Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren past away.

Malcolm McLaren, the former manager of the Sex Pistols and the man hailed as the godfather of punk, has died from cancer. He was 64.

McLaren recruited three local kids who frequented his Kings Road boutique — now called “Sex” — Glenn Matlock, Steve Jones and Paul Cook, and dubbed them the “Sex Pistols.” He first tried out Jones on vocals, but soon found a more suitable provocateur. As Charles M. Young wrote in his 1977 RS Sex Pistols cover story, “One of the regulars at Sex was a kid named John Lydon, who was distinguished on three counts: 1) his face had the pallor of death; 2) he went around spitting on poseurs he passed on the street; and 3) he was the first to understand the democratic implications of punk — rather than pay ten pounds for an ugly T-shirt with holes in it, he took a Pink Floyd T-shirt, scratched holes in the eyes and wrote I HATE over the logo. McLaren stood him in front of the jukebox, had him mouth Alice Cooper’s ‘I’m Eighteen’ and declared him their new lead singer. Jones noticed the mung on Lydon’s never-brushed teeth, and christened him Johnny Rotten.”

McLaren amped up the new band’s notoriety with a stunt that featured the Pistols performing “God Save the Queen” on a barge during the same week of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. McLaren was arrested before the stunt was pulled off, but the single immediately topped the British charts. After releasing Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, the band embarked on a tour of the U.S. and ultimately split. For years, McLaren and Lydon fought over the Sex Pistols’ copyright and royalties in a rift that was never healed.
Later in his career, McLaren became a well-known musician in his own right. His 1983 hip-hop-flavored album Duck Rock produced the U.K. Top 10 singles “Buffalo Gals” and “Double Dutch.” A year later, McLaren also had a hit with “Madame Butterfly,” a song inspired the opera of the same name. McLaren’s “About Her,” a remix of the Zombies’ “She’s Not There,” was featured in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill 2. A punk renaissance man in the truest sense, McLaren was also an author, film producer and reality TV star. 

Look back at the Sex Pistols’ career in photos.

Until next time keep rockin'
The 0800 Jukebox crew.
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