original punk.

The Sex Pistols had it all - they had the snarl, they had the I-don't-give-a-crap attitude - plus, they could play.

When punk began to be a genre, people were going to go out and try to mine it. Some of the better groups, like the Ramones and the Sex Pistols, were very artificial.

I'm still secretly a bit of a punk. Love The Clash and a bit of the Pistols. I guess as I've got older I've chilled out a bit. But, my teenage angst is still stirring somewhere!

The Sex Pistols was a part of my life. Just a small part.

I never met Johnny Rotten, and I didn't want to meet Johnny Rotten.

To me, Sid Vicious is cool. Super chill.

When I was a teenager, you couldn't get straight pants. Then in '76, when punk started to hit, it was a revelation that you could find straight pants again.

The last true punk band to get a major label contract was The Dickies.

I pretty much grew up when punk was big in the UK. The Sex Pistols were heroes for me. I used to run around like Johnny Rotten. I had a jacket like his.

When punk came along, I found my generation's music. I grew up listening to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd, 'cause that was what got played in the house. But when I first saw the Stranglers, I thought, 'This is it.'

When the 'godfather of punk' thing started floatin' around, it was, I was really, really embarrassed. I thought I should have a great, big rig and a cape and everything, and it was very embarrassing. And then after a while, you learn that if people call you anything, this is a great gift.