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Posted on 01/08/2005 12:36:33 PM PST by weegee
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Late punk guitarist Johnny Ramone is being immortalized with a bronze statue at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Ramone, co-founder and guitarist of The Ramones, was 55 when he died of prostate cancer on Sept. 15, 2004, at his Los Angeles home. The statue is near the grave of bandmate Dee Dee Ramone, who died of a drug overdose in 2002.
The Johnny Ramone monument, created by artist Wayne Toth, shows Ramone playing his Mosrite guitar and it features the words, "If a man can judge success by how many great friends he has, then I have been very successful - Johnny Ramone."
Ramone's widow Linda will unveil the statue Jan. 14 during a two-hour afternoon public ceremony featuring testimonials from friends. Johnny Ramone was cremated and his wife has the ashes, spokesman Jason Padgitt said Thursday.
Hollywood Forever is the final resting place for hundreds of Hollywood icons, including Rudolph Valentino, Ten Commandments producer Cecil B. DeMille and Bugs Bunny voice Mel Blanc.
The Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.
That's the most lifelike bronze statue I've ever seen.
Johnny Ramone at the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony: "God bless President Bush, and God bless America."
William Stout:
John Holstrom:
Matt Groening:
"...the hippie movement which is left-wing. Punks, you identify them if you go back to the fifties and sixties as a bunch of greasers who are more right-wing and anti-peace demonstrations and that kinda stuff. Then suddenly in the punk rock movement you start having these left-wing kids who are really hippies who have become punks but are still really hippies." - Johnny Ramone (R.I.P. 2004)
Iron Maidens lead singer Bruce Dickerson once called the Ramones "the mother and father of American punk"Not sure which one Johnny was but he was a class act all around.
It's a shame Johnny, Joey, and Dee Dee died so young. In Johnny and Joey's case, it wasn't even bad living that did them in.
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