Thursday, January 29, 2009

Happy Birthday, Tommy!

Happy 57th birthday to Tommy Ramone!

If you've ever seen the movie This Is Spinal Tap, one of the running gags through the movie is that all of Spinal Tap's drummers come to untimely ends. Oddly, it's been the opposite for the Ramones. Original drummer Tommy, who was born Erdélyi Tamás in Budapest, Hungary in 1952, is still around, performing bluegrass music. He served as the Ramones' drummer from their beginning in 1974 until 1978. He tired of touring, and left the band, but continued being their producer. He was replaced by Marky Ramone.

Joey Ramone died of lymphoma on April 15, 2001. Dee Dee died of a heroin overdose on June 5, 2002, just a couple of months after the Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Johnny Ramone died of prostate cancer on September 15, 2004.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hail to the last living original Ramone!