In 1983 I was a roadie/driver/guitar tech for Johnny Thunders, who was formerly in The New York Dolls, who were on the Anarchy in the UK tour with... The Sex Pistols and The Clash back around 1976 (The Year I graduated from high school). This was immediately after Johnny Rotten's "Fuck the Queen" quotation hit the headlines of every rag in Europe. It was the dark flip-side of the Beatlemania phenomenon. Very intense.
Sid Vicious and Johnny Thunders were birds of a feather and long-lost-brother soul mates (A relationship which was absolutely platonic, I can assure you). Johnny Rotten, by comparison, was - and remains - a pathetic poseur.
I used to get enraptured by Johnny's "Sad Vacation": A wrist-slitting nihilistic punk-rock ballad about his sense of loss when Sid died. Sadly, Johnny has joined Sid now, along with Jerry Nolan, the drummer for that tour and for The Dolls, and I'm almost the only one left who remembers any of it.
Except for the bass player, Billy Rath. Wish I could find him. He was cool. Last I heard, he had a Swedish wife half his age. Rock on, Billy.
This was long before I re-emerged as an All-American boy. Long before.
You can call me Huc, you can call me Bald, but don't call me late for dinner.
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