Al Gomes Big Noise Interviews : The Police

Big Noise Archive:
The Police’s Andy Summers 1979 interview

by Al Gomes
The Providence Anchor
First published in September 1979

The following is one of the first interviews that The Police granted during their very first American tour. It was conducted on the evening of September 30, 1979 when the band appeared at Walsh Hall at Rhode Island College in Providence, RI.

The Providence Anchor: How did the name of the band come about?

Andy Summers: Stewart (Copeland) thought of the name. There are no political connotations to it. It’s just a very strong name. If anything, it has an irony for being the name of a rock group. It’s a name people say once and never forget. It’s a name of association. It’s not that we’re for or against the police, or that we’re fascists.

The Providence Anchor: You’ve been quoted recently that you’re trying to move beyond the punk scene.

Andy Summers: We don’t sound like a punk band, obviously. We started out in the punk scene, but our music is more sophisticated than that. The harmonies, the rhythms we use. The songs Sting writes.

The Providence Anchor: And the reggae influence.

Andy Summers: We do a lot of reggae. Actually, a lot of punk bands have started to do a lot of reggae. We did it fairly early on in our career. We just don’t sound punk. Overall, there’s this real heavy punk sound out there with real thrashing chords, and we just don’t sound like that.

The Providence Anchor: How did reggae find it’s way into The Police’s sound?

Andy Summers: Well, we live in London. There’s a big West Indie community there. Reggae’s very popular there. Bob Marley’s quite popular, you know. And so we’ve all been listening to it for awhile. Then it started creeping into our rehearsals. We just started jamming reggae without even discussing it. And when Sting wrote ‘Roxanne,’ it was the first song we ever really treated as having a reggae feel. And even then, we really didn’t think it was reggae. What we did was take the elements from reggae, the basic elements, and used to them to our own end. Because, I felt what we do is not really reggae, it’s a blending of rock and reggae. We’re one of the first groups ever doing that, really.

The Providence Anchor: Do you still find the punk movement exciting even though you’re moving toward a more sophisticated style of music?

Andy Summers: It’s very exciting. The scene in London is exciting. It’s not really heavy punk there like it was two or three years ago like it is everywhere else around the world. It’s sort of broadened out. The initial thrust has gone on and it’s changed into a second generation of New Wave bands, as it were. It’s very interesting. There’s a lot of new clubs and a lot of new bands in London. Big scene.

The Providence Anchor: Does your new album, ‘Reggatta De Blanc,’ go in a new direction?

Andy Summers: Well, you could say we’ve dove further into our ‘Police style.’ The new album is more sophisticated than the last one (‘Outlandos D’Amour’). I think at this point we can mold ourselves into anything we want to become. There’s stuff on this new record where we go out on the limb that’s quite different from the first album. Generally, we’re very pleased with it. It’s a better album, I think. And we’ve got the #1 single in England at the moment (‘Message In A Bottle’) from the new album.

The Providence Anchor: How have the US audiences been reacting to the live shows?

Andy Summers: They’ve been hysterical. They just freak out. It’s incredible. And we’re drawing in all different types of fans, something no other punk-oriented band has ever done.

The Providence Anchor: How long have you, Stewart and Sting known each other?

Andy Summers: Two and a half years. It’s been two years that The Police have been together.

The Providence Anchor: Is this the most excited you’ve ever been making music?

Andy Summers: Oh, it’s fantastic. It’s the most fun band I’ve been in so far.

The Providence Anchor: Before the debut album (‘Outlandos D’Amour’) was released, against the wishes of your American label, A&M, you came over to do a short promotional tour. How did that come about?

Andy Summers: Yeah, that was a year ago (October 1978). We had no record out or anything. People were importing the ‘Roxanne’ single. And WBCN in Boston had it in heavy rotation as an import. So that was where most of our action was. We were signed to A&M worldwide, but we hadn’t been issued in America, so the label people here didn’t know about us. They just knew we were signed to their label in England. We just came over, and they held up their hands in horror that we were coming over with nothing to promote, and what the hell were we doing here. We started getting some small club gigs. We played Boston and New York, and that was great. We got great reviews and amazing reactions from audiences. Then the record company came to see us. They really dug us. That’s how they came to release ‘Roxanne,’ and very quickly it started taking off. We released ‘Outlandos D’Amour’ in January (1979) and it charted very well.

The Providence Anchor: A&M changed the cover of the album from the English version. What was the reason for that?

Andy Summers: The English version has the same three faces of us, but it’s slightly different. The English back cover’s sort of this punky collage. The American company thought it was too punky. If the American radio stations saw this album sleeve, they wouldn’t play the music. American stations are very paranoid about playing New Wave music. But, the scene has changed. We’re one of the first New Wave bands to be played heavily. And the scene started changing after that.

