Johnny Ramone - Career

Career

Johnny Ramone was born John Cummings on Long Island as 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. 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 was a lifelong New York Yankees fan. He also worked as a plumber with his father before the Ramones became successful, and at one point attended military school and briefly attended college in Florida.

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 Guitar Emporium in New York City in January 1974, where Johnny bought a used blue Mosrite Ventures II for $54 and change. On the same trip, Dee Dee bought a Danelectro bass. They collaborated with future bandmate Jeffry Hyman, later to become Joey Ramone and formed the Ramones, with the almost-unknown Richie Stern on bass, who left after a few rehearsals. Tommy Erdelyi, later Tommy Ramone joined the band in the summer of that year, after public auditions failed to produce a satisfactory drummer. Although Johnny Ramone wasn't as prolific a songwriter as his bandmates, particularly Dee Dee Ramone, his guitar style was a key part of the Ramones' sound and would become a major punk rock influence.

Johnny was responsible for initiating one of the major sources of animosity within the band when he began dating and later married Joey's ex-girlfriend. 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 the two remained cold and verbal communication was almost non-existent between the two. 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, and when pressed, 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 movies (including Rock 'n' Roll High School) and documentaries. He also made television appearances on such shows as The Simpsons (1F01 "Rosebud", 1993) and Space Ghost Coast to Coast (Episode 5 "Bobcat").