I was born in Budapest, Hungary, and moved to the United States in 1956. It was during the Hungarian Revolution when Russian tanks rolled into Budapest, and my family - me, my brother, and my parents - escaped over the border to Austria. We just took whatever we could carry. It was perilous, but we made it across.
Tommy Ramone
It was never fun being in the Ramones, which is the saddest thing of all, cause it shoulda been fun. It was probably fun when we played Performance Studio, and maybe some of the early gigs at CBGB's. But the Ramones were the type of group that had a bizarre mindset. Being in the band was so cut off from reality.
We used to sit around and listen to the radio and not hear anything like the stuff we like, so we decided to play it ourselves.
I was always into bluegrass as a kid. Basically, I like music that has a basic simple structure and that has a lot of emotion and feel. Bluegrass and other old time music fits the bill, as well as what became punk - they both kind of have a similar framework.
The Ramones are an original rock and roll group of 1975, and their songs are brief, to the point, and every one a potential hit single.
The closest things to an influence would be people like Charlie Watts or Al Jackson. But I didn't really listen to drummers; I basically played what I thought was needed for the Ramones.
Dee Dee Ramone was the one who would go to Rockaway Beach, and he wrote that great song about it. He was the beach boy; he loved getting a tan and stuff, and he would ride the bus down Woodhaven Boulevard to Rockaway.
Groupies are just very enthusiastic fans, that's all.
The Ramones are the type of group where it took the world, like, 30 years to catch up with them. Because we were kind of breaking new ground, coming up with new ideas and different concepts which kind of blazed a trail for a whole new music scene, really.
The Ramones were inspiring a lot of bands that couldn't master their instruments.
Dee Dee got the name 'The Ramones' from Paul McCartney. McCartney would call himself Paul Ramon when he checked into hotels and didn't want to be noticed. I liked it because I thought it was ridiculous. The Ramones? That's absurd!
I've been a loner all my life, so it didn't bother me that Hungarian was my first language and that I had to learn English. I had a pretty heavy accent in junior high school and would say things like 'wolume control' instead of 'volume control.'
It wasn't just music in the Ramones: it was an idea. It was bringing back a whole feel that was missing in rock music - it was a whole push outwards to say something new and different.
When you're with a group of semi-psychotic people, you kind of lose track of reality; it's almost like being in some sort of cult or something.
In high school, I got into folk music, and I taught myself guitar. And when The Beatles came out, I got an electric guitar.
Even from the very beginning, the type of fans the Ramones generated were the kind of people who wound up running industry, who became professors and scientists. Our staunchest fans were always a little bit more on the outside, the type of people who didn't fit in with society.
Most of the people who are given these Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame things sell millions of records, so it's kind of like a trophy for them. But for the Ramones, it really was a symbolic gesture of, 'Yes, you guys are special and are important to rock n' roll.' So in that sense, the Roll Hall of Fame served its purpose.
Mostly I listen to old-time music, some bluegrass, some Americana stuff, too many to name. But of the younger acts, there are The Freight Hoppers, who were big in the '90s, and The Foghorn Stringband from Oregon, and there's a lot of young string bands coming up now, basically punkers who play acoustic instruments forming new bands.
The Ramones were not about having a good time. The closest thing probably was maybe Joey and Dee Dee might have had some good times, but it was almost like a work ethic. We were out there to basically to get the fans to see the Ramones.
In the early days, I was living with Dee Dee for a little while, and he was never around then, either. He would always be out. He was kind of an energetic guy who was always on the run.
There's been rumors going round. I never confirm any of them.
The first record was basically a quick, fast record. The second record, we were going for more of a poppier sound - like a heavy pop sound. For 'Rocket to Russia,' we'd sort of reached our pinnacle. We'd gotten really good at what we were doing, so that's like my favorite record - that's a really good record. It's just great from beginning to end.
The drums were new to me; I was just playing what was in my head. I was a guitar player originally - so on the drums, I just played what was in my head rather than caring too much about what others were playing. And in that way, I came up with a simple but unique style.
Bowie's 'Hunky Dory' influenced me. 'Ziggy Stardust' influenced Johnny Ramone a lot, especially his guitar parts.
We play short songs and short sets for people who don't have a lot of spare time.
Johnny was an athlete who didn't play sport. His first love was baseball, but he didn't think he had it in him to be a professional.
'Rockaway Beach' is a great song, and so is 'Listen to My Heart.'
Dee Dee very much filled in the bottom of our sound as opposed to supplying the rhythm.
The Ramones are not an oldies group; they are not a glitter group. They don't play boogie music, and they don't play the blues.
We all started calling ourselves 'Ramones' because it was just a fun thing to do.
Our music is an answer to the early Seventies when artsy people with big egos would do vocal harmonies and play long guitar solos and get called geniuses.
