This chapter examines the cultural and philosophical affinities between William Burroughs and the punk movement of the 1970s–90s, beyond the familiar “godfather of punk” label. Guy Stevenson argues that Burroughs’ deeply anti-humanist, anti-romantic aesthetic resonated with punk’s rejection of 1960s idealism, particularly through shared interests in nihilism, satirical obscenity, and avant-garde techniques like the cut-up method. Tracing Burroughs’ influence on figures from Patti Smith and Iggy Pop to Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood, the chapter highlights his centrality to punk’s fusion of art, fashion, and political provocation. Burroughs emerges as both a prophetic critic of the counterculture he helped launch and a creative touchstone for a later generation disillusioned with its perceived hypocrisies. Punk’s Situationist roots and media-savvy irony are shown to mirror Burroughs’ own experiments in language, identity, and control, positioning him as a crucial, if ambivalent, figure in the evolution of Anglo-American radical aesthetics.