Punk History Quotes

I think people are too hard on the Pistols. The Pistols started the whole punk thing and never saw much money.

There are several books out on punk history, but I haven't read any of them. I was there.

We had no money, and we had to go through 'punk' school. We ended up living in the rehearsal room that used to be the Sex Pistols rehearsal room at Malcolm McLaren's office. So we had this sort of interesting beginning.

I mean, gosh, my first tours I ever did were with the Ramones and Iggy Pop and Love & Rockets.

I definitely care about how the concept of New York punk was constructed, and why it mattered. But I wasn't gonna do that. Partly because I'm not a great journalist...

The last true punk band to get a major label contract was The Dickies.

The thread of culture that runs through the entire history of punk is also a dedication to challenging the authoritarian.

[Replying to the question of the presenter: "where did the name "Sex Pistols" come from, who thought this name up?"] Some animal. I can't remember. It doesn't matter. It's history.

Punk rock has never really had much patience with musical virtuosity. Actually, it'd be more accurate to say that for most of its history, punk has been actively hostile to virtuosity.

I'm not talking about what came later [after the American underground punk scene], indie music, or whatever you want to call it, but the music that came before that - that's an important story. So many interviews with musicians get the time or context wrong. You have these older bands, usually men, who tell stories about "Oh, we got into this huge fight, this guy punched that guy," that's the wrong sort of story. My view of the time is truly pioneering.