Joey Ramone represented everything you'd expect from a rockstar. He was a difficult figure to impress, but once you hit the right note, Ramone would be as loyal as the day is long. A band from across the Atlantic held a special place in his heart, and he once declared them to be the only other group that mattered. (Spoiler alert: it wasn't The Clash ).
The Ramones were different. They did things their way, and compromise wasn't a word in their lexicon. Joey never tried to be the stereotypical "cool frontman." It was easy for him, and that was a skill he considered a rarity in rock. He had no time for pretense, and there was a band he saw as kindred spirits.
Even though the Ramones arrived like a tornado in the late 1970s to lead the punk rock movement, unlike most of their peers, they continued to fight the good fight when everyone believed the scene was dead. It didn't matter if punk was still fashionable or not to Joey, it was all he knew, and there he remained until his last breath.
However, Joey Ramone's musical taste wasn't exclusively shackled to punk in the traditional sense, but it's undeniable that his favorite band had an anti-establishment ethos rooted in them. “Everything is so pretentious these days, we just get on stage and blow you away without any pretense, or any of that crap like half those bands out there,” Ramone boldly declared in a 1991 interview. “I feel like the Ramones and Motörhead are the only two bands that matter, you know,” he added in his thick New York accent.
“I mean, there are more good bands out there, there are probably more worthwhile bands now than ever before, like Faith No More and Manitoba's Wild Kingdom ,” Ramone added.
The love was mutual between the two acts, and Lemmy may even have had more admiration for the Ramones than vice versa. Motörhead released the track “RAMONES” in 1991, which became a staple in both bands' live sets for years. In fact, Lemmy even performed with the New Yorkers at their last show in 1996. After the track's release, Joey Ramone said, “It was the greatest honor. Like John Lennon writing a song for you.”
Lemmy spoke about his friendship with StayThirsty in 2007. He revealed that he had known the group since they went to the UK in 1976, and had kept in touch ever since. “I just got along with Joey and Dee Dee , you know. Johnny wasn’t so friendly, but he never was,” he noted. “I got along really well with the other two. And, terribly, they were all gone. I couldn’t believe it. I mean, Johnny and Dee were gone within a seven-month space of each other? Ridiculous.”
He continued: “I think they kind of died when Dee Dee left, you know, in a way. I think that crippled Joey, because he didn’t have any friends in the band at the time.”
The fact that Motörhead was true to themselves, just like the Ramones, was the catalyst for the two bands to become unlikely companions. Neither professed to be something they weren't, and authenticity would shine through in their chosen musical area. It didn't matter that they made different brands of music because both were real in a group of fakes.
