Sex Pistols frontman Steve Jones talks Sunset Strip, Harley’s & Harlots! Plus comedian Richard Lewis, & KROQ DJ Rodney Bingenheimer & more!
Steve Jones, guitarist and founder of the Sex Pistols
While the Pistols only produced one studio album it rocked the establishment to the core, and ignited the punk movement, changing music history forever.
Steve turned up state side after the pistols split and found himself on the Sunset Strip for the first time.
The first time I experienced the Sunset Strip was after… the band broke up in San Francisco, which was ’79, I think, January of ’79 and…I came here for a few… 3 or 4 days after that. And… I met a girl here and… we went, she had a big Cadillac and we got in the Cadillac and we went to a drive in movie and she… she had some weed, I didn’t smoke any of course but, and then we went driving like towards PCH and I just thought it was the best thing in the world, coming from England, you know… where it’s a shithole and you don’t see palm trees, you don’t see anything, everything’s so small and quaint and dull.
Then what few people know, Steve fell into the hair metal scene in the late ’80s.
Yeah… and then flash forward to like… ’85… ’87, ’89… the whole hair thing… happened, all the hair bands… Poisons and you know, Ratt, what have you, 100 of them. And I was actually, I got into that whole scene. I had long hair, I had the Harley Davidson, I was in good shape, and I had a couple of solo albums out. And… now this is pre AIDS, and all the birds looked like strippers, and it was great. You know, I used to park my bike outside the Rainbow on a Friday and Saturday night and literally just sit on the bike, and 10 minutes, there’d be a bird on the back and I’d be off.
Steve now hosts his own radio show Jonesy’s Jukebox on the world famous KROQ and still lives in Los Angeles.
Rodney Bingenheimer
KROQ mainstay Rodney Bingenheimer was there for every memorable event on the Strip over the years. His nostalgia for that special time and place comes from playing kingmaker for dozens of then unkwown bands: The Runaways, Blondie, The Ramones, Social Distortion, Van Halen, Duran Duran, Oasis, The Donnas, No Doubt, The Offspring, and even the Sex Pistols.
Pamela de Barres
Rock and Roll empress and former groupie hall of famer Pamela de Barres has seen it all. Thus she is in a unique position to define what the Sunset Strip really is: A red headed woman.
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Richard Lewis
A comedian’s comedian giving performances at the landmark Comedy Store for decades, Richard Lewis digs into the Sunset Strip with his signature quick wit and philosophical intrigue.
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