Questions appropriated from an interview with Sid Vicious by Roberta Bayley in 1978.

Answers - circa 2011.

SID VICIOUS INTERVIEWED ‘78
A PHONE CONVERSATION WITH SID VICIOUS
Interview by ROBERTA BAYLEY

"The Sex Pistols American tour ended at Winterland in San Francisco, January14, 1978. Two days later the band had officially broken up. On January 20, Sid Vicious boarded a plane for London via New York. He passed out en route, an apparent drug overdose, and was taken unconscious to Jamaica Hospital in Queens, New York. The biggest blizzard of the year had immobilized New York, so we spoke to Sid that night over the phone. He sounded very weak, but anxious to talk. He was lonely and bored."

Sarah: Do I start?

Roberta: Hello, Sid?

Sarah: Sarah.

Roberta: Sid?

Sarah: No. Sarah.

Roberta: This is Roberta.

Sarah: Hi, Roberta.

Roberta: I would but it’s snowing.

Sarah: Is that like a joke—like you would get "high" but...

Roberta: I don’t have a car and you can’t go on the trains.

Sarah: I can go on the trains and why should you have a car?

Roberta: We’re gonna come tomorrow. Do you think you’ll still be in tomorrow?

Sarah: Tomorrow I will be out.

Roberta: How are you feeling?

Sarah: Well. Productive. Well-fed.

Roberta: Nobody’s been up to see you or anything?

Sarah: Just Paul - and Chi Chi a few weeks ago. I feel weird inviting people to Riverside. It's like this big thing for me and then they'll get here and be all like, "oh." My place is small. But I have fetishized my fully stocked (almost pristine) liquor cabinet to make up for the lack.

Roberta: It’s so miserable outside. I guess you can see it on television.

Sarah: No television here. Perhaps I can hear the bad weather on the television next door through the wall. Is a clear, mildly cool nighttime considered "bad weather"?

Roberta: How long you been in there - just last night?

Sarah: A week and a half, more like it.

Roberta: What happened to everybody else? Who was on the plane with you?

Sarah: Everybody else is out there in their own circles of normal and irregular living. I have not been on a plane since September of last year.

Roberta: Yeah, you get drunk faster.

Sarah: On the plane? I haven't noticed that to be true.

Roberta: Do you have a TV at least?

Sarah: No.

Roberta: Yeah, magazines or something, huh?

Sarah: Yeah, magazines and books.

Roberta: I’ve got some great comic books.

Sarah: So do I. Somewhere.

Roberta: You don’t have any way to get in touch with him?

Sarah: Who?

Roberta: Well, what happened with this group of yours anyway?

Sarah: A group of friends? My friends are in Los Angeles and my schoolmates are spread across the Inland Empire like scholarly pushpins on a damaged map.

Roberta: Yeah, it seems like everybody left them.

Sarah: Everybody but the drunks and dogs.

Roberta: But what do Steve and Paul want to do?

Sarah: I'm not sure who Steve is, but Paul wants to create magic.

Roberta: That seems to be the general consensus.

Sarah: He will create magic with that electrified soul of his.

Roberta: Well, everybody’s just saying well what can he do now and nobody can ­figure out anything that he can do.

Sarah: That's what always happens with geniuses.

Roberta: Well, maybe this will shake him up a little bit?

Sarah: What? "This," in some sort of abstract way?

Roberta: Yeah, I guess in England everybody’s gonna be really upset about this. How do you feel about it?

Sarah: Everybody in England will be celebrating and jumping up and down. I feel good.

Roberta: The shows got worse instead of better.

Sarah: Television? There is more of it and therefore more bad of it.

Roberta: San Antonio. I thought that was best.

Sarah: Never been.

Roberta: No, that was Dallas. But I liked the one when you hit the guy with the guitar. (Randy’s Rodeo)

Sarah: I did that?

Roberta: Yeah, and John was jumping around a lot and the people were throwing lots of beer cans (at the band). That was a really exciting one. If the planes go out in the morning will you go back to London tomorrow?

Sarah: No.

Roberta: But they may not be letting the planes go…

Sarah: OK. But no.

Roberta: Yeah, you should. All kinds of people want to see you and everything. You’ve never been here before. You could have a good time. I mean you’re healthy enough to do it.

Sarah: I should go? Or stay?

Roberta: Well, what’re you going to do? If you go back to London, it’s just the same thing.

Sarah: I'm heading back to Venice tomorrow night...

Roberta: You have to straighten out for a while.

Sarah: Totally. I've been eating really well for the last three weeks. And Paul's got me eating a spoonful of coconut oil a day for my brain.

Roberta: You could. Just as an experiment.

Sarah: I am. I am.

Roberta: Well, your basic nature’s gonna get you in a lot of trouble.

Sarah: I hope so. In a good way.

From original:
(From DOA Film Book. 1981)
Researched and compiled by Phil Singleton.
The original of this feature is copyright to www.sex-pistols.net and and may not be reproduced without written permission.
All rights reserved.
All material ©www.sex-pistols.net