“The first record was basically a quick, fast record. The second record...” — Tommy Ramone Quote

The first record was basically a quick, fast record. The second record, we were going for more of a poppier sound - like a heavy pop sound. For 'Rocket to Russia,' we'd sort of reached our pinnacle. We'd gotten really good at what we were doing, so that's like my favorite record - that's a really good record. It's just great from beginning to end.

We all started calling ourselves 'Ramones' because it was just a fun thing to do.

Bowie's 'Hunky Dory' influenced me. 'Ziggy Stardust' influenced Johnny Ramone a lot, especially his guitar parts.

In high school, I got into folk music, and I taught myself guitar. And when The Beatles came out, I got an electric guitar.

I have a good record in shoot-outs. In such moments, I'm always confident of making at least a couple of stops; I always feel the taker is under more strain. Worrying is the kicker's job, as he's expected to score, while I have nothing to lose.

I've got a good record, but maybe, for whatever reason, it's not built up by people. I wouldn't say I'm hard done by. But it's true that I sometimes don't get the praise.

I had a good record company right from the beginning, and I'm still with them after all these years. I think I may be the only person in the world that's had a tenure this long with any record company.

Sometimes when a record's done, I'm satisfied and I won't listen back to it for a while 'cause I'm usually pretty tired of the songs. Then I've got to learn them again to play them live, and sometimes it takes a while to realise it's a really good record.