Joey Ramone

He was never married as he was born sterile. He had a girl friend by name Linda who was enticed by his own friend and band mate Johnny who married her later.

He was extremely tall and suffered due to obsessive compulsive disorder that made him behave odd. This made his school mates ridicule him and he remained a recluse.

He died of lymphatic cancer on April 15, 2001 at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital after fighting it with for seven years. He breathed his last while listening to the song ‘In A Little While’ by U2.

He was born on May 19, 1951, as Jeffrey Ross Hyman, in a Jewish family, to Charlotte Lesher and Noel Hyman, who lived in Forest Hills, Queens. Popular musician and writer Mickey Leigh is his younger brother.

His father and mother did not get along well and they were divorced in the early 1960s. This separation deeply affected young Jeffrey who became a recluse and outcast in his neighborhood.

His mother married again and later lost her second husband in a car accident. His mother instilled the interest for music in him and his brother who also became a singer later.

He was educated at Forests Hill High School and here he got associated with Douglas Colvin and John Cummings who later became the band mates of “Ramones”.

He started playing drums at the age of thirteen. In 1972, he joined “Sniper,” a punk band and played under the stage name, Jeff Starship. He later became its lead singer.

In 1974, he founded the ‘Ramones’ when ‘Sniper’ replaced him with Alan Turner as its singer. The band mates of ‘Ramones’ were his school friends, Johnny Cummings and Douglas Colvin.

The friends adopted the stage name ‘Ramone’ with Johnny Cummings becoming Johnny Ramone, the guitarist, Douglas Colvin as Dee Dee Ramone, the singer, and Hymon as Joey Ramone. Joey remained as the band’s guitarist.

Later when Dee Dee Ramone’s vocal cards were strained, Joey became the vocalist and the manager Thomas Erdelyi became the drummer. The ‘Ramones’ played at the CBGB, a club in the New York City.

The ‘Ramones’ were able to attain popularity in the rock and roll style by 1976. They toured around UK and were recognized as the pioneers in the punk rock and pop culture.

He was considered as a countercultural icon. His tracks ‘What Do You See’ and ‘Lying to Myself’ were released posthumously in a 2002 CD that was selected as the Best Pop/Rock Album of the Year.

His solo album titled, ‘Don't Worry About Me’ was also released posthumously in the year 2002. The singles from it ‘What a Wonderful World’ won the Louis Armstrong Standard.