Background

John William Cummings was born in Queens on October 8, 1948, the only child of a construction worker of Irish descent. He was raised in the Forest Hills, Queens neighborhood of New York City, where he grew up absorbing rock music.

Education

John attended military school, and briefly attended college in Florida.

Career

As a teenager, Johnny played in a band called the Tangerine Puppets alongside future Ramones drummer Tamás Erdélyi (better known as Tommy Ramone). As a teenager, he was known as a "greaser", though he was later described as a tie-dye-wearing Stooges fan. He also worked as a plumber with his father before the Ramones became successful.

He met future bandmate Douglas Colvin, later to become Dee Dee Ramone, in the early 1970s while delivering dry cleaning. They would eat lunch together and discuss their mutual love of bands like the Stooges and MC5. Together they went to Manny's Music in New York City in January 1974, where Johnny bought a used blue Mosrite Ventures II guitar for just over $54. On the same trip, Dee Dee bought a Danelectro bass. They collaborated with future bandmate Jeffrey Hyman, later to become Joey Ramone, to form the Ramones with Richie Stern on bass. Stern left after a few rehearsals. Tommy joined the Ramones in the summer of that year after public auditions failed to produce a satisfactory drummer.

Johnny was responsible for initiating one of the major sources of animosity within the band when he began dating and later married Linda Daniele, who had previously dated Joey. Allegedly, this incident prompted Joey to write songs like "The KKK Took My Baby Away" and "She Belongs To Me", although it has been speculated that the song was actually written before the founding of the Ramones in 1974. Though the band remained together for years after this incident, relations between Johnny and Joey remained strained. Years later, when Joey was in the hospital dying of cancer, Johnny refused to telephone him. He later discussed this incident in the film End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones, saying an attempt at such a reunion would have been futile. He did add that he was depressed for a week after Joey's death. When pressed, he acknowledged that this was because of the bond forged by the band. In their road manager Monte Melnick's book about his time with the Ramones, Johnny is quoted as having said, "I'm not doing anything without him. I felt that was it. He was my partner. Me and him. I miss that."

Alongside his music career, Johnny appeared in nearly a dozen films (including Rock 'n' Roll High School) and documentaries. He also made television appearances in such shows as The Simpsons (1F01 "Rosebud", 1993) and Space Ghost Coast to Coast (Episode 5 "Bobcat").

On September 15, 2004, Johnny Ramone died in his Los Angeles home at the age of 55 after five years with prostate cancer, less than a month before his 56th birthday. Many of his friends and musical contemporaries came to pay their respects. After his death, his remains were cremated with his wife Linda retaining his ashes.

Achievements

• 

  Johnny Ramone appeared on Time's list of "The 10 Greatest Electric-Guitar Players". In 2012, he was ranked #8 on Spin's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". He is also ranked #28 on the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" list in Rolling Stone.
  
  Prior to Johnny's death in 2004, Arturo Vega had suggested a monument to Johnny. "I suggested some kind of monument... He agreed right away. The monument was my idea; the statue was his idea," relayed Vega. Shortly after Johnny's death, his wife Linda oversaw the creation and erection of an 8 ft tall bronze memorial statue of Johnny at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles. It was designed by Wayne Toth, based on a gift given by Rob Zombie, and was unveiled at a ceremony coordinated by Linda on January 14, 2005. Many of Johnny and Linda's friends spoke at the ceremony, including Zombie, Nicolas Cage, Eddie Vedder, Tommy Ramone, Vincent Gallo, John Frusciante, Seymour Stein, Pete Yorn and others.

Works

More photos

• music

  • Ramones

    ( )

    1976
  • Leave Home 1977
  • Rocket To Russia 1977
  • Road To Ruin 1978
  • End of Century 1980
  • Pleasant Dreams 1981
  • Subterranean Jungle 1983
  • Too Tough to Die 1984
  • Animal Boy 1986
  • Halfway To Sanity 1987
  • Brain Drain 1989
  • Mondo Bizarro 1992
  • Acid Eaters 1993
  • Adios Amigos 1995

Religion

Johnny Ramone was a Roman Catholic as noted in his autobiography Commando. Though he considered himself a religious Christian he did not attend church, due to physical abuse he suffered at the hands of nuns as a youngster.

