LOS ANGELES — Johnny Rotten and Marky Ramone nearly came to blows on stage Wednesday evening at a promotional event for the Epix network’s new Punk documentary, after the two punk icons began arguing over who had done a more efficient job of damaging their respective bands’ legacies, confused punk sources confirmed.
“Johnny made a quip about how not punk it was that he was a cast member on a reality show,” said audience member Steve Fitzgerald. “And then he started going on about those butter commercials he did. Then Marky tried to one-up him by mentioning how after his time in The Ramones Marky started a Tommy Hilfiger fashion line and was in an ice cream commercial that literally featured the lyrics ‘gimme gimme gimme your ice cream.’ It was a fucking bloodbath.”
The Ramones and Sex Pistols have had a long-standing rivalry as to who is the definitive punk band, but many were shocked to see it on full display as the two continued to bicker over who had more properly dismantled the founding principles of the movement.
“I’m not sure if either Sex Pistols or the Ramones started punk rock, but I do know that these guys were doing their damnedest to kill it and then shit into its open grave,” added Fitzgerald.
Iconic punk figure Henry Rollins, former singer of Black Flag and star of the hit film Bad Boys II, was also onstage during the incident.
“I haven’t seen two old men bickering like that since the last time I was at the Sizzler breakfast buffet,” said Rollins. “I actually thought of joining in the fight by mentioning that terrible TV show I did for the History Channel, but decided not to get involved.”
Photo by Boing Boing.