Sex Pistols Guitarist Admits He Didn’t Know The Meaning Of The Word ‘Anarchy’

The 1976 Sex Pistols single “Anarchy in the U.K.” is considered a turning point in music, transforming music from the sanitized sounds of the 1970s into a bona fide punk revolution.

And oddly enough, one of the people responsible for the ground-breaking track didn’t even know what it meant.

Ex-Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones admits he didn’t know what the word “anarchy” meant when he and his bandmates recorded the song. “I was pretty illiterate back then,” Jones says. “I’m not proud of it, but that’s just the way it was. And I never listened to lyrics.” Not that it mattered to Jones, who says he thought the song was “great” regardless. “I mean, I knew he’s on about something,” Jones says about singer Johnny Rotten’s lyrics. “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.”