After the Ramones, it was more about new wave for me than punk.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
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.
The main issue was deciding what to play: Should it be old Ramones material or new material? I had about three albums worth of new material, but I knew that people would rather hear the Ramones songs.
I listened a little to punk when I was younger, but it was straight edge punk. It was nothing like what is going on now, like poppy punk.
When punk began to be a genre, people were going to go out and try to mine it. Some of the better groups, like the Ramones and the Sex Pistols, were very artificial.
It was awesome because we were doing Ramones songs.
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.
When punk rock came along, the one thing you were not supposed to be was musical.
I was a punk when I was 15 - I was definitely into it in a big way and loved it - but I came to London when punk was maybe where you'd say punk is dead.
I got tired of the Ramones around the time I quit and I really got into rap. I thought it was the new punk rock. LL Cool J was my biggest idol.
Then the early punk rock period with Television and the Ramones. That's what I loved- that's what I was listening to immediately prior to when I started to play.