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It was awesome because we were doing Ramones songs.

It was never fun being in the Ramones, which is the saddest thing of all, cause it shoulda been fun. It was probably fun when we played Performance Studio, and maybe some of the early gigs at CBGB's. But the Ramones were the type of group that had a bizarre mindset. Being in the band was so cut off from reality.

We were just a bunch of high school kids who got into the Ramones together.

The Ramones are the type of group where it took the world, like, 30 years to catch up with them. Because we were kind of breaking new ground, coming up with new ideas and different concepts which kind of blazed a trail for a whole new music scene, really.

The Ramones went through a couple different line-up changes, and Johnny and Joey held through the whole thing. So right now I'm the only one hanging in there.

It wasn't just music in the Ramones: it was an idea. It was bringing back a whole feel that was missing in rock music - it was a whole push outwards to say something new and different.

I didn't want the Ramones being told what to be doing, and I wanted the Ramones being presented in the right light - the remaining Ramones.

My first Ramones show was at a small club in Columbus, Ohio, in 1978. It was a transformative experience, even though my memories are a little blurry, since someone kicked me in the head halfway through the show, probably during 'Beat on the Brat.'

There's nobody as good as the Ramones, never will be. I mean everybody's just emulated us and now everybody just kinda takes our sound as their foundations.

Even from the very beginning, the type of fans the Ramones generated were the kind of people who wound up running industry, who became professors and scientists. Our staunchest fans were always a little bit more on the outside, the type of people who didn't fit in with society.