{"id":524,"date":"2024-04-16T15:46:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-16T15:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjramone.com\/?p=524"},"modified":"2024-09-16T15:47:42","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T15:47:42","slug":"how-cj-ramone-is-still-as-punk-rock-as-it-gets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjramone.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/16\/how-cj-ramone-is-still-as-punk-rock-as-it-gets\/","title":{"rendered":"How CJ Ramone Is Still as Punk Rock as It Gets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Ramones are an indisputable hallmark of rock n\u2019 roll. Though the group strummed its final chords decades ago, its spirit lives on, most recently through American Beauty, the new record<\/a> by former bassist and vocalist CJ Ramone. I recently caught up with CJ to talk about the album, Tommy Ramone\u2019s underappreciated influence on the band, and CJ\u2019s favorite misheard Ramones lyric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s dive straight into your new record, American Beauty. What do you want fans to know most about it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Realistically, one of the things I want everyone to understand is that I had a much different album cover and title when we first started out. I\u2019m not the type of person that likes to put my political stuff out there, but with the way things have been going since the election, I wanted to put something out there that was a little more positive. There are so many people putting gas on the fire right now. Believe me, I understand it. There are a lot of people who are really upset on both sides. I chose the title American Beauty to give everyone the opportunity to just take a breath for a couple minutes when they put the record on. That\u2019s really what I was hoping people would do. Not that the whole record is positive or that I think we live in a perfect utopian world, but you\u2019ve got to get a break sometimes. You can\u2019t constantly be hammered with all of this stuff. What\u2019s going on right now is a lot of brainwashing. Every side is trying to convince you they are right and I don\u2019t buy into any of it. I\u2019ve always been an independent thinker. To me, doing it your way and having your own thoughts and ideas is what being punk is all about. It\u2019s not about choosing a side. There\u2019s a lot of fun stuff on the album, some serious stuff, some autobiographical stuff \u2013 it\u2019s a mix of everything. In my opinion that\u2019s what life is. It\u2019s a mix of things. It\u2019s not always good, it\u2019s not always bad, and it\u2019s not always fair. That\u2019s just the way life is and I think my record reflects that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talk about the autobiographical stuff you just mentioned. What song specifically are you referring to?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMoral of the Story\u201d is a really personal one. It\u2019s about three guys I knew growing up that all died when they were pretty young. It sounds like a depressing tale, but it\u2019s really not. The song is about keeping your friends\u2019 memories alive by talking about them and remembering the good times. It\u2019s really to celebrate their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTommy\u2019s Gone\u201d is another one. That song I wrote for Tommy Ramone. I was just trying to imagine how he must have felt when he left the Ramones to have been pretty much written out of their history and never given credit for most of the work that he did. In reality, the Ramones are Tommy\u2019s creation. Tommy created the look, the sound, the image \u2013 he created it all. He even told the guys which instruments they were going to play. He\u2019s the guy that moved Joey from drums to being the frontman. I mean, in what weird universe does someone look at Joey Ramone and go \u201cThat\u2019s a frontman!\u201d (laughs) He wasn\u2019t exceptionally good looking, he was tall and awkward and shy and very much not a frontman. But Tommy recognized something in Joey and it takes somebody with some special talent to do that. I wrote the song on a Dobro [guitar] completely by accident, but when I remembered Tommy had spent the last years of his life doing country-bluegrass music, it made sense to me that it would have happened that way. I just walked in the last day with the Dobro and said to the producer \u201cHey, do me a favor leave a room mic on and let me run this idea down.\u201d I kind of flip flopped with whether I\u2019d put it on the record but I realized I had to. It was important to me to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In another interview you said you \u201cwrote this album in two weeks with some assistance from a never ending pot of coffee and a generous supply of whisky.\u201d What\u2019s your go-to whisky?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My everyday drink is Jack Daniels, but if I\u2019m out drinking good stuff I usually stick to anything Irish \u2013 Paddy, Jameson, anything like that I usually stay with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re on the road a ton this year. How do you balance your life as a musician with being a father to three children?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I took a lot of years off after the Ramones retired and stayed home when my kids were young, so I got to spend a lot of time with them. Even with the amount of time I travel, I still probably see my kids more than the average dad. The average dad is up and out of the house before his kids get up for school. The amount of quality time I actually spend with my kids is pretty good. Plus, I\u2019ve brought them out on the road with me. My kids have traveled with me to Europe and Japan and tours throughout the United States. I really make sure that I spend the time with them that I need to. It\u2019s important to me. I\u2019m sure anybody in a band will tell you that the worst thing about being on the road \u2013 besides bad food and never getting to sleep and beating the hell out of your liver \u2013 is missing your family. That\u2019s the one thing that\u2019s the toughest out of all of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you ever pulled the Ramones card to your benefit? Like getting out of a traffic ticket or something?