The Sex Pistols’ highly anticipated return to North America will have to wait. The band announced Friday that their 50th anniversary tour with Frank Carter has been postponed after guitarist Steve Jones suffered a broken wrist. The tour was set to begin Sept. 16 at Dallas’ Longhorn Ballroom, marking the group’s first shows on the continent in more than two decades.
Jones shared the news himself in a message to fans on Instagram, delivering the update with his signature dark humor. “I’ve got some good news and bad news. What do you want first?” he wrote. “Okay, the bad news: I’ve broken my wrist, so unfortunately we won’t be doing any shows for a while.”
The guitarist, who turns 70 this weekend, reassured fans that his recovery should not be long-term. “The good news is the surgeon said I will be back playing guitar in the not-too-distant future,” he added. Jones then quipped, “The other good news is I’ll be 70 tomorrow! God bless, and God save the wrist.”
Alongside the North American run, the band also postponed its scheduled shows in South America. According to the statement, all dates will be rescheduled once Jones is fully healed, with updates to be posted on local venue websites and the group’s social media channels.
The anniversary trek had generated significant buzz among punk fans. The lineup features Jones on guitar, Glen Matlock on bass, and Paul Cook on drums, joined by Frank Carter of Gallows as the new frontman. Together, they planned to perform the band’s landmark 1977 album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols in its entirety, alongside additional tracks from the group’s catalog.
The concerts would have marked the first time the Sex Pistols performed in North America since 2003, when the band reunited with original vocalist John Lydon, better known as Johnny Rotten. Lydon, however, is not part of the current reunion and has been openly critical of his former bandmates’ decision to continue under the Sex Pistols name without him.
In interviews earlier this year, Lydon dismissed the anniversary tour as an inauthentic revival. Speaking to the Independent in April, he described the shows as “a clown’s circus at work.” He went further, saying: “Sorry, I’m not going to give a helping hand to this any longer. As far as I am concerned, I am the Pistols, and they’re not.”
He echoed those sentiments in a separate interview with NME, where he called the performances “karaoke presentation,” implying that without him, the concerts lack the spirit and chaos that defined the Sex Pistols at their height.
Despite Lydon’s barbs, anticipation for the shows had been high, in part because Carter, known for his visceral stage presence and uncompromising vocals, was seen as a fitting torchbearer for the band’s anarchic energy. The pairing of a new frontman with the surviving core of the Pistols offered the potential for both nostalgia and reinvention.
For now, fans will have to wait until Jones makes a full recovery before the Sex Pistols can bring that vision to the stage. No new dates have been confirmed, but the band has promised rescheduled shows in both North and South America. While the delay is a setback, the tour remains one of the most significant planned punk reunions in recent years.
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