Politics

Johnny was known within the punk rock community as one of its few conservatives, and was a staunch supporter of the Republican Party. He made his political affiliation known to the world in 2002 when the Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. After thanking all who made the honor possible - clad in his trademark T-shirt, ripped blue jeans and leather jacket - he said: "God bless President Bush, and God bless America". He said in an interview, when questioned on his conservatism, "I think Ronald Reagan was the best President of my lifetime." This was evident when the band released the UK single "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" in 1985; Johnny pressed for a name change, finding the title insulting to Reagan, and the song was retitled on American releases as "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)" after a line from the song's chorus. In this same interview he claimed that "Punk is right wing."

Views

Being almost exclusively a rhythm guitarist, Johnny was notable for solely using downstrokes throughout the entirety of his career, as well as his usage of full, six-string barre chords. This unique technique, combined with his characteristic high gain tone from his guitar amplifier, produced a guitar sound that was far more aggressive and rhythmic than that of his contemporaries, heavily influencing early punk rock groups.

For the most part, he disliked lengthy guitar solos, and consequently never attempted to gain much skill in this area of playing. Despite this, Johnny did play simple lead guitar parts on a small number of Ramones recordings, such as "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue" and "California Sun". A brief guitar solo can also be found on live versions of "I Can't Make It on Time", in which Johnny plays a descending E minor pentatonic scale, ending it off with a whole step bend. However, the infrequent guitar solos on the group's studio albums were usually overdubbed by Tommy Ramone, Ed Stasium, Daniel Rey, Walter Lure and other uncredited guests. Most of these small leads were only added in an attempt to give certain songs a more commercial appeal; they were not common on the band's albums.

Quotations: "I guess that before me, people played downstrokes for brief periods in a song, rather than the whole song through. It was just a timing mechanism for me."

"The Mosrites were light, and they were perfect for playing nonstop barre chords."

Personality

Joey was born sterile, so he never fathered any children. He also never married. Friends and family have credited him as being an extremely friendly, jovial, and caring person.

As noted in tour manager Monte Melnick's book On the Road with The Ramones, Johnny's father was a strict disciplinarian. Johnny is quoted as saying: "My father would get on these tangents about how he never missed a day's work. I broke my big toe the day I had to go pitch a Little League game and he's going, 'What are you – a baby? What did I do, raise a baby? You go play.' And even though my toe was broken I had to go pitch the game anyway. It was terrible. It would always be like that. I'm glad he raised me like that but it would always be, 'What are you – sick? You're not sick. What did I raise – a baby? I never missed a day's work in my life.' Then I went to military school, and in military school, you couldn't call in sick."

Physical Characteristics: Joey was distinctive due to his towering height of 6 ft 6 in (1,98m), ectomorphic form, and long shock of black hair that almost completely obscured his face. Joey was known to have suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Interests

• Sport & Clubs

  baseball

• Athletes

  New York Yankees

Connections

Johnny Ramone married his wife Linda in 1994 at the office of the city clerk in New York City. She had originally dated Joey Ramone but left him for Johnny. Joey and Johnny continued to tour as the Ramones after this, but their relationship worsened and they stopped talking to each other, even when Joey was bed-ridden due to lymphoma. In 2001, Marky urged Johnny to visit Joey, saying that "the window is closing", to which Johnny replied "let it close. He's not my friend." He later showed signs of regret in the documentary End of the Century, admitting that Joey's death had a profound impact on him emotionally and that he was depressed for "the whole week" after his death.

Wife:

Linda Ramone

Linda Ramone is an American philanthropist. She is the co-owner and a president of Ramones Productions and was the subject of numerous songs by the Ramones, including "Danny Says", "She's a Sensation" and "The KKK Took My Baby Away". She is the founder and president of the Johnny Ramone Army, an organization acting on behalf of Johnny Ramone's estate which holds live events and charity fundraisers, preserving his legacy.

colleague:

Linda S. Stein

Linda Stein was an American rock music manager and real estate broker. She was a manger of the Ramones.

References

• My Ramones: Photographs by Danny Fields
• Ramones at 40
• Commando: The Autobiography of Johnny Ramone
• Why the Ramones Matter
• Punk Rock Blitzkrieg: My Life as a Ramone
• I Slept with Joey Ramone: A Punk Rock Family Memoir
• Lobotomy: Surviving the Ramones
• Damone Ramone: A Rock and Roll Betrayal
• I Know Better Now: My Life Before, During, and After the Ramones
• Making Records: The Scenes Behind the Music