I don't wake up every morning thinking 'What if. I didn't see past the end of the week at that stage, so I wasn't really thinking about it all ending in tragedy like it did. We all need a bit of back-up, and I don't think Steve and Paul gave me enough of that in those days, when John was being John. I was more the safe kind of guy I knew some of what the guys were doing was going too far. Actually Steve was probably the most out-there guy in terms of hedonistic behaviour and everything. "I think I probably was the most conservative member," reflects Matlock.
Reasonable, of course, but that productive yet destructive Pistols dynamic is simply too fascinating not to be pried into, and eventually he responds with honesty.
So when people like you ask me about those old days it can seem a bit irrelevant". He initially points out that "there are other much more important things going on in my life at the moment, namely my dad's Alzheimer's and my son's first days at his new college. No chuckles meet my questions about The Pistols, though only quiet contemplation. He promises with gusto that the gig will be a "really uplifting experience for the crowd just because it's acoustic it doesn't mean it's all miserable and pontificating. He asks me not to make the article too Pistols-orientated, which is perfectly understandable given his other band activity (at various times he has been a member of The Rich Kids, The Philistines and The Faces, as well as playing with the "intelligent, talented nutcase" that is Iggy Pop) and his new solo acoustic venture that brings him to Belfast to play Voodoo next month. Today, when chat comes round to The Pistols, the 57-year-old displays a strange mix of openness and defensiveness. It's a problem of proportions and the reputation of Glen Matlock, The Pistols' original bassist, has rather suffered because of it, from band mate Steve Jones' allegations that Matlock was "always washing his feet", to the bassist's wariness of Lydon (which still exists to this day). Then again, the hedonistic actions of John Lydon, Steve Jones and Paul Cook of the Seventies London punk band would make anyone look safe, even wet by comparison. Being the "most conservative" member of The Sex Pistols is surely akin to being the "wild one" of the current Snow Patrol line-up.