Dhruv Trivedi
‘Pistol’ follows the rise and fall of the iconic British punk band, the Sex Pistols, and the turbulent inner workings of the group. The story starts with Steve, the founder and vocalist turned guitarist of the band. As one would expect from the guitarist of a punk rock band, Steve lives a promiscuous life. In addition to a string of women, we also see him with a few men. A flashback also depicts Steve as a teenager getting frisky with another boy on a train. Since the FX miniseries is based on Steve’s memoirs, much of what is depicted is broadly accurate. Here’s what we know about whether the real Steve Jones is bisexual or straight.
Is Steve Jones Gay?
In ‘Pistol,’ Steve has a string of sexual relationships with women, including Chrissie, Nancy, and even (briefly) with Pauline. In flashbacks, he also describes receiving oral sex from another youngster when he was a teenager. As it turns out, the series’ depiction of Steve’s sexual encounters is broadly accurate. In his memoir, ‘Lonely Boy,’ from which the show draws, Steve talks about his encounters with men and being abused by his stepfather.
In a Rolling Stone interview, Steve stated how being molested by his stepfather at the age of 10 confused him about his sexuality for years. It seemingly turned him into a “kleptomaniac and sex addict.” However, Steve also clarified that he is “100 percent not gay at all.” In other reports, as well as in his memoir, Steve has opened up about how he engaged in sexual activity with men and women during his teenage years. Shortly after being molested by his mother’s partner, Steve performed sex acts on another man in exchange for money. In another incident, a youngster performed sex acts on Steve in exchange for 50p in a closed-off section of a train.
However, Steve has also stated that despite his sexual initiation being so male-centric, he was always confident about his sexuality and preferred women. The Sex Pistols guitarist also acknowledged the excessive sexual activity on his part during his younger days, where he took every opportunity to have sex, “usually in a cupboard or a toilet or an alley round the back of the venue.”
Interestingly, a report on Contact Music stated that Steve once asked the heavy metal band Megadeth’s frontman Dave Mustaine for sexual favors in return for performing on their album. Steve apparently demanded $100 and “some suction” for performing on the 1988 album ‘So Far, So Good… So What!’ However, no sexual favors were seemingly exchanged.
For all intents and purposes, it appears that Steve is straight, and at least some of his sexual encounters with men can be rooted in his troubled childhood. According to him, the experience is responsible for Steve ending up a “sex addict” and being unable to settle down with anyone.
Read More: Did Steve Jones Really Fire Glen Matlock from Sex Pistols? Why?
