10 Things You Didn’t Know About Sid Vicious

The name Sid Vicious brings up all sorts of images of debauchery, mayhem and general rock ‘n’ roll delinquency. Whether he intended to or not, the Sex Pistols member left behind quite the legacy.

Sadly, the world never got to know Vicious as an older and wiser adult — he died of a heroin overdose in 1979 at the age of 21. Both in life and death, Vicious became a symbol for the motto “live fast, die young.”

As with many wild-spirited artists like Vicious, there is much that fans will likely never truly understand about his life, but it can be fun to look back on some of the most interesting things about him. Here are 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Sid Vicious.

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1. He Got His Name From Johnny Rotten’s Pet Hamster

We were not there personally to witness this, but the story is that Vicious got his name when his bandmate John Lydon‘s pet hamster, also named Sid, bit him. Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, described the hamster’s bite as “vicious” and the name stuck. Lydon has also said that he started calling Vicious “Sid” because he was a fan of Syd Barrett from Pink Floyd.

2. He Was a Fan of the Pistols Before He Joined the Band

There is a photo out there of the Sex Pistols performing at the Nashville Rooms in Kensington in the spring of 1976. Also in the photo is Vicious, who was then not a member of the band but simply a big fan, a friend of Lydon’s and the life of the party, or gig in this case. “Sid was unformed,” his friend John Wardle recalled to The Guardian in 2009. “He didn’t have any boundaries and he didn’t have any role models.”

Watch the Sex Pistols Perform Live in 1976, Pre-Sid Vicious

3. He Played Drums in Siouxsie and the Banshees Before the Pistols

The audio quality in the below video is, in a word, awful. But it’s also historic because not only was it Siouxsie and the Banshees’ first live performance, it featured Vicious on drums. That would turn out to be his one and only gig with them and you’ll find out why in the next entry…

4. He Did Prison Time for Blinding a Woman

The day after Vicious performed with Siouxsie and the Banshees, he went to see the Damned perform at the same festival. Vicious, clearly under the influence, was upset that Dave Vanian had been chosen for the lead singer position of that band, and attempted to throw a beer glass at him. He missed and the glass shattered against a pillar, sending pieces flying everywhere which led to a young woman at the show being blinded. Vicious was arrested and sent off to Ashford Remand Centre.

5. He Only (Kind of) Played Bass on One Sex Pistols Studio Song Ever 

Yes, Vicious was the second bassist in the Sex Pistols but that did not mean he was good at playing bass. In fact, he was so bad at it that guitarist Steve Jones played bass on the Pistols’ debut album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols. Even the one track they let Vicious try in the studio, “Bodies,” was overdubbed by Jones. It didn’t help that Vicious wasn’t around much anyway on account of being hospitalized for hepatitis. “Actually, it was a relief because he couldn’t play,” Jones told Forbes in 2022. “So it made it a lot easier for me to say, ‘Look Sid, leave it out. I’ll just play.’ It worked out for the best, I think.”

6. He and Chrissie Hynde Almost Got Married

This is going to sound a bit crazy but at one point Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders hatched a plan to marry Vicious in order to retain her green card that allowed her, an American, to stay and work in England. But on the day they planned to do this, the register office was closed. They planned for the next day instead, but Vicious got tied up in some trouble with the police and didn’t make it. “Sid was very sweet and very honest,” Hynde recalled to The Independent in 2003. “He really told you what he thought. He was so non-discriminating.”

7. He May Have Invented the Pogo Dance Move

The pogo dance move is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: an up and down jumping movement that makes one resemble a bouncing pounce stick. Now, we can’t exactly prove this definitively, but multiple people who were part of the punk rock movement, including Viv Albertine of the Slits, Shane MacGowan of the Pogues and Vicious himself, claim that it was Vicious who invented the move.

8. He Once Assaulted Patti Smith’s Brother

Violence was a familiar phenomenon in Vicious’ life. In 1978, an incident of conflict took place at a New York City club called Hurrah between Vicious and Patti Smith‘s brother, Todd. A band named Skafish was playing that evening, with Todd working for them. According to frontman Jim Skafish’s own blog, Vicious was flirting with the band’s drum tech, Tara, who was dating Todd at the time. Long story short, when Todd calmly asked Vicious to stop, an altercation ensued that involved Vicious smashing a beer bottle across Todd’s face. Todd didn’t fight back, and Vicious was arrested and sent to Rikers Island for 55 days.

9. There Is a Plaque in Tulsa, Oklahoma Dedicated to Where Vicious Punched a Hole in a Wall

The only thing more punk rock than punching a hole in the wall is having that hole immortalized with a plaque long after your passing. If you visit the backstage of Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a venue that’s hosted everyone from Hank Williams to Robert Plant to Jack White, you will see that this is exactly what was done to the hole Vicious punched there back in 1978. Cain’s was one of only seven venues played by the Pistols in 1978 during their one and only North American tour.

10. His First Show With the Sex Pistols Was Filmed by Don Letts

For those that did not attend the Sex Pistols first show with Vicious, which we’re going to assume is most people reading this, the next best thing is probably Don Letts’ Punk Rock Movie, released in 1978. In it, you can see Vicious’ debut with the Pistols, which took place on April 3, 1977. “I have conflicting memories of him,” Letts recalled in a 2003 interview with 3:AM Magazine, “but being direct with you, he wasn’t the monster that the press made him out to be. In fact, I remember him as shy and quiet, gullible even. I remember time after time, he used to complain to us that he had been beaten up when he went out clubbing. He believed his own press which is just so sad, whilst in reality, I’d go so far as to say he was a wimp.”