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(laughs) Well, to tell you the truth, I don\u2019t get any traffic tickets. I drive like an old man. But let me think. Actually, this is going back quite a while when the band was still together. I was out with a couple of friends in Manhattan and we were drunk and acting stupid. We stopped somewhere and jumped out to get cigarettes. On the way out the door we were messing around with each other and started running to our car. We went charging down the sidewalk and jumped in the car and my buddy took off hard \u2013 like really stomped the pedal and smoked the tires as we headed down the block. An unmarked police car cut in front of us and nailed us to the curb. Four cops got out, all with their guns drawn pointing at us and yelling. We all put our hands up and they opened up the doors and screamed for us to get out. They started questioning us and the cop asked me \u201cWhat\u2019s your name?!\u201d and I went \u201cHey listen, you know the band The Ramones?\u201d and he went \u201cYeah\u201d and I go \u201cI\u2019m the bass player\u201d and he was like \u201cSo fucking what?!\u201d They must have thought we robbed the place or something. As it turned out, they realized nothing was going on. Our driver wasn\u2019t drinking or anything like that, but we were messing around and were all dressed in leather jackets so we probably just looked like troublemakers. It was the one time I tried to use it but it really didn\u2019t\u2019 work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the final Ramones show in 1996, you were joined onstage by a ton of big names including Eddie Vedder, Tim Armstrong, Lemmy and Chris Cornell. If given the opportunity to join a band on stage for their final show today, what band would it be?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black Sabbath just retired, so they\u2019re out. Let\u2019s see, that\u2019s a good question. I would definitely say Social Distortion. That\u2019d be a big one. There are couple of artists like that that I\u2019d like to have the opportunity with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is your favorite misheard Ramones lyric?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh man, that\u2019s a good one. Let me think here. In \u201cRock \u2018N Roll High School\u201d I notice that a lot of people stumble over the line \u201cDon\u2019t want to be taught to be no fool.\u201d A lot of people miss that line. Are the lyrics not on that record? I can\u2019t remember, but that\u2019s one I see people mess up a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What your favorite rumor you\u2019ve ever heard about the Ramones?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That we were all brothers. I still get asked about that to this day! You know what people tell me? They say \u201cI\u2019m really sorry to hear about all your brothers.\u201d The worst is \u2013 and this is really the worst because it\u2019s disrespectful in a way \u2013 I\u2019ve gotten to do radio interviews where DJs have said to me \u201cSo tell us how your parents met?\u201d They want to know how Mr. and Mrs. Ramone met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uh, awkward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh my lord. I always laugh it off and just say \u201cIt\u2019s funny you should ask but here\u2019s the real story behind the Ramones\u2019 name\u201d and then go into something like that. Talk about not doing your homework or just not having any knowledge about the band. (laughs)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dee Dee aside, who are your favorite bass players of all time?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath is probably the guy who made me want to play bass. I was always a huge Sabbath fan. Steve Harris from Iron Maiden was an unbelievable bass player. Paul Simonon [of The Clash] was a great bass player. Of course, Dee Dee. Graham Maby, who played bass for Joe Jackson, wasn\u2019t just a great bass player, but I really loved his style. Who else did I really like? Those are probably the big ones. The guy who played with Elvis Costello was an animal too. It\u2019s funny, in that whole scene at that point, a lot of the rhythm sections were reggae influenced and the bass players and drum players were all really good, but the guitar players were more, like, you know, not bad, but more just rhythm players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your parting words?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramones forever! As far as my record goes, I know this is a really tough time period with everything going on in the country, and everyone is looking for a voice and for someone to speak up and be on their side, but the fact of the matter is that there is good in what\u2019s happening. There are a lot more people that are politically aware and people standing up for what they believe in. There hasn\u2019t been this many people involved in our political process in the history of our country. It\u2019s not that I don\u2019t appreciate what\u2019s going on, but someone has to put a little positivity out there and get you away from the chaos for a few minutes. American Beauty is a good record to do that with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Ramones are an indisputable hallmark of rock n\u2019 roll. Though the group strummed its final chords decades ago, its spirit lives on, most recently through American Beauty, the new record by former bassist and vocalist CJ Ramone. I recently caught up with CJ to talk about the album, Tommy Ramone\u2019s underappreciated influence on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjramone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjramone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjramone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjramone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjramone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cjramone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":526,"href":"https:\/\/cjramone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524\/revisions\/526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjramone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjramone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjramone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjramone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}