Ramone Quotes & Sayings

If I didn't like someone, I wouldn't want him calling me up when I was dying. I wouldn't want them having regrets that they didn't talk to me. — Johnny Ramone

When you get to know an artist, you find out the things that have peeved them over the years, and it's generally the stuff that has to do with somebody not wanting to do things their way in the studio. — Phil Ramone

Mum used to say we were the same soul split in two and walking around on four legs. It seems unnatural being born together and then dying apart. — Melodie Ramone

We didn't sell a lot of records, but somehow we left an impression. — Johnny Ramone

I never wore earplugs - that would have been cheating. — Johnny Ramone

I mean, like, rock n' roll was always about spirit and fun. — Joey Ramone

I've always admired people with really strong presences and felt that caring about the visual component of what you do is not intrinsically superficial or vain. — Dee Dee Ramone

Two of my biggest heroes were my father and John Wayne. — Johnny Ramone

Republicans let this happen over and over, and there is never anyone to stick up for them. They spend too much time defending themselves. — Johnny Ramone

Basically, Sam Phillips recorded Bill Haley, Johnny Cash, and all those other Memphis guys; Chuck Berry played the top two strings; Elvis appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show above the waist; the Beatles made all the girls squirm by singing about wanting to hold their "hands"; Ray Davies got lost in a sunset; Pete Townshend smashed his guitar; Brian Wilson heard magic in his head and made it come out of a studio; the Rolling Stones urinated on a garage door; and then (skipping a bit) you've got Joey Levine and Chapman-Chinn and Mott the Hoople and Iggy and the Runaways and KISS and the Pink Fairies and Rick Nielsen and Jonathan Richman and Johnny Ramone and Lemmy and the Young brothers and Cook and Jones and Pete Shelley and Feargal Sharkey and Rob Halford ... and Foghat. You get what I'm saying. It didn't happen in a vacuum, but it did happen, and now here we are in the aftermath. — Frank Portman

I will absolutely say that Johnny Ramone was a huge influence on me. I'm a giant Ramones fan. — Scott Ian

I never take medication for pain. I want to know if the pain is getting better or worse. — Johnny Ramone

I never liked blues and I really didn't like jazz. I liked Chuck Berry. — Johnny Ramone

The only band that I can see that made changes over the years with success was The Beatles. They were able to change album to album and still be just as good or better. I didn't feel that we were able to do that. The Beatles were in a class by themselves. — Johnny Ramone

I had a good career. I've been very fortunate. — Johnny Ramone

We were young. Love had a way of making us fearless because we knew that no matter what happened, if we fell on our face as we entered the ring or conquered the world in battle, in the end it would just be us, together. — Melodie Ramone

My favorite album would have to be Rocket To Russia. I feel this album has the most classic Ramones songs. — Johnny Ramone

I gotta think that one that becomes a philosophy of work, which is "no excuses." — Phil Ramone

Europe was a horrible place. There was nothing on TV. The food was terrible. And they don't even have ice. Who doesn't have ice? — Johnny Ramone

He checked in under the name Dee Dee Ramone and paid cash for his room. He — Stephen King

I didn't cry right away. I couldn't decide if it were sorrow or relief I felt that he was gone. I decided that it was both, but those are two emotions that are difficult to feel at the same time. — Melodie Ramone

Phil Ramone is very special. Barbra Streisand or Diana Ross ... they are the best. — Giorgio Moroder

He was seven years old the summer that his life ended. He'd always felt like his life was taken the moment that truck rammed into his father and sister. Or at least, the life he would have had was ended before it even began. — Melodie Ramone

I'm just a man, no more enlightened than any other. — George Pelecanos

In the naivete of their youth, they believed Fate to be a kind mistress. None of them were prepared for the beast that was about to pick them up by the throats and shake them until their teeth rattled. — Melodie Ramone

I get really affected by songs as a music listener - they mean so much and they feel so significant. — Dee Dee Ramone

I think the Internet shortens the distance between people, and that can often lead to inappropriateness. — Dee Dee Ramone

When I was a kid growing up in the '60s, music was an outlet for enlightenment, frustration, rebellion. It was more about individualism. Today it's just like a big business. — Joey Ramone

Kid's little binges, his forays into intoxication were affecting everyone now. They were affecting their goals and dreams. They were affecting Natasha. She was probably drinking just to deal with him. — Melodie Ramone

Some bands blow it before they even play. The most important moment of any show is when a band walks out with the red amp lights glowing, the flashlight that shows each performer the way to his spot on the stage. It's crucial not to blow it. It sets the tempo of the show; it affects everyone's perception of the band. — Johnny Ramone

Well, weight you can always lose, but hair you can't get back. — Joey Ramone

I love you, Silvia. I have always loved you. I loved you before forever began and I'll love you still after forever ends.
Oliver — Melodie Ramone

