Friends, Family Remember Johnny Ramone Five Years After Passing

Posted on Oct 2nd 2009 4:00PM by Steve Baltin
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aturday night, Oct. 3, friends, family and fans will gather at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in L.A. for what Tommy Ramone calls a "Ramones fair." Fans who pay the $10 admission to raise money for prostate cancer research -- the disease that killed guitarist Johnny Ramone -- will see the world premiere of 'Night of the Living Dead 3-D' and the 1977 Ramones concert film, 'It's Alive,' a retrospective of Dee Dee Ramone's paintings and the chance to get autographs from Tommy and CJ Ramone, and some of Johnny's famous friends. But more than anything, it's a chance to celebrate Johnny's life just over five years after his September, 2004 passing.

His widow, Linda, tells Spinner the fact that the event continues to grow in its fifth year would mean everything to the late guitarist. "Most important to Johnny was his legacy. It was super important to him," Linda says. "So the fact that each year the tribute gets bigger and bigger, to me, that is very special because I feel like I do it with lots of love and lots of hard work. But Ramones fans come and they absolutely love the event."

Tommy Ramone believes that it's a testament to not only the Ramones' enduring popularity but proof the band, who despite being in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and helping launch punk music were largely a cult act in their time, is finally gaining the stature they deserve. "The Ramones were a little ahead of their time, by a couple of decades really, and the young people now are basically tuned into what the Ramones are all about," Tommy says. "So young kids are more and more into it now and picking up on it when their parents didn't quite get it."

Actress Rose McGowan, a close friend of Johnny and Linda's, who will be on hand to introduce 'Night of The Living Dead 3-D,' concurs on the young people. "I love seeing three-year-old kids with their Ramones t-shirts on," she tells Spinner. "My four-year-old nephew bops all around to it."

McGowan, despite having starred in 'Grindhouse,' says she is not a horror film fan "at all." In fact, when she and Johnny, a big horror buff, would meet up to watch movies she would squash any notions of horror flicks. And yet, here she is, set to introduce a zombie film in a cemetery. "I will be shutting my eyes a lot Saturday. That would fit Johnny's sense of humor perfectly. He was an imp, a bit of a troublemaker," she says. "And the fact I have to introduce it, he'd be laughing his head off. 'Ha, ha, Rose, I got you.'"