Former Sex Pistol, Rich Kid and Philistine Glen Matlock plays Hotel Cafe and Alex’s Bar this week, so we had a chat about those shows and his new album, Good to Go…

L.A. WEEKLY: Do you enjoy coming to California?

GLEN MATLOCK: Yeah, I get there at least once a year normally. I was there maybe just over a year ago — I did that LAMF thing with Clem Burke, Walter Lure and Mike Ness. That was fun. I’m coming back to do some of my stuff again. I haven’t really stopped this year, so it’s good for the air miles if nothing else.

You’re touring the Good to Go album…

It’s an album I made with Slim Jim Phantom on drums for most of the songs, Earl Slick, who’s just been touring with me, on guitar, and a couple of other people contributed. It’s a collection of songs that you should hear. It came out at the end of September, early October, and it’s still not really released in the States so it’s a new album as far as you guys are concerned.

Some of the Pistols guys live here — I just saw Steve (Jones) and Paul (Cook) with Generation Sex. Do you stay in touch?

Paul doesn’t live there but he gets there now and again. We’re in touch in fits and starts. I saw Paul about six weeks ago, but everybody’s busy doing their own things. You don’t always run into each other.

Any action with your band the Philistines?

No, that’s a long time back now. To be honest, that was just a name for the motley collection of people I got together. Something to call it. Basically they were Philistines. I wasn’t a Philistine, but they were.

What can we expect from the set?

I’m doing some acoustic shows. I’m the punk rock Bob Dylan, kind of. Not really, but I’ve been doing these kind of shows all around the world for the past 10 or 20 years now. I really enjoy doing them. It’s a bit like Bruce Springsteen doing his big thing on Broadway. It’s my one man show, basically.

It’ll be career-spanning?

Yeah, I do things from all aspects of my career. The beauty of doing that is I’m not dependent on whether the band know a song or not. I can do any song at the drop of a hat. If somebody shouts out for something, I can normally make a good fist of it and if it goes wrong I can turn it into a laugh anyway. But all the songs tend to hang together. Every solo record started life on one of my acoustic guitars.

What’s next?

Then we have some band shows in Japan. We play the Fuji Festival in July. If the American shows go well, mainly we’ll be back in September with a full band. If you guys come on down, you’ll get more Matlock. You might not think that’s a good thing but I do and I know what’s good for you. I’m right. I’m old enough to be right.

Glen Matlock plays at 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 13 at Hotel Cafe; then with Robb and Patrick of LIMBECK at 8 p.m. on Saturday, June 15 at Alex’s Bar.

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