The Ramones were an American punk rock band from Forest Hills, Queens, formed in 1974 by Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and Tommy Ramone - none of them actually related, despite the shared surname. Playing short, three-chord songs at breakneck speed, they effectively invented punk rock and ignited the British punk scene with their 1976 UK tour. They released 14 studio albums, performed 2,263 concerts over 22 years, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 and awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011. By 2014, all four original members had died.
Elvis Ramone (Clem Burke), who briefly drummed for the band in 1987, died on April 6, 2025 after a battle with cancer - the first non-original member of the Ramones to pass away.
The Ramones' 1976 self-titled debut album was named the greatest punk album of all time in Rolling Stone's '100 Greatest Punk Albums of All Time' list published in 2026.
Two Ramones tribute albums - Ramones Redux and The Best of Ramones Redux - were announced, curated by Grammy-winning producer Marc Urselli and featuring contributions from Thurston Moore, Napalm Death, Dave Lombardo and others.
The planned Netflix biopic I Slept with Joey Ramone, starring Pete Davidson, faced legal uncertainty after an arbitration ruling removed a key director of Ramones Productions Inc. following a dispute between the estates of Joey and Johnny Ramone.
Mickey Leigh, Joey Ramone's brother and organizer of the annual Joey Ramone Birthday Bash, was honored with an achievement award by the Lymphoma Research Foundation in March 2025.