As soon as you start analyzing something it stops — Johnny Ramone

Sometimes the changes are good. Sometimes you think they're good and you end up disappointed. Other times you think life has handed you a lemon and it turn out to be a diamond. And there are other times when it just is what it is. It's not what you wanted, but there's nothing you can do about it, so you just have to accept what's happened and go on — Melodie Ramone

I'm really lucky I'm still around. Everybody expected me to die next ... But it was always someone else instead of me. — Dee Dee Ramone

Marriage is worse than dying. Why stay with one person for fifty years? We advise against marriage. — Joey Ramone

It reset and mended my freshly damaged and distorted view of life, and made me recognize that this thing we call music, this primal expression that we reshape and refine and define ourselves with, is the gift I was given. The ability to communicate what others feel but cannot fully express, the passing down and around of songs and stories, from Pete Townshend to Joey Ramone to me, to the audiences who take the time and effort to support our work and give us a way to support ourselves
I'm thinking this is what I am supposed to be doing. — Bob Mould

Rock n' roll is very special to me. It's my lifeblood. — Joey Ramone

One of the reasons that the Ramones were so unique and original was that they were four original, unique people. — Tommy Ramone

Life to me is an adventure and you've got to experience everything. — Joey Ramone

There's a side to being in a band that some people embrace and some don't: the fact that you're performing and you care about how it comes across. — Dee Dee Ramone

Ricky Nelson ... I couldn't believe it when he died. He was a great rock star. — Dee Dee Ramone

Rudeness is something I just can't tolerate. — Phil Ramone

Don't speak if you don't have to about trivia. The time for joking comes because of the trust, and you have to earn the trust. So, I don't alibi for anything, and I'll take the heat. That's the other thing. Don't let them take the heat. We take the heat. — Phil Ramone

It was a job, and I was just doing my job. — Johnny Ramone

We're playing at our level of ability. — Dee Dee Ramone

I'm pretty much looking for beauty all the time. It just seems like some days the light is better to see it. — Melodie Ramone

You know, punk bands now sell with one record - their first or second record - sell 10 times the amount of records than the Ramones did throughout their career with 20-something records. That's why I go over to Johnny Ramone's house and do yard work three times a week, just to absolve some of the guilt. — Eddie Vedder

The bigger the show, the better I'd play. It was what I was waiting for, and I'd never get nervous. — Johnny Ramone

But like all moments trapped in time, that moment would end and Joey Boldt, as all the greats before him did, would begin to understand that clinging too tightly to anything results in Time and Fate shaking you until you can't hold on any longer. And then, when you are knocked for a six and lose your grip, they allow you to spiral into a freefall where men are broken and legends are made. — Melodie Ramone

I didn't have the confidence to leave the band because of a solo career, or anything like that. I just wanted to grow. — Dee Dee Ramone

If a man can tell if he's been successful in his life by having great friends, then I have been very successful. — Johnny Ramone

I like California a lot more than New York these days. — Dee Dee Ramone

I was starting to play the ukulele at the same time I was having all these conversations with [the late Ramones guitarist] Johnny Ramone, these intense tutorials staying up late and listening to the music he grew up on, and picking up what's a great song and what makes a great song. He was all about lists and dissecting songs, like what's a better song by Cheap Trick: "No Surrender" or "Dream Police"? Sometimes you'd be surprised by the answer. It was an interesting dichotomy between hanging out with the godfather of punk rock and starting to play the ukulele. They came together. — Eddie Vedder

The main issue was deciding what to play: Should it be old Ramones material or new material? I had about three albums worth of new material, but I knew that people would rather hear the Ramones songs. — Dee Dee Ramone

It's very hard to tour. — Dee Dee Ramone

Substance should outweigh perfection ... — Phil Ramone

I think most bands probably peak on their first album. We peaked on our third album. On the first album, I feel like I wish the production was a little better. I'll always hear a song I don't like. I look for what I could have done to make it better. It's always difficult for me to listen. — Johnny Ramone

I am an old punk. — Dee Dee Ramone

No, I heard some of the staff talking. She's all bad, that one. They kicked her out of the Lollipop Guild for theft, yeah? And she did community service for bitch-slapping the Mayor of Munchkinland.
Alexander — Melodie Ramone

Billboard called my solo album, 'Standing In The Spotlight,' a great party album and even said that my raps put the Beastie Boys to shame. — Dee Dee Ramone

To me, punk is about being an individual and going against the grain and standing up and saying 'This is who I am'. — Joey Ramone

If you follow anything that I've ever done, I never stick to one thing more than one year. I'm just afraid to get typecast. — Phil Ramone

I'd like to congratulate myself, and thank myself, and give myself a big pat on the back. — Dee Dee Ramone

I couldn't do rap. I was trying. I don't know how. I'm not good enough to know. — Dee Dee Ramone

