THE TRUTH ABOUT CHRISSIE HYNDE AND THE SEX PISTOLs
By WILLIAM KENNEDY
History - Science
As shown in Hulu and FX's "Pistol," based on the early days of the Sex Pistols, future Pretenders guitarist and lead singer Chrissie Hynde moved to London from her native Ohio. While there, she worked for a time with acclaimed rock journalist Nick Kent, but she eventually found herself out of work.
Unemployed, Hynde made her way to Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's influential fashion shop, SEX — and while there, she met Pistols guitarist Steve Jones, singer Johnny “Rotten” Lydon, and bassist Sid Vicious. She even nearly married Rotten and Vicious, just so she could stay and work in the country.
The marriage to Vicious was quite close to happening, but it was stopped when the couple found the local registrar's office was closed. Given her background with the Pistols, Chrissie Hynde, aged 70 when the "Pistol" series came out, acted as an advisor to the show.
In Hynde's 2016 memoir "Reckless: My Life as a Pretender," Hynde recalled this period, noting, "A teenage west London delinquent, Steve Jones, hung out around the shop. (I had no idea he had aspirations to play guitar; he had no idea I did, either.) Malcolm and Viv seemed to have taken him under their wing for some reason, to help keep him out of trouble."