Steve Jones Admits He Prefers Steely Dan To Sex Pistols: 'Is That Bad?'

As a cofounder of the Sex Pistols, Steve Jones helped change music forever.

And while he remains proud of his band's accomplishments, the fury and disenfranchisement Jones put into Sex Pistols' early music has largely stayed there.

He tells the Associated Press in a new interview that his temper and his tastes have mellowed considerably since the late-'70s.

"I don't particularly listen to punk rock anymore," Jones told AP. "My musical tastes have changed a lot over the years, you know, and I'm 66 years old. I'm not a kid anymore. I think it would be a bit silly if I was still flying that flag. ...I like Steely Dan. Is that bad?"

As the FX-produced biopic miniseries Pistol (which is based on Jones' 2016 memoir) illustrates, the punk boom of the late-'70s was a crucial time in music — a brief market correction after years of cultural bloat.

Punk and the Sex Pistols proved that you didn't have to be a virtuoso to create a valuable, resonant piece of art — you didn't even have to be very good. What you did need was something to say, and the Sex Pistols had that in abundance.

Asked about a potential Sex Pistols reunion, Jones isn't optimistic.

Pistol was given the green light by every surviving member of Sex Pistols (plus the estate of late-bassist Sid Vicious), except for frontman John Lydon a.k.a. 'Johnny Rotten', who fiercely opposed the project.

Lydon took his former bandmates to court last summer in an effort to block the series, but ultimately lost his challenge. He later called his former bandmates "evil" for their handling of the Sex Pistols' legacy.

"I can't see it," Jones said of a reunion. "But you never know, man. This band — you never know."