From Sex Pistols days to what makes a good song, Glen Matlock bares it all

Standing in front of the mirror mimicking the bass guitarist from his favourite band, The Faces, 14-year-old Glen Matlock never would've guessed he would be headlining with them years later in 2011 at Japan's Fuji festival. It was the death of his idol Ronnie Lane – the bass guitarist for The Faces and the sole reason Matlock chose the bass guitar – that allowed him a chance to perform with them in front of a crowd of over 50,000 people. Today, however, his memories of the band include nonchalant run-ins at their residence in London. "On one particularly hot day, I was sitting on the step outside smoking a cigarette when two people walked past with their dog and one of them was Ronnie Wood (the guitarist from The Faces), who later came in for a cup of tea."

Matlock, the former bass guitarist of the 1970s British punk rock band Sex Pistols, was in Mumbai performing at the Hard Rock Cafe (HRC) on August 10 with Shriram Alluri, a Hyderabad born-and-bred Telugu and English singer-songwriter. The live concert at HRC was also a stroke of fate when Alluri submitted his cover of the Sex Pistols song Anarchy in the UK, which incidentally he had been playing only to entertain his two-year-old nephew. Of the many collaborations, Matlock has had in the past, working with an Indian artist was a first for him. "It doesn't really matter if they're Indian, Irish or Martian, as long as they know what they're doing. With Alluri, it's been fine. I like the guy and I like the music we create together so it's been a lot of fun," he says.

Having worked with a fair share of American and British music veterans, Matlock clearly has his favourites picked out and from whom he draws influences. Some collaborations include Iggy Pop, who Matlock regards as "America's greatest living poet", Ian Hunter (from the band Mott the Hoople), American punk rock guitarist Johnny Thunders, and Mick Ronson the guitarist in The Spiders from Mars, who also produced Matlock's short-lived band Rich Kids.

Yet the bassist is fondly remembered for his stint with Sex Pistols, which ended in 1977. And with their last reunion held a decade ago, Matlock says he would like to live in the present. "When we get into a room – drumsticks out, amps plugged in and set the microphones up – we are the Sex Pistols and that is something to be celebrated. We will always have that legacy and we can't shrug it off."

The Pistols were made famous for their controversial songs from the '70s album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. Songs like God Save The Queen had lyrics that went: God save the queen, she's not a human being, and there's no future, and England's dreaming. However, Matlock's latest album Good To Go, which will be releasing next month has been labelled as 'far removed' from anything he did before. "I've got Slim Jim Phantom formerly from the Stray Cats and Earl Slick from David Bowie's band, who also played with John Lennon, and he's great but don't tell him I said that," he laughs.

On the rock and roll scene for four decades now, Matlock finds no change in the genre. "Every good record that comes out has got an immediacy to it. This can be equated with Elvis Presley, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, Sex Pistols or even Guns N' Roses, though I've never been a big fan of their work. What it boils down to is this – a good song is all about performing it with the right attitude and the right set of trousers," Matlock concludes with a smirk.