Sex Pistols guitarist autobiography to William Heinemann

William Heinemann is to publish the autobiography of Sex Pistols rock guitarist Steve Jones. 

Publisher Jason Arthur acquired UK Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, to Jones’s Lonely Boy from Caspian Dennis at Abner Stein on behalf of Foundry Literary + Media.

Jones, who co-founded the Sex Pistols in 1972 with his schoolmate Paul Cook and Wally Nightingale, uses the book to tell his story "for the very first time". It charts Jones'  humble beginnings on the streets of Hammersmith and Shepherd’s Bush, West London, and describes the sadness of never knowing his dad while suffering abuse at the hands of his stepfather. It also talks about the sense of "purpose" the glam art rock scene gave Jones, influenced by David Bowie and Roxy Music, and how music and fashion "saved" him from a potential life of crime spent in remand centres and prison. From the Kings Road of the early seventies, through the years of the Sex Pistols, Punk Rock and the recording of Never Mind the Bollocks to his battles with alcohol, heroin and sex addiction, the book is touted as "the story of an unlikely guitar hero who, with the Sex Pistols, changed history".

Lonely Boy is written with music journalist and author Ben Thompson and will be published to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the release of the Sex Pistols first record, ‘Anarchy in the UK’, and his infamous confrontation on Bill Grundy’s Today programme.

Arthur said: "I couldn’t be more excited to be publishing Steve’s autobiography in November. It’s not only a must-read for any fan of popular music, brilliantly and compellingly told, but also a brazenly honest and disturbing psychological study of a boy who, against the odds, was destined to transform twentieth-century culture and kick-start a social revolution."

Lonely Boy will be published in hardback, by William Heinemann, and as an e-book on 17th November 2016. A Windmill paperback will follow in October 2017.