Dee Dee Ramone

“Ricky Nelson... I couldn't believe it when he died. He was a great rock star.”

“I haven't done rap... I can't do that too well.”

“I'm really lucky I'm still around. Everybody expected me to die next... But it was always someone else instead of me.”

“I was a big troublemaker in the group. I put them through a lot of pain, but as much as I gave to them, they gave right back to me.”

“Billboard called my solo album, 'Standing In The Spotlight,' a great party album and even said that my raps put the Beastie Boys to shame.”

“It's very expensive to bring a band to New York.”

“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 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.”

“I couldn't do rap. I was trying. I don't know how. I'm not good enough to know.”

“I used to be a hairdresser.”

“I'd like to congratulate myself, and thank myself, and give myself a big pat on the back.”

“I started listening to and playing other music in the '90s. It was after hearing other bands, like Bad Religion, cover Ramones songs that I started to like our songs again.”

“It was sad when Sid Vicious died... I was freaked out when Phil Lynott died from Thin Lizzy. I cried. It was too crazy.”

“We didn't do an American tour because it I know it wouldn't go down well.”

“Metallica - they're so demonic, they're crazy, I don't know how they do it.”

“When I got into rap I didn't exactly win any popularity contests. I called myself Dee Dee King, after B.B. King, to the total dismay of my fellow Ramones.”

“It's very hard to tour.”

“I like the guitar better these days. I like the bass, too, but it's hard to fit a bass amp in a small car.”

“I didn't have the confidence to leave the band because of a solo career, or anything like that. I just wanted to grow.”

“We're playing at our level of ability.”