"I pretty much grew up when punk was big in the UK. The Sex Pistols were heroes for me. I used to run around like Johnny Rotten. I had a jacket like his"
About this Quote
The telling detail is the imitation. “I used to run around like Johnny Rotten” isn’t about musical technique; it’s about identity as performance. Rotten’s genius was never polish but attitude weaponized into a persona - the sneer as armor, the body as a provocation. Rossdale remembers copying the movement, not the chords, because punk’s real curriculum was behavioral: how to take up space when you feel powerless.
“I had a jacket like his” lands like a small confession about the way subcultures travel through objects. Clothes become a portable manifesto, a way to signal tribe before you’ve earned your own voice. It’s also a quiet admission that rebellion starts, awkwardly, as mimicry. Rossdale’s later career - arena-sized alternative rock with punk DNA but pop reach - makes the nostalgia legible: punk wasn’t a destination, it was the first vocabulary he tried on. The jacket is the receipt.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Rossdale, Gavin. (n.d.). I pretty much grew up when punk was big in the UK. The Sex Pistols were heroes for me. I used to run around like Johnny Rotten. I had a jacket like his. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-pretty-much-grew-up-when-punk-was-big-in-the-uk-53176/
Chicago Style
Rossdale, Gavin. "I pretty much grew up when punk was big in the UK. The Sex Pistols were heroes for me. I used to run around like Johnny Rotten. I had a jacket like his." FixQuotes. Accessed February 2, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-pretty-much-grew-up-when-punk-was-big-in-the-uk-53176/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I pretty much grew up when punk was big in the UK. The Sex Pistols were heroes for me. I used to run around like Johnny Rotten. I had a jacket like his." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-pretty-much-grew-up-when-punk-was-big-in-the-uk-53176/. Accessed 2 Feb. 2026.