The Providence Anchor: Do you hold the same opinion as other New Wave artists like Elvis Costello and The Clash do on the state of American radio and on American rock music in general?

Andy Summers: We don’t hate it, but feel much the same way. American airwaves have been dominated by, sort of, pop-rock bands for so long, for the last ten years or so. Bands like Kiss and Fleetwood Mac. And anything that really goes out on a limb or strike up some new direction is not commercially reliable as all those really pop-ready bands. I think the thing that’s changing a bit more in the last year is that some of the radio stations are a lot less paranoid, because ‘Roxanne’ was a big hit and it was by a so-called New Wave band. Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson are big too, so things have changed a bit.

The Providence Anchor: Now that you’ve broken through, what are the immediate plans for The Police?

Andy Summers: Well, basically, we’re at the stage where we’re going to keep working non-stop for some time to come. We’re not at a point to rest right now. This tour goes to the end of December. Right after that, we’re flying to Paris because we’re appearing on TV. We then have January off to do some writing. February we’re playing Japan, Australia and New Zealand. We’re going to try to do India and Egypt and Istanbul, Athens, Hong Kong, all these places, and make it a world tour. And we’re making a movie as well.

The Providence Anchor: A documentary?

Andy Summers: We’re discussing it at the moment. we have some pretty wild ideas, actually. We’re going to try to tie in the world tour with it. But…we want it to be a fictional thing, rather than just a straight documentary about a band.

The Providence Anchor: Are you happy with the way the band’s success is building or do you sometimes want it to happen all at once?

Andy Summers: No, I think it’s very healthy to gain your audience step by step by making good records, and going out there working. It’s much more real, you know. Suddenly overnight sensations, well…it doesn’t always happen that way. Especially in America. You have to really slug your guts out from touring. America is so big. In England, we made it there in six short months. But here’s what happened…once ‘Roxanne’ was a hit here in the states, then it bounced back to England and suddenly we took off. We were successful here before we were in England. That’s the power of America. And now in England, we’re #1 there this week. It’s incredible. It’s like Beatlemania in London for us right now. But we’re incredibly grateful for how America has treated us.

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Al Gomes A. Michelle Big Noise Interviews : Metallica

Big Noise Archive:
Metallica’s Jason Newsted 1992 interview

Note: The following is the first interview that Metallica granted after winning their very first Grammy Awards. The interview was conducted on the evening of February 15, 1992, two weeks before the band appeared at the Providence Civic Center in Providence, RI.

Metallica : Stand By Your Fan
by Al Gomes and A. Michelle
The Nice Paper
First published on February 27, 1992

Besides the Grateful Dead, no other major American rock act has done more to incite the riotous loyalty of their fans than Metallica.

After-show autograph sessions in their tour bus, audio and video recording sections at their concerts (encouraging instant bootlegs), mosh pits in the center of their stage, and free listening parties at Madison Square Garden have all helped to erase the enigmatic line that separates performer from fan. Metallica knows that it isn’t the critics that pay the bills and that the kids are indeed alright.

The band’s mercurial rise to chart prominence with the commercial success of both 1988’s ‘…And Justice For All’ and their new eponymously-titled album (simply ‘Metallica’) caught more than a handful of nay-sayers off guard, but it came as no surprise to their vast family of fanatic devotees.

To the first legion of followers, Metallica’s sound was as arresting as the crunch of a car slamming into a tree – hard, fast, loud, and death-defying. Hard rockers that spurned the barking of safety-pin punk and the castrato screech of spandex jumped all over the sonic boom that blasted out of songwriter James Hetfield and company’s collectively amplified psyche. Their debut 1983 LP, ‘Kill ‘Em All,’ has inspired as many innovators and imitators as ‘Meet the Beatles,’ ‘Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols,’ and R.E.M.’s ‘Murmur’ did for their respective generations.

Metallica was not content to reiterate any album, however successful, and again upped the ante of their musical gamble when they returned to the studio to cut ‘Metallica.’ Responding quickly to requests for shorter tunes (‘Touring behind …And Justice, the general consensus was that the songs were too fuckin’ long,’ said lead guitarist Kirk Hammett) and eager to explore new frontiers beyond CNN (the basis for many of Hetfield’s lyrics), the band hired producer Bob Rock and punched out twelve concise rounds that propelled the band to the top of the charts and around the world on one of the year’s most successful tours (at a time when things are tough for artists on the road).

‘We’re number one completely on our own terms,’ says Hetfield. He ain’t kidding. When it comes to their music and their fans, Metallica sports a no-bullshit approach, exemplified by an unflinching rejection of superficial music business trappings. And it’s this hard-won confidence that was readily apparent when we spoke with bassist Jason Newsted.

The Nice Paper: When did the tradition of talking to the fans after the show start?

