Ramone Bash a Go

By Stephen M. Silverman

08/28/1997 at 12:00 AM EDT

Despite the musician's death from lymphoma on April 15 (just weeks before he turned 50), "Life's a Gas -- Joey Ramone's Birthday Bash" is set to be held on May 19 at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom. The posthumous party for the Ramones's lead singer is being organized by his brother, Mickey Leigh, and his mother, Charlotte Lesher, who said in a statement: "Mickey and I promised Joey that for this very special day, we would throw the best and biggest birthday bash he ever had."