OT non sports the Boss

[JimStinson]

Originally Posted by Michael B

Tommy Ramone, the last original member of the Ramones, passed away Friday, July 11th at the age of 65. He played drums on the first 3 albums before being replaced by Marky (Mark Bell, formerly of Richard Hell & the Voidoids). He was assistant producer on the first album, producer on the next three and on 1984's 'Too Tough to Die". He is listed as the producer under his real name of Tommy Erdelyi. I never had the chance to see him with the Ramones. I did see him with his life partner of 40 years, Claudie Tienan, in their band Uncle Monk. You would have never guessed seeing this 60+ year old man in glasses and long gray hair playing bluegrass, country and american standards was the drummer for one of the most groundbreaking bands of all time. I was supposed to see him in April, 2013 in a small club in Virginia on a tour with original Sex Pistol Glen Matlock, but he had to pull out due to illness (bile cancer). He was replaced by Syl Sylvain of the New York Dolls. His chops were most evident on songs like 'Blitzkrieg Bop', 'Teenage Lobotomy' and the two surf covers 'California Sun' an 'Surfin' Bird'.
RIP Tommy -

Oh the Ramones ...Some levity , I had a friend /customer named John Cummings that I used to talk on the phone to for at least twice a week over 10 years ....I heard that Johnny Ramone was a big time baseball collector so I wanted to introduce myself , I knew a NY attorney who represented a lot of acts including the Ramones. So I asked him for a possible introduction. He called me back about 15 minutes later and could not stop laughing.....I asked him "whats so funny?" and he said "does the name John Cummings ring a bell?" and I said yea John is a friend of mine .......and he laughed and said ...well you are already friends with John Ramone. Next time I talked to John on the phone I asked him why he didn't tell me and he said "Its just a little rock & roll band ...No big deal".... finally I got invited to a concert on their World tour when I was in Hawaii , they were in Japan and got snowed in ......I showed up at the venue and there were about 300 angry fans , security told me it was a good idea to leave quickly. Never got to meet him, but felt like I knew him....should have known something was up when I called him and his answering machine consisted of a guitar riff and a BEEP !
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