Sex Pistols
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50 free Sex Pistols trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Sex Pistols released a single studio album and a handful of singles, yet few bands have left a deeper mark. In roughly two and a half years they were dropped by record labels, banned by radio stations and blamed for the decline of the nation, all while writing songs that still sound like a dare. This quiz covers the songs first: the singles that made their name, the album tracks, the covers and the strange records released after the singer walked out. Around them come the stories every fan trades, from the television interview that made the band notorious to the court case over the album's title, the films, the reunions and the afterlives of the members. It suits anyone who knows the hits and wants to test the rest, whether you bought the records at the time or found them through the bands they inspired. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will leave with a few new stories of your own.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Sex Pistols singer John Lydon was renamed Johnny Rotten as a joke about the sorry state of his what?
Teeth
Teeth were the target: Lydon's had turned green from neglect when the nickname was coined. He finally had extensive dental work done in Los Angeles in 2008.
Q 02The Sex Pistols released "God Save the Queen" in 1977 to coincide with which royal celebration?
The Silver Jubilee
The Silver Jubilee marked 25 years of Elizabeth II's reign. Drummer Paul Cook insists the song was not written for it: the band had not even known the anniversary was coming.
Q 03Which song made famous by Frank Sinatra did Sid Vicious sing on a 1978 Sex Pistols single?
My Way
My Way became a top-ten hit in Vicious's snarling version, recorded in Paris with a string orchestra. Paul Anka, who wrote its English words, later said he felt Vicious was sincere about it.
Q 04Christopher Nolan said Sex Pistols singer Johnny Rotten helped inspire which villain in The Dark Knight?
The Joker
The Joker owed part of his sneering menace to Rotten, Nolan has said. It is quite a legacy for a frontman whose band's first run lasted barely two and a half years.
Q 05John Lydon joined the Sex Pistols after being spotted in which band's T-shirt, defaced with the words 'I Hate'?
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd's faces had not been spared either: Lydon had scratched holes through the members' eyes. He was 19 when the shirt won him an audition, held beside a jukebox in a clothes shop.
Q 06Outside which London landmark did the Sex Pistols hold a press ceremony to sign with A&M Records?
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace made a pointed backdrop for a band about to release "God Save the Queen". A&M tore up the contract within days and destroyed nearly every copy of the single it had pressed.
Q 07Which food did former Sex Pistols singer John Lydon advertise on British television in 2008?
Butter
Butter, of all things: Lydon fronted a campaign for the Country Life brand. He spent the fee on reuniting the group he had formed after his first band fell apart.
Q 08Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious was named after which pet of John Lydon's, one that had bitten him?
A hamster
A hamster called Sid did the biting, so Lydon passed its name on to his friend John Ritchie. Lydon later pushed for Ritchie to join the band, though he had never played bass.
Q 09Malcolm McLaren said Glen Matlock left the Sex Pistols for going on too long about which musician?
Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney was the excuse, but Matlock says he left by choice after falling out with Johnny Rotten. He is credited as a co-writer on 10 of the 12 songs on the band's only studio album.
Q 10Glen Matlock says the main riff of the Sex Pistols' "Pretty Vacant" was inspired by "SOS" by which pop group?
ABBA
ABBA were an unlikely source for a punk riff, but Matlock borrowed from them for the band's third single. He says he also wrote its words, taking his cue from Richard Hell's "Blank Generation".
Q 11Police cut short a June 1977 Sex Pistols gig held aboard a chartered boat on which river?
The Thames
The Thames trip took the band past the Houses of Parliament aboard a boat named, fittingly, the Queen Elizabeth. When it docked, 11 people were arrested, the band's manager among them.
Q 12Which TV presenter was suspended after goading the Sex Pistols into swearing live on air in 1976?
Bill Grundy
Bill Grundy egged the band on during his early-evening show, and they obliged. It aired only in the London region, yet it filled the tabloids for days and effectively ended his career.
Q 13Which fashion designer ran the King's Road boutique Sex with Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren?
Vivienne Westwood
Q 21The Sex Pistols got their infamous 1976 Today interview as last-minute stand-ins for which rock band?
Queen
Queen pulled out because their singer needed emergency dental surgery. A 2008 poll found the stand-ins' interview to be the most requested TV clip ever.
Q 22Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious reportedly taunted which rock frontman about bringing ballet to the masses?
Freddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury is said to have answered by calling him Simon Ferocious, then seized him by the collar and thrown him out. Their bands were recording in the same studios at the time.
Q 23Which institution inducted the Sex Pistols in 2006, only for the band to refuse to attend?
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Vivienne Westwood and McLaren had opened the shop in 1971 as Let It Rock, selling Teddy Boy revival gear. Renamed Sex, it became the hangout where the band and its look came together.
Q 14Which English actor played Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious in Alex Cox's 1986 film Sid and Nancy?
Gary Oldman
Gary Oldman twice turned the part down, saying he had little interest in punk, before his agent talked him round. Cox had first considered Daniel Day-Lewis for the role.
Q 15Which post-punk band did John Lydon form in 1978, months after walking out of the Sex Pistols?
Public Image Ltd
Public Image Ltd let Lydon shed the Rotten persona and chase a more experimental sound. Its debut single took aim at the way his old manager had exploited him.
Q 16The Sex Pistols split after a January 1978 show at the Winterland Ballroom in which US city?
San Francisco
San Francisco's Winterland, a former ice rink, closed out a chaotic US tour. Rotten played a single encore, asked the crowd whether they felt cheated, and quit the band days later.
Q 17Whose single officially kept the Sex Pistols' "God Save the Queen" from number one in the UK in 1977?
Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart held the top spot, though many suspect the chart was rigged. Sales in the label's own shops were left out that week, and a rival music-paper chart did put the band first.
Q 18A trip to which divided city inspired the Sex Pistols' fourth single, "Holidays in the Sun"?
Berlin
Berlin and its wall fascinated John Lydon, who said he loved the insanity of the place. The band went there after being thrown out of Jersey, where they had tried a real seaside break.
Q 19Which American band's 1991 album title, an echo of Never Mind the Bollocks, angered Sex Pistols singer John Lydon?
Nirvana
Nirvana's Nevermind made Lydon very angry when it appeared, though he later praised the band and called its biggest hit one of pop's all-time greatest. Kurt Cobain listed Never Mind the Bollocks among his 50 favourite albums.
Q 20A 1976 Sex Pistols gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall inspired the founders of Joy Division in which city?
Manchester
Manchester saw the band twice that summer, the first time before only a few dozen people. Those two crowds included future members of the Smiths, the Fall and Buzzcocks.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honours left the band cold, and Rotten dismissed the museum in unprintable terms. Steve Jones said that once you want to be put in a museum, the music is over.
Q 24Which punk band played its first ever gig as the Sex Pistols' support act in Sheffield in July 1976?
The Clash
The Clash had rehearsed with singer Joe Strummer for less than a month before that debut at the Black Swan. He had turned to punk after watching the Pistols open for his old pub-rock band.
Q 25"Pretty Vacant" earned the Sex Pistols their first appearance on which long-running BBC music show?
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops featured the band as the single climbed to number six. Filming its video took two days, because they were thrown out on the first for hurling lager cans at the cameramen.
Q 26Which fugitive criminal sang lead on the Sex Pistols' 1978 single "No One Is Innocent", recorded in Brazil?
Ronnie Biggs
Ronnie Biggs had escaped from prison after the Great Train Robbery and was living in Rio, safe from extradition. Steve Jones and Paul Cook recorded with him there soon after the band's last show.
Q 27At a 1977 obscenity trial over a Sex Pistols album title, an expert said the offending word once described whom?
Clergymen
Clergymen were known for talking rubbish, the defence argued, which is how the word came to mean nonsense. The magistrates, much as they deplored the record, reluctantly found the shop manager not guilty.
Q 28Which record label dropped the Sex Pistols in January 1977, then found itself mocked by name in an album track?
EMI
EMI lasted only three months with the band before the storm over their TV swearing forced it to let them go. They hit back with a gleeful diss track named after the label.
Q 29Which 1950s rocker first recorded two songs that Sid Vicious sang on hit Sex Pistols singles in 1979?
Eddie Cochran
Eddie Cochran's "Something Else" and "C'mon Everybody" both reached number three for the band. The first, issued weeks after Vicious died, outsold every other single under the Sex Pistols name.
Q 30Which Stooges cover was the only encore, and the last song, of the Sex Pistols' final concert in January 1978?
No Fun
No Fun closed the show, with Rotten turning its title into a verdict on the whole tour before walking off. The band had released their version as a B-side the previous summer.