Sylvain on McLaren

SYLVAIN & THE PISTOLS? Before assembling the Sex Pistols, Malcolm McLaren managed the New York Dolls during their final “red” period, and Dolls guitarist Sylvain Sylvain talked to RollingStone.com about the late visionary. “I always thought the most important member of the Sex Pistols was Malcolm McLaren,” Syl said. “When they got back together in the ’90s, I thought, ‘They’re missing their most important star, and that was Malcolm.’” Syl also revealed that McLaren had initially earmarked him as the frontman for the Pistols: “He had some photos from a photo booth, and on the back of them he would write things like, ‘We’re thinking of calling this one Johnny Rotten. He can’t sing, but he can definitely sing better than David Johansen!’ I just never went, basically. I signed to RCA and had my own band. I used to describe that letter to my friends, and they would say, “Sylvain’s full of shit.” When my mom died in 1991, I found it while cleaning her apartment in Brooklyn. On the back he wrote, ‘Please give this to your son, from a friend in England.’” Click on the link above to read the whole interview. (4/13a)