Marky Ramone on driving his own rock and roll 'Blitzkrieg'

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By Alan Brostoff

It’s a challenge to come up with a band that defined music the way that the Ramones have, other than The Beatles. There is a whole style of music dedicated to their sound. There have been music festivals where nothing but Ramones cover bands have performed all day. The last Riot Fest had Marky Ramone’s Blitzkrieg — later Marky was willing to share some time with Goldmine.

GOLDMINE: You have been busy recording your show on SiriusXM.

MARKY RAMONE: I have two shows on there. I have a 24/7 show on the internet and then a regular show on 1st Wave. The people who run things over there liked the way I reacted and acted. I did a show with Tony Hawk. One of the guys there said, “Any interest in doing your own show?” I wanted to understand the situation, and they told me I could focus on just punk, that’s it. So, I get to play what I want. I’ve been doing it now for about 15 years, and I can do it anywhere I want around the world and then just send it to my producer, and he puts in the songs and I’m happy doing it. I get to just play songs I like it and the audience likes it, too. I play basically the beginnings of punk rock. The original bands.

GM: Sitting back there on your drum seat, do you get a different feel and perspective of the show from the other members of the band?

MR: Yeah. So, the big show we did like Lollapalooza with the Foo Fighters, I was so far away from everything. The smaller venues we’ve played allowed me to have a closer feel. That’s where I could interact more. When we played big shows, we were playing for the mass. I would try to focus in on one thing because you could be very overwhelmed. The smaller venues allow for you to focus on the people, and that lets you play better and crazier.

GM: What got you into drumming?

MR: Ringo Starr, when I was a little boy. Dave Clark and the Dave Clark Five, and Keith Moon eventually. I also always liked jazz. I like Joe Morello, Gene Krupa, Art Blakey, Buddy Rich, obviously. That’s why I like Mitch Mitchell a lot from the Jimi Hendrix Experience; he was really like a jazz drummer. So was Ginger Baker. Playing rock was easy. It was all 4/4. When you go into the 5/4 and 6/4, it gets a little more difficult because of the extra time signature. I incorporated everything I saw into my own style, and that’s what got me into drumming. I was always tapping on things.

GM: I was listening to a podcast that was talking about the Ramones and the discussion was whether the Ramones had gotten bigger after they had broken up. What do you think?

MR: Yeah, probably. I think that a lot of the bands that were influenced by us started to do interviews, and they would cite us as an influence. Then it would turn their fans on to the Ramones, and there would be albums and shirts. You can find shirts all over the world. I think we have the top five selling rock shirt. In the beginning, when the first album came out, the DJs were playing disco music, and that’s what they were pushing. We were a very unusual band. A lot of people were afraid to play us because of the lyrical content and the way that we looked on the cover. Eventually there were some brave DJs who went out on a limb and played us and it grew. It grew slowly, and when the ’90s came along, after we had retired, it got a lot bigger. That’s when things started to go gold. When we got inducted into the Hall of Fame, when we got the Grammy. When we were on The Simpsons. I think the Ramones’ sound and lyrics appeal to the younger generation, and so it continues.

GM: I think I heard that “I Wanna Be Sedated” just went platinum because of all the plays it has received during COVID.

MR: Actually, double platinum.

GM: Did you save any Ramones memorabilia, and if so, what are your favorite items?

MR: They asked me for a lot of stuff for the Hall of Fame, which I gave them. The stuff I still have…I have one of the snare drums I used on Road to Ruin. I have a pair of my sneakers. The pair I gave to the Hall of Fame were still all stinky. They were Pro-Keds. We never wore Converse... well, we wore Pro-Keds until they went out of business, and then we wore Converse. I still have pairs of the ripped-up jeans that I wore. I still have posters and tour schedules and things like that.

GM: What about your record collection?

MR: Well, when CDs came in, I thought they were very convenient. I went up to my roof and threw my vinyl off like Frisbees. I don’t regret it because I travel and I could not take them with me, but vinyl is the best sounding. I went from vinyl to cassette to CD to streaming. You can’t bring you whole stereo system in your car or your record player. However, vinyl still feels warmer.

GM: Is there a holy grail of a record that you would like to have?

MR: Um, that is a good one. I guess the first Hendrix album. I had it when it first came out. It’s funny, my mom actually bought it for me. I think I was 13 years old. It was the original Reprise record. And of course, the first Who album. That’s another one I really love. Fresh Cream, and another band that I really like is Jethro Tull. Love Ian Anderson, he’s a jazz guy. The way he plays the flute, the time changes, the stops. These are the bands I grew up on. There was nothing else around, but then the Ramones came around.

GM: One of the things that I have read and heard was that when the Ramones toured and would play in a town, bands would start up after seeing the band play. Ignorantly they all thought that what the Ramones played was easy, but it’s very complex.

MR: Eddie Van Halen said, “Try playing the Ramones for an hour, and your hand will fall off.” We had the opportunity to play a show together. The hard part is the 8^th note down stroke. A lot of punk bands tried to play it, and they went up and down. That is not what we did; the Ramones were continuous down strokes, and it created this wall of sound. We were grateful that other bands attempted what we were doing, but no one came close to what we did.

GM: Any memories from filming Rock ’n’ Roll High School?

MR: Yeah, I remember when we were in L.A., doing a scene and Rodney Bingenheimer drove us around in this big pink Cadillac convertible, and we had to drive around the block and do it three times. It was 6:30 in the morning, and what was funny was people were going to work. We were in this car, a group of freaks that landed from another planet, and we had to keep going around the block doing it again, doing it again and again. We were smelling eggs and bacon, life was starting. I smelt that and it was unbelievable. That was one thing that has stuck with me all these years.

GM: Any new music from Marky Ramone?

MR: Now, we are touring. We do 35 Ramones songs. We have to; the songs are too good and have to be played. It took a while to get the right band together to play with me. It was not easy. I am putting out a single to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of CBGB in New York. I redid, with a spin, “New York, New York” Ramones style. The Frank Sinatra song. It should be out in a couple of months and that’s it for now.