Marky Ramone: Sting's a jerkwad
Marky Ramone's memoir 'Punk Rock Blitzkrieg' brings 70s and 80s punk scene back to life
NEW YORK – Sting is an ass.
That’s just one of the revelations in Marky Ramone’s new memoir, “Punk Rock Blitzkrieg: My Life as a Ramone.”
Marky joined The Ramones in 1978 to record their fourth album, “Road to Ruin,” replacing original drummer Tommy Ramone, who had hand-picked Marky to be his successor. Born Marc Bell, Marky had already made a name for himself playing with Richard Hell and the Voidoids for their influential disc “Blank Generation,” Wayne County and the Backstreet Boys, and his first big band, the early-70s metal group Dust.
But it was with The Ramones, one of the most popular punk bands to come out of the New York City club CBGB’s, that Marky hit the big time, or at least the punk rock version of it.
“We were up against the music of the day, which was disco and stadium rock,” Marky told FOX411. “We were two minutes and done, stripped down, a wall of sound. That was us.”
Marky had been a fan of The Ramones, but now he was getting to know its other three members up close, and was surprised by their strained relationships. Guitarist Johnny Ramone ran a tight ship, going so far as to assign seats in the van that took them to and from gigs. Bass player and songwriter Dee Dee Ramone would take basically any drug offered to him, and singer Joey Ramone suffered from crippling Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, although none of the Ramones understood that at the time.
“It’s an insidious disease, a sickness, a lot of people have it. Back then we really didn’t know,” Marky said. “We would have to drive him back to the airport, once we had got home, we would drive back to the airport so he could touch a piece of the sidewalk, he had to tap the curb, or he had to touch a banister in a stairwell.”
“I didn’t know what was going on being a new member in ‘78, but they thought he was doing it on purpose, which he wasn’t,” Marky explained. “And obviously it affected the relationship with the band. But now we know what it is. But back then, I thought and Dee Dee thought he was just doing it to spite Johnny, who he never got along with.”
One of the reasons for the mutual antipathy between those two came down to politics.
“I’m basically an independent, Joey was a left-wing liberal, and Johnny was a right-wing conservative,” Marky said, adding he had no problem with anyone expressing their political views. “You’ve got to respect everyone’s political beliefs, like [Johnny] respected mine. We live in America, thank God, and we have our choice to vote for who we want to.”
The Ramones were able to keep their personal issues aside for 22 years, finally calling it quits in 1996. Then tragedy struck in quick succession, with all four original members dying between 2001 and 2014, before any reached age 60.
“First it was Joey, then it was Dee Dee, then it was Johnny, then it was Tommy,” Marky said. “I’m the only link to them, and I feel I have a responsibility to continue to play the music live, all over the world, for one reason: I feel the songs are too good not to be played.”
But back to why he doesn't like Sting.
Marky, now 58, had kind words in his book for many hard rock heavyweights he met along the way, including Jimi Hendrix, Van Halen, and Steven Tyler, who personally thanked the band for enduring abuse from Aerosmith fans when The Ramones opened for them.
But he had no kind words for Sting, who made fun of The Ramones’ signature pin that Johnny was wearing.
“Where did you get those pins, Woolworth’s?” Sting asked.
“You know what,” Marky replied. “F**k you.”
And then The Ramones blew The Police's "peroxide reggae" off the stage.
“Punk Rock Blitzkrieg: My Life as a Ramone” can be preordered now. It hits the shelves in January 2015.
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