Rock 'n' roll is meant to entertain. Hippie folk singers are supposed to be singing about leftist views, but I don't think rock 'n' roll was ever that way. I don't remember the early rock 'n' rollers ever expressing any political views. — Johnny Ramone

I had a really intense flying dream most of my childhood into my teens. I would go out at night and fly all over the city and I could facilitate other people to fly with me. — Dee Dee Ramone

Because I'm quiet, people think I'm really cold, or rude, or snobby. But I'm literally scared to talk to them. — Dee Dee Ramone

I never sweat, which you might notice in pictures. — Johnny Ramone

Wondering what I'm doing tonight I've been in the closet and feel all right — Dee Dee Ramone

Hang in there. If you believe what you're doing is unique. Otherwise give up or sound like Nirvana or Pearl Jam. — Joey Ramone

Play before you get good, because by the time you get good, you're too old to play — Joey Ramone

Most frontmen are not born hams like David Lee Roth. We're more like Joey Ramone: awkward geeks who somehow find our place in the world on the stage. — Chris Cornell

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. — Tommy Ramone

I enjoyed my life when I had nothing ... and kinda like the idea of just being happy with me. — Joey Ramone

Dear Natasha,
It's the middle of the night. I can't sleep. Thoughts are creeping through my head like darkness slips around the bodies of sky scrapers in every city we've ever been to. From the bottom up, suffocating the life on the street first and then raising to the head and the brain, circling into smog and clouds until the black stretches up so high that nobody can even remember what the stars used to look like.
This is how I feel when I lie awake and think of you. I miss you. — Melodie Ramone

It's important not to be afraid ego-wise to share your information. — Phil Ramone

If your not in it you're out of it. — Joey Ramone

When you get talented people together with egos, this is kind of what happens. — Tommy Ramone

Metallica - they're so demonic, they're crazy, I don't know how they do it. — Dee Dee Ramone

We didn't do an American tour because it I know it wouldn't go down well. — Dee Dee Ramone

The Ramones own the fountain of youth. Experiencing us is like having the fountain of youth. — Joey Ramone

It's my estimation that every man ever got a statue made of him was one kind of a son of a bitch or another.
Malcolm Reynolds — Melodie Ramone

When I met Ronnie Spector, she walked in and said, 'You look like me.' — Dee Dee Ramone

I'm just honored that people still like us and people are still nice to me. — Johnny Ramone

Initially, I was very much concerned with having absolute control. But as time has gone by, I'm not. I mean, the whole first record was really just how I spent my free time: stoned and drinking coffee in my house, spending three hours on a song. — Dee Dee Ramone

I get starstruck really easily. I love music so much - it sounds so silly to say that - so if I'm playing a festival and somebody I love, like [Primal Scream's] Bobby Gillespie, is there in the backstage area, I'm like, "Wow this is amazing! There they are!" — Dee Dee Ramone

No one in the group was really growing up besides me, which is pretty weird 'cause there was no one in that group more self-destructive than I was. — Dee Dee Ramone

I hate to blow the mystique, but at the time we really liked bubblegum music, and we really liked the Bay City Rollers. Their song 'Saturday Night' had a great chant in it, so we wanted a song with a chant in it: 'Hey! Ho! Let's Go!'. 'Blitzkrieg Bop' was our 'Saturday Night'. — Joey Ramone

I think Ronald Reagan was the best President of my lifetime. — Johnny Ramone

I haven't done rap ... I can't do that too well. — Dee Dee Ramone

I think it would be nice to be a prince. — Dee Dee Ramone

When Liam stepped forward again, Derek's arm shot around me , a growl vibrating up from his stomach.
Liam put his hand out toward me. When Derek tensed he pilled back, then did it again, testing his reaction, laughing when he got one, untill even Ramone started to laugh.
"Check this out," Liam said. "I think the pup's got himself a mate. Isn't that the cutest thing? — Kelley Armstrong

Progression is important. I'm always going to play music in the general vein of rock'n'roll, but when I started I was very much associated with the West Coast lo-fi thing and I didn't want to get anchored in with anything that was just in vogue for the time being. — Dee Dee Ramone

I won't argue with you, but still it's secretly turning me into a hateful person. I figure that the best revenge, though, is to leave people to their own devices, and they will make their own lives hell. — Dee Dee Ramone

What they teach you in school doesn't prepare you for life. Textbooks don't compare to living in the real world. Rock and roll teaches you how to live. — Joey Ramone

I got tired of the Ramones around the time I quit and I really got into rap. I thought it was the new punk rock. LL Cool J was my biggest idol. — Dee Dee Ramone

Over time, I have realized that at 20, you can wear too much makeup and people assume you're a slut. Do it at 40 and they think you're a sea witch. — Melodie Ramone

'Rocket to Russia' is, I think, my favorite Ramones record. We reached our peak at that point. — Johnny Ramone

I didn't want the Ramones being told what to be doing, and I wanted the Ramones being presented in the right light - the remaining Ramones. — Johnny Ramone