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Sex Pistols guitarist and co-founder Steve Jones admits that he didn't know what the word "anarchy" meant, until long after the band released the punk classic "Anarchy in the U.K."
Jones, who rarely attended school during his rocky childhood, tells the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast that he couldn't learn everything he needed to know on the streets.
"I was pretty illiterate back then," Jones said. "I'm not proud of it, but that's just the way it was. And I never listened to lyrics."
While he was at a loss in terms of the definitions of some words John Lydon used in his lyrics, Jones said he understood the message, and in that respect, the two were on the same page.
"I mean, I knew he's on about something," Jones continued. 'But to me, it was all just great. Whatever it is. The music was what I used to get drawn to. With any bands. Even if it was pop songs. It was the catchiness that drew me in or the chorus. I really didn't listen to, like, if I were to listen to Bob Dylan songs, I wouldn't have a clue what he was singing about. It was too intelligent for me."
FX's new Sex Pistols biopic miniseries, Pistol, is available now on Hulu. The series is based on Jones' 2016 memoir, Loney Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol.
References in the show to Jones' illiteracy were not exaggerated for the screen, he says, but other realities of that time were.
He noted in one interview that the series "perpetuates" the idea that the Sex Pistols' manager manipulated the band. Jones says it's "totally not the truth," but because it made for a good television show, he let it slide.
"You've got to make it entertaining," Jones added. "You've got to look at the big picture, not in this tiny little world where everything happened in real-time and identical. It's very heartfelt, as well — it's not just like a joke. It's got all the elements: sad parts, humorous, different relationships. It's great and I'm well happy. I'm sure there's gonna be a bunch of people that are gonna tear it to pieces, but that's OK."