10 Bands Who Quit Music At The Peak Of Their Success

2. Sex Pistols

It’s no secret that the members of the famed Sex Pistols line-up of 1977 hated each other, their record label, society, and pretty much everything else in life. Even though the iconic line-up of Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious, Paul Cook and Steve Jones lasted less than a year, Sex Pistols are seen as one of the most culturally influential bands in music history and made a splash on society that every other punk band can only dream of.

Originally forming in 1975 but not settling on the ‘big’ line-up until Sid Vicious replaced Glen Matlock in February 1977, the band enjoyed their first taste of stardom a few months earlier on 1st December 1976 thanks to the infamous ‘Bill Grundy Incident’. On a televised Thames Television interview, a visibly drunk Bill Grundy got called a ‘f**king rotter’ by Steve Jones after Grundy dared them to ‘say something outrageous’. Grundy was never seen on daytime TV programming again and Sex Pistols blew the roof off public conformity again with the release of ‘God Save the Queen’ in March 1977. The outlandish single was branded the ‘most heavily censored record in British history’ after most major record chains refused to stock it. On top of this, it was set to reach UK number one the week of the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations, but was allegedly forced into the number two spot to avoid a public outcry.

After a disastrous US tour at the end of 1977 and early 1978, Sex Pistols split up and the members went their separate ways. Rotten went on to form Public Image Ltd in 1978, while Sid Vicious died in 1979 aged just 21.