Glen Matlock: I’m pleased to be out of England at the moment

Glen Matlock has said he is pleased to be out of the country on tour because the “terrible, turgid Tories have just been getting on top of me”.

The 65-year-old rose to fame as the original bassist and songwriter of the Sex Pistols alongside the original band line-up of lead singer John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten), guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook.

The punk group released their anti-authoritarian hit God Save The Queen in 1977 to mark the silver jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, and it was banned by the BBC at the time.

It has since been reissued to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

Asked about the monarchy and the part the royals can play in years to come, he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “I think one of the things is that, you know, how worse off we would be if (Boris) Johnson was a president, that would be even worse.

“I’m really quite pleased to be out of England at the moment, the terrible, turgid Tories have just been getting on top of me.

“So to be touring, as I have been, I got asked very last minute to play with Blondie, we’ve been touring over here (in the US) and I just not long got back from Mexico, it’s been really quite refreshing to do something different and step outside and see how other people see us”.

The musician, who is responsible for co-writing songs including Anarchy In The UK, Pretty Vacant and God Save The Queen, said of the famous song: “I think it did (shock people), you know that record that song was written in 1976, my music and Johnny Rotten’s words, I kind of subscribed to what he had at the time.

“But I kind of think that mainly, we were just speaking our mind about things, it wasn’t really a political statement but it was just nobody particularly wanted to be kept and put in their place by the establishment.

“And I think the reaction to it was because they were kind of afraid that people didn’t subscribe to their way of thinking.”

Despite the song being banned, it reached number two in the UK singles charts and is the only time in chart history that a track was listed with a blank title to avoid offence.

Speaking about the newly released Disney+ series Pistol, which is based on the memoir of Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones, Matlock told GMB presenters Ranvir Singh and Adil Ray: “I was really looking forward to seeing the movie, I wasn’t that involved with it, I wasn’t not involved with it, I was kind of involved with it.

“And what I was promised, and the way it’s unfolded, hasn’t been quite the same thing.

“But I did see Steve Jones and I was talking to him about it and he said, ‘what do you think?’ and I said, ‘mate you’ve got a shocking memory’.”

Good Morning Britain airs every weekday at 6am on ITV and ITV Hub.