Sex Pistols icon Steve Jones' battle with sex addiction after being abused as child
The legendary Sex Pistols guitarist revealed a few years ago that he was sexually abused by his step dad in an isolated incident as a child. The effects of the childhood trauma had an impact on his adult life
The sexual abuse that Steve Jones faced as a child at the hands of his step father was felt throughout the rock star's later life.
Now 65 years old, the Sex Pistols musician struggled to form relationships in his adult life and descended down the route of sex addiction alongside his rock and roll lifestyle.
Steve's spiral into the murky world of sex is linked to an isolated incident he experienced when he was ten years old.
The musician spent the first few years of his life growing up with his mum and grandparents in London before his step dad came onto the scene when he was six.
At just ten years old, Steve was sexually abused by his step dad in one event that left an imprint on his later life.
“All I remember feeling immediately afterwards was a bit bewildered – just, ‘That was… odd," Steve said about the incident.
“But the consequences are still with me half a century later.”
Steve added: “I never told anyone about it for years and it feels strange putting this in a book even now.
“But knowing the damage... the confusion I felt makes me want to let anyone who’s been in a similar situation know they’re not alone.”
A few years ago, Steve penned a tell-all memoir called Lonely Boy where he spoke about engaging in sexual acts with men and women as a teenager.
Steve added: "It wasn't the end of the world. I wasn't locked in a dungeon or anything like that, but it did enough to send me spinning.
"It's not like I was wearing a badge that said, 'I have just been molested'
"But once it's happened for the first time I guess it's more likely to happen again, because from then on there's a little voice in your head that this is what normal is."
Carrying the childhood trauma with him into adult life, Steve was then propelled to fame in the 1970s as a guitarist in the Sex Pistols.
While the punk band ascended to stardom, as did Steve's appetite for sex.
He even slept with all his bandmates’ partners, including Sid Vicious’s girlfriend Nancy Spungen.
"Looking back, that's why I've never been able to settle with anyone and why I've ended up a sex addict."
Speaking to Vice about his sexual prowess in 2017, Steve said: "Hookers, hot chicks, f****** street people—anything.
However, he maintained that his womanising ways have settled down as of late.
"It was like, I didn't give a f***. I had this urge. It was bizarre, it got dark as well, you know. But I have no idea how many I've steamed into. But I don't really do it anymore—not that much anymore."
Alongside his sex addiction, Steve maintains that his childhood trauma made it difficult to forge meaningful relationships in later life.
"It's obviously fear of intimacy, and I just succumb to "OK this is my life," he continued during his conversation with Vice.
"It could be worse, I'm just going to roll with it." And I've been alone all my life and I'll be honest with you, at this stage of the game I don't like people over my house."
Jonesy now resides in Los Angeles where his radio show Jonesy's Jukebox has been a staple since 2004.
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