Jason Newsted: I think ever since the beginning, ever since I’ve been in the band, anyway. It’s always been there and it’s continued to be very important to us. We’re very conscious of making sure that it happens every night and even on nights off, as it were, when kids line up outside the hotel or maybe find us at a club. As you already know, Metallica has always gone out of their way to keep the intimacy, to keep the bond there. It’s very important to us. We know where the bread and butter is coming from and it’s important to us to keep the strength and the loyalty intact.

The Nice Paper: With your growing popularity, has it become harder to maintain the tradition?

Jason Newsted: Yes, it has. That’s just the way it is. With more people that’s just what’s going to happen. We just have to have a bit more patience, that’s all. So far it hasn’t been a problem.

The Nice Paper: Do you ever ditch security after the show?

Jason Newsted: Personally, I do. I can’t really answer for anybody else, but so far there’s been at least a handful of times on this tour that I’ve walked outside by myself, just to hang out, have a beer and talk to the kids. I’m not really very fearful about somebody wanting to hurt me or something that would cross other people’s minds – like a psycho fan that you see in the movies or something like that. I’ve never been really fearful of that. And I also think that if anybody ever did mess with any of us, that the however many other number of people that were also there would take care of them within a matter of seconds.

The Nice Paper: It’s kind of like having fifteen thousand bouncers.

Jason Newsted: Exactly. That’s what happens. The other night, some kid threw a bottle at James, and that’s totally uncalled for, absolutely.

The Nice Paper: Did he get hurt?

Jason Newsted: No. It just missed him. He got pissed off and said, ‘Throwing shit, that’s not fair. Because I can’t see where it came from so I don’t have a chance to retaliate. So what kind of shit is that? I don’t come here to get stuff thrown at me. I’m here to have fun with my friends. So if any of you guys happened to see where that came from, could you take care of that for me?’ And I looked up to where he was pointing, and all of a sudden it was like in the cartoons where there’s smoke and stars and Bing! Bang! Boom! like in Batman.

The Nice Paper: There’s not a Walkman to be found in any of the stores around Providence, RI this week. How did the taping section start?

Jason Newsted: The idea stemmed from the Grateful Dead. They’ve always let people record their shows. It’s not completely new to us. At one time it was only audio. Now it’s audio, video, whatever you want. And there’s just so much bootleg stuff happening with Metallica. We’re a very collectible type of band. Kids are really into getting every single possible type of thing that they can have. There’s just hundreds of bootleg albums and bootleg videos, shirts, everything.

The Nice Paper: Many artists would be cautious about this kind of thing, especially since monetarily it could be quite damaging.

Jason Newsted: It doesn’t really affect anything retail. The way that we view it, it’s pretty much just adding fuel to the fire. It’s not really worth the effort of trying to make up for it or to try to chase people down. It’s not really worth our time or the headaches. We put it into the kind of perspective that this is the ultimate souvenir or memento that a person can take from the show. It’s a Metallica live album that they produced or the Metallica movie that they filmed themselves that they can narrate or put in their own little other pieces and edit and make a cool personal thing that they made with their own hands and their own machine.

Jason Newsted: Yeah. It’s the ultimate souvenir that you could possibly have. It’s just one more thing that we can give.

The Nice Paper: And now you’ve even gone to the trouble of making your fans a part of the show.

Jason Newsted: Yes. The Snakepit. It’s the eye of the hurricane. The stage is shaped like an arrowhead. The butt of the arrowhead is back up against one end of the hall and the point thrusts out into the arena. There’s four front rows and nine microphones all the way around the stage. There’s two drum sets. Kirk’s got five different pedal things set up. And the idea was that at any time, any city, any show, any song, the focal point would always be different. James could be doing a lead vocal from the 3:00 mike, and I could be doing a backing from the 6:00 mike. And then the next song, he could be doing it from the high noon mike and I could be doing it from over here at the 9:00 mike. And back around. And then Lars could be on the left hand drum set turned 45 degrees toward the Snakepit. The show is in the round, but it’s not ‘in the round’ in the aspect of say Diana Ross or Yes, not just sitting in the center. Tickets are sold all the way around and there’s no obstructed view. No amps on stage. Nothing like that. It’s just us and our instruments. Everything comes up from underneath. There’s 32,000 watts of monitors that blast up from underneath the grills all the way around the stage.

The Nice Paper: And the pit is right in the middle?

Jason Newsted: The pit is a smaller arrowhead that’s in the very center of the stage. It’s elevated up just a little bit so that your head and arms are at stage level. So we’re just milling around you and spitting, sweating, and whatever – wiping boogers on you the whole time. So it is the eye of the hurricane. We’re around you constantly. I actually get in there every once in a while myself.

The Nice Paper: How do fans get in there?

