It's the 10th Anniversary of Joey Ramone's Death today. It's also tax day. Both heavy thoughts for me.
The Ramones are one of my all time favorite bands. I finally saw them play in I think 1996 or 1997 in what is now The Avalon in LA with my friend Andrea Pilot. We bounced our heads to every one, two, three, four beat until we had head and neck aches, laughed so hard we cried. Awesome! It was also one of The Ramones last shows if not their last. I have an autographed framed album with all the original Ramones signatures, an ex left it behind when he moved out of our East Village apartment years ago.
Shortly after the LA show I met Joey Ramone at The Viper Room. The Viper Room was my Cheers. Every night I showed up drank, danced, reeked havoc, was promptly tossed out by the big body guard for being obnoxious. One night I walked into a semi-packed upstairs and right into Joey Ramone, I of course had to engage in a conversation, I cornered him, told him I enjoyed the show and then opened up a slew of questions, screaming above the piped in music. Later I found out that he had many phoebias which I am sure I trigged all of them in our meeting. Sorry Joey. I was very sad to learn about his death in 2001.
While at Gibson I had the honor of working with Marky Ramone on a short lived project for Slingerland Drums. Marky is really sweet and his wife is lovely. The highlight of our months together was taking Marky to Les Paul's show at The Iriduim and introducing him to Les.
Someone remind me to write about Les please. I have so many stories I would love to share and it's almost his birthday, I'll do that in his honor, I miss him very much.
To this day I still blast The Ramones and dance around my living room. I love Rock N Roll High School the Movie, which is also my friend Tara's favorite. It takes me back to a happy fun time in music, when punk was simple and had a sense of humor. I'm an LA punk girl at heart X being my all time fav but The Ramones were my first along with The Sex Pistols. Thanks guys for the memories and for standing the test of time.
