I pull into the driveway of the fabulous and famous "kitschy cool" house (you may have seen before, on the pages of prestigious magazines, such as Harper's Bazaar, Rolling Stone, or V Magazine photographed by the amazing Hedi Slimane of Saint Laurent), of dear longtime friend Linda Ramone. Linda, as you probably already know, is Johnny's widow, the Ramone's archive/estate curator, organizer of the Hollywood Forever Cemetary Tribute, and a beautiful force, who suffers no fools. Being that we both have been married many years, to not only the punk rock world; but, also having both been resident New Yorkers (at a time when CBGB's was our second home), both huge fans of nostalgic memorabilia, Disneyland and straight forward, loyal no bullshit people--let's just say, we get along resoundingly well. I'm blessed by her stellar friendship, and also very gracious for this interview, as anyone who knows Linda, knows she's an exceedingly private and extremely particular person, when it comes to anything she does, especially in regards to the monumental Ramone's empire. And so with this, I invite you, friends in on our fun intimate punk rock picnic!
Holmes-McKagan: So exhilarating to hear the news, of the much-anticipated Ramone's Museum opening April 10, 2016! Tell us the details and some insight?
Ramone: The Ramones Museum starts in New York (it will reside at the Queens location - Johnny's hometown for six months). And then it has teamed with The Grammy's so it will then relocate to their Los Angeles Museum, and will most likely tour globally after that...thinking London, Japan, South America, etc... The best place to keep abreast with all the latest happenings, is on the museum's website http://www.RamonesMuseum.com. It's fun to note, each exhibition's cities showings will be slightly different from one another. For instance, the NY exhibit, will showcase a bit more art (iconic artist Shepard Fairey procured a Ramone's painting that we're going to unveil)! For the Los Angeles showing, they want to display lots of the music, clothing and various historical artifacts. Some of my personal faves from the clothing, would be Johnny's original black leather biker jacket- his Rickenbacker guitar (which hasn't been seen or shown in 30-40 years - because he kept it under his bed, and then traded it- and then 30 yrs later, I bought it back at an auction, and paid top dollar for it laugh out loud)! It's pretty hysterical I re-bought the guitar that was sitting under our bed!
Holmes-McKagan: What made Johnny play the Mosrite guitar also? Do you have the original one?
Ramone: Well the original one was stolen... The blue Mosrite was snatched in the beginning. Johnny decided he wanted to be identified with playing with a different guitar. It seemed everyone else at the time, was playing Gibson or Fender.. And he also just truly liked the guitar too and being original.
Holmes-McKagan: Favorite Ramone's song?
Ramone: Its hard to say maybe "Danny Says" or "She's A Sensation" because it's a not only a fantastic song, but of course, very sentimental as its written about me... you know it's always fun, when a song is special, and... also happens to be written about you.
Holmes-McKagan: Favorite Charity? How many years now of the Hollywood Forever Cemetary Tribute? How did the statue come about?
Ramone: The Johnny Ramone Cancer Research Fund. It's wonderful to give back and help those in need. Of course, the cancer charity is so near and dear to our hearts, with his personal bout of terminal cancer. The Hollywood Forever Tribute helps as well with the foundation. I've had eleven Tributes (and that's including the statue unveil)-- which was the first one, where the famous $100,000 of Johnny Ramone (yes, hefty price tag but, - I told him he was worth every penny). He knew he was passing away, and we had already gone to the Hollywood Forever Cemetary because we visited Dee Dee, who was buried there also. Johnny expressed he agreed with Linda after their visits, that he'd like to be on the same block as Dee Dee, but just not "that close" to him haha... and that area where he was to be buried at the cemetery, happened to even have been called "Garden of Legends." I picked the spot under a beautiful tree, and there was no one else at all near him, except Hattie McDaniel from "Gone With The Wind." As far as the statue goes, one Christmas, Rob Zombie gave Johnny this miniaturized statue, and on it, underneath the bust part of the statue, it says "legend." And he wasn't sure about that part, but then Wayne Toth (the statues designer) came up with the first inception of it, and I told him he should keep that part, as it was so well deserved. Johnny always liked the idea that John Wayne had a statue. It's tremendously cool, now to think, the statue basically stemmed from Rob's holiday gift.
Holmes-McKagan: Gotta ask...What's one thing you'll never stop doing?
Ramone: Dressing Up! Truth is I just love getting up every morning, and getting dressed up (I especially adore my vintage pieces, also loving Saint Laurent, Stella McCartney, my Susan Holmes Swim). I think looking good is feeling good, and that shows both inside and out. Gabba Gabba Hey!