06/06/2026
HE WROTE MOST OF THE RAMONES' SONGS. HE NAMED THE BAND. AND 11 WEEKS AFTER ENTERING THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME, HE DIED ON A COUCH IN HOLLYWOOD.
March 2002. Dee Dee Ramone stood at the Waldorf Astoria podium and told the crowd: "I'd like to congratulate myself, and thank myself, and give myself a big pat on the back." Everyone laughed. That was Dee Dee β raw, honest, a little broken.
What most people still don't realize is how much of the Ramones was actually him. "Blitzkrieg Bop." "Rockaway Beach." "Pet Sematary." He even came up with the band name after learning Paul McCartney checked into hotels as "Paul Ramon."
But the same thing that fueled those three-chord anthems was quietly tearing him apart from the inside. On June 5, 2002, his wife Barbara came home to their Hollywood apartment and found him on the couch. He was 50. 24 years later, every punk band still counts "1-2-3-4" before playing β and most of them don't even know they got it from him.
βΆοΈListen this song in the π³πΆπΏππ π°πΌπΊπΊπ²π»π π
