Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock has shared an amusing anecdote about a meeting with David Bowie in New York.
Matlock told the story while appearing as a guest on a new episode of Never Mind The Buzzcocks which is set for broadcast tonight (October 16) on Sky Max and NOW in the UK. He is joined on the show by Courtney Love, The Zutons' saxophonist Abi Harding, Jamali Maddix, Joel Dommett, Noel Fielding and host Greg Davies, for what's billed as a 'rock-themed' episode of the popular music quiz.
Matlock's story dates back to 1980, when he was touring with Iggy Pop, having worked with the Detroit punk legend on Pop's fourth album, Soldier.
“We played an extra club gig in New York and David Bowie came,” he begins “And he’s got the same car [shown below] and driver [Tony Mascia] as in [Nicolas Roeg's 1976's film] The Man Who Fell To Earth, right? We all bundled in that, going down Madison Avenue, and I’m sitting on David Bowie’s knee because there’s nowhere to sit.”
“And in those big limos, there’s supposed to be two vanity mirrors, right, and he hasn’t got a vanity mirror, he’s got a little painting. I went, Hang on a second, that’s a Picasso, ain't it? And he went, ‘Yeah, it is’. Then I looked [to the other side of the car] and went, Hang on, that’s a Matisse! In his car…
He said, ‘Yeah’. I said, Well you’re a flash cunt!, and he went, ‘Yeah, I guess I am’.”
In an interview last year with The Times, Matlock revealed that touring with Iggy Pop meant that he was confronted with the singer's penis on a nightly basis.
“The problem with flashing your willy on stage is that you have to get ready to flash your willy on stage, and he always did it in front of me,” he recalled. “I got a bit fed up with seeing it, to be honest.”
