Animal (Animal)
Animal and the Ramones were like a match made in heaven, at least on paper. In practice however, Animal ratched up the bad behavior of the rest of the band. Animal led Dee Dee into a months-long bender that only came to an end after the rest of the band realized that having a member whose cocaine use eclipsed Dee Dee’s was a very, very bad idea.
Jughead Jones (Juggy Ramone)
Jughead Jones as a roadie was another money-saving hire by the Ramones. Johnny Ramone figured out that the price of feeding Jughead 10-20 hamburgers a day was still far cheaper than actually paying him money for carrying thousands of pounds of equipment for hours on end, and that was that.
Judy Blume (Judy Ramone)
While Judy Blume never technically performed with the Ramones, she was the co-writer on a handful of Dee Dee songs. Dee Dee wanted to write a song about the best book he ever read, “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.” He brought her in to write songs with him, but Blume soon realized that he had the reading comprehension level of a wet sock. Instead, Blume gave Dee Dee a list of words that rhymed, a list that he would use for the rest of his career.
Mr. Potato Head (Pot Head Ramone)
Johnny Ramone could dress up Mr. Potato Head as he saw fit, and Mr. Potato Head never once talked back or questioned Johnny’s authority. It’s for this reason that, according to Johnny Ramone, Mr. Potato Head was the best member the Ramones ever had.
Madonna (Maddie Ramone)
The Ramones were always auditioning local musicians to keep in the wings, as the primary Ramones were about as unreliable as a band could be. One of those musicians was a magnetic musician named Madonna. Madonna was the total package, with talent, a look, and that undefinable “it” factor that any band could benefit from. She would have been perfect too, except Johnny caught her playing guitar with upstrokes once and fired her on the spot.
Diana Ross (Dianna Ramone)
Diana Ross was, and still is, the undisputed queen of soul. So when she was brought in to play a song with the Ramones as part of a cross-promotional event, expectations were high. Too high for the Ramones, apparently, as every time they tried to play a song the band would just stop playing their instruments and stare at Ross in awe. She was gracious enough to finish the set, though she did tell her agent afterward to never answer a call from someone named Ramone again.
Peter Parker (Petey Ramone)
The Ramones once allowed a high school class to come backstage as part of a field trip. One of the kids in that class was Peter Parker, aka Spiderman. Ironically enough the band was playing “Spiderman” as part of the sound check when Parker happened upon them. Joey gestured to Parker to join him on vocals, which he happily did. Afterwards a large monitor fell off of the lighting rig above the stage, and Parker quickly shot a net to catch it before it crushed Joey, who was none the wiser. Parker was later quoted as saying “Everybody gets one.”
Duane Peters (Duane Ramone)
Dee Dee also attempted to install a stand-in a la Joey and Marky, this time with Duane Peters in his stead. It almost worked too. However, Peters was a lot like Dee Dee in that they were both prone to go on drug-addled scavenger hunts for God-knows-what, which is what happened here.
Michael J. Fox (Mikey Ramone)
Michael J. Fox sat in on second guitar for the Ramones one evening in 1984. After the set, Fox was seen at a nearby payphone calling his cousin and telling him about the Ramones’ sound. The cousin replied that everyone knew the Ramones and that Fox needed to stop looking for musical acts to steal from.
Sid Vicious (Sid Ramone)
Sid Vicious modeled his entire gimmick on the antics of Dee Dee Ramone. Part of that gimmick included Vicious continually bothering Dee Dee to let him play a set at CBGBs. One night Dee Dee finally relented after not having the energy to keep up with Sid’s constant whining. Sid Vicious never got to play that set however, as Dee Dee’s bass case was too difficult a puzzle for Vicious to solve and he never got the instrument out of its case.
Cher (Cher Ramone)
Cher’s stint in the Ramones was another unnecessarily brief one. She was known to be a big fan of the Ramones, and jumped at the chance to play with them. Her enthusiasm quickly dissipated after the band continually asked her to get them the outfit from the “If I Could Turn Back Time” video so they could wear it on stage.
Alf (Alfie Ramone)
Alf was brought in to play with the Ramones in yet another cross-promotional tactic of the ’80s. To everyone’s surprise, Alf knocked it out of the park, playing every instrument with vigor and enthusiasm. One afternoon Marky asked what had happened to the studio’s housecat, and Alf was seen looking around shiftily before crawling out a window.
Howard Hughes (Spruce Goose Ramone)
Howard Hughes met Joey Ramone through an OCD support group, and the two oddballs became fast friends. The twosome loved nothing more than interrupting band practice by counting carpet fibers, wiping individual dust particles off of instruments, and sanitizing everything to protect from germs. Hughes even gave the band a suitcase with more than $100,000,000 to keep them afloat for the rest of their lives. However, Joey noticed that the stitching on the suitcase’s handles didn’t quite line up, and he tossed the suitcase into the Hudson River before spending a dime.
Rosie O’Donnell (Rosie Ramone)
Johnny Ramone was a huge baseball fan, and lost his mind when he saw Rosie O’Donnell from “A League of Their Own” out on the street one day. He begged her and begged her to come play drums for them, and was eventually successful in his pursuit. O’Donnell played with the band for 12 years.
Debbie Harry
Blondie’s Clem Burke played a handful of shows with the Ramones in 1987, under the moniker of Elvis Ramone. Burke wasn’t the only member of Blondie to spend time in the Ramones, as Blondie singer Debbie Harry also was known to join them on occasion. More often than not Harry played the Ramones’ pseudo mascot Pinhead. Harry was quoted as saying that she never felt more like herself than she did inside of that Pinhead costume.
Ms. Frizzle (Frizzie Ramone)
During the 1980s, several members of the Ramones were nursing some pretty substantial drug addictions. Many methods were used to try and treat the addictions, including education. Ms. Frizzle became the band’s tour manager and placed the Ramones on the Magic School Bus in order to shrink them down to a microscopic size. The bus was then placed into a pipe and smoked. The band was whisked into some lungs and saw the damaging effects of crack cocaine firsthand. While this wasn’t enough to stop the band from using, it did provide an anecdote for them to reference for years thereafter.