In fact, Ramone, 49—born Jeffrey Hyman—was a musical rebel who, with three friends from his Queens neighborhood, John Cummings, Douglas (Dee Dee) Colvin and Tommy Erdelyi, formed the Ramones in 1974 and shook up the rock music scene with three-chord sonic blasts and tongue-in-cheek lyrics that riffed on teen sex, suburban malaise and various addictions. With Joey as lead singer on tunes like "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue" and "I Wanna Be Sedated," the Ramones "would play 20 short songs in 17 minutes without stopping," recalls Hilly Kristal, 69, owner of New York City's underground rock mecca CBGB.
"No one was calling it punk rock at the time," adds Kristal, but the Ramones' 1976 debut album and their British tour that same year inspired the rise of even spikier bands, the Sex Pistols and the Clash. The Ramones disbanded in 1996, a year after Joey, who never married, was diagnosed with cancer. Until he was hospitalized in February, "you wouldn't have known he was sick," says a friend, Arturo Vega, 53. At 6 3", "he was always a big guy, but his face was so delicate. That's how he looked at the end."
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
