RIP: Tommy Ramone (last original member of The Ramones)
Music News | Jul 12th, 2014
I hate waking up to news like this. The last original member, Tommy (Thomas Erdelyi), of The Ramones is gone. He was also a producer after playing drums on the first Ramones albums. You can read our interview with Tommy from the late 90s here. No more original Ramones, this is crazy and sad!
Tommy Ramone, a co-founder of the seminal punk band the Ramones and the last surviving member of the original group, has died, a business associate said Saturday.
Dave Frey, who works for Ramones Productions and Silent Partner Management, confirmed that he died on Friday. Frey didn’t have additional details. Ramone was 65.
Tommy Ramone, a drummer, co-founded the Ramones in 1974 in New York along with singer Joey Ramone, bassist DeeDee Ramone and guitarist Johnny Ramone. All four band members had different last names, but took the common name Ramone.
The band influenced a generation of rockers, and their hit songs “I Wanna Be Sedated,” and “Blitzkrieg Bop,” among others, earned them an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.
Clad in leather jackets and long black mops of hair, the group of motley misfits started out in legendary New York clubs like CBGB and Max’s Kansas City, where they blasted their rapid-fire songs.
[Huffington Post]