JOHNNY RAMONE Statue Unveiled: Photos Available

January 18, 2005

RollingStone.com is reporting that several of Johnny Ramone's friends — including Rob Zombie, Eddie Vedder (PEARL JAM),Pete Yorn, John Frusciante (RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS),Anthony Kiedis (RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS) and Nicolas Cage — gathered at Los Angeles' Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Friday, January 14th, to unveil a four-feet tall bronze statue of the guitarist, who according to Cage's speech, "willed the RAMONES to happen." [Check out pictures from Wire Image, Film Magic, MTV.com]

About a thousand fans gathered for the mid-afternoon ceremony, to hear speeches by many of those closest to Johnny Ramone (whose real name was John Cummings),and to see the $100,000 statue, which Ramone bought himself. "He saw it as something for the fans to come see," former RAMONES drummer Tommy Ramone said in the makeshift backstage area of the cemetery just behind a cathedral.

Rob Zombie, wearing a RAMONES T-shirt, explained how the statue came to be. "Every Christmas trying to find Johnny a gift was impossible," he said. "So I thought what I would do is have my friend Wayne [Toth] sculpt an award that just said 'legend,' and I would present it to him at Christmastime." Zombie then recalled how, as a joke, he suggested to Ramone that he make a giant version of the award. "Now this joke is sitting over there. It weighs 50,000 pounds, and it's made of bronze." Read more.

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).