Jason Newsted: There’s two access points from the side. You have to come up from underneath the stage.

The Nice Paper: How did you guys come up with this?

Jason Newsted: Actually it ended up like a cool mistake. The pit was going to be an effects pit at first. We were going to have crosses come up during the ‘Master of Puppets’ segment, and a ‘Justice’ statue during that segment, a ‘Ride the Lightning’ thing, etc. All these different little effects were going to pop up out of there. But it was going to be really tough to bring it to realization, you know? It was just too expensive and too much trouble for the carpenters to work out. So we started talking about big orchestras, you know, like the Royal Philharmonic in London, and the New York Philharmonic. They have seats where you pay a little bit more and you sit on the stage with the band. That idea blossomed into having kids in the stage. They can’t actually be on the stage with us but they’re as close as possible. So we’re surrounded. There’s no place to hide. There’s kids on the outside, there’s kids on the inside. We’re not separated. Even when, like tonight, we’re playing to 18,000 people in Denver, we still try to keep the intimacy as much as we can by being right within the audience the whole time. That’s really how the Snakepit came to be. The first 40 people are radio contest winners from local stations. Then after that MTV and magazine contest winners. And then friends and family, and then special people we see. For instance, if a kid comes in with an old, grey, battered ‘Kill ‘Em All,’ ‘Ride the Lightning,’ or ‘Metal Up Your Ass’ shirt, you can tell that he’s been with us for a long time. So we put him in the Snakepit. And that’s how it gets filled up. There’s usually about 80 to 100 people in there. If you have a Snakepit pass, you have open access in and out. You can go back out into the gig if you want to or you can stay in the pit.

The Nice Paper:‘Metal Up Your Ass?’

Jason Newsted: That was way back when. ‘Kill ‘Em All’ was originally going to be called ‘Metal Up Your Ass.’ That was the saying, the logo, the attitude behind the whole thing at that time. Kids would chant it and there’s still a ‘Metal Up Your Ass’ shirt. It has the hand with the sword coming up out of a toilet. That’s still one of the biggest sellers today as far as the T-shirts are concerned.

The Nice Paper: Your new album cover must have thrown the record company for a loop when you came to them and said it was going to be black. What did they say?

Jason Newsted: They don’t say much.

The Nice Paper: Do you have a clause in your contract which guarantees you complete artistic control over your album packages?

Jason Newsted: Yeah. They don’t mess with the formula, you know. They don’t mess with something that has proven itself.

The Nice Paper: We read somewhere that the reason for the album cover was that you were tired of all the cliches, all the blood and guts, and the mascots that other metal bands have.

Jason Newsted: Well, it’s not that we haven’t aided it all along and played our part. (Laughs) It was just, you know, here we are in a new decade, and we wanted to get a fresh start. Kind of a stronger, simpler, more-to-the-point type of music and that idea just kind of carried through with the album cover and the photos and everything. We’re trying to keep it very to-the-point. The new songs have been going down really well, so I guess it seems to be working. The album has sold way more than the last album. In 6 months this album has done 4.2 (million). And ‘Justice’ did 3.2 (million) in 3 years.

The Nice Paper: How’s the tour going so far?

Jason Newsted: It’s amazing. It’s surprising us. We can’t figure it out because of the way the economy is, and big entertainers like Natalie Cole are having trouble. Even when they put four or five bands together and try to get 10,000 people into an arena, they’re having trouble. Metallica is playing by themselves with no opening act and we’re selling out here in Denver to 14,000 people.

The Nice Paper: In the bio that we received from Elektra, it says that there are six questions that you should never ask Metallica.

Jason Newsted: Oh no. Please don’t ask those questions that are in there. Pleassse…

The Nice Paper: Question number 1 that you should never ask Metallica – ‘What’s it like being at the forefront of the thrash metal movement?’

Jason Newsted: I wouldn’t know, really. (Laughs) Thrash metal… I know you’ve heard this a million times – but I think that Metallica has so much more to offer than just playing fast. Metallica definitely started a new thing in the ’80s. We definitely had something to do with influencing a number of bands to do what they’re doing now and that is a complement to us. It’s a good thing, but we haven’t sat there and thought, ‘Well, what are they going to think if we change this or that?’ or ‘What are they going to think if we do that?’ We’ve just done our thing. It worked and it made some people happy. Any band that has any kind of substance is going to grow and take chances, with different musics and instruments and go outside their realm a little bit. And that’s kind of what Metallica has always done, just grown each time they make a record and each time they do a tour.

The Nice Paper: Question number 2 that you should never ask Metallica – ‘Making a record with Bob Rock is equal to selling out, right?’

Jason Newsted: No. It’s equal to growing up and learning a bit more about what our band is about and what we are able to achieve and what we can do when we put our heads together and really concentrate. That’s what producing a record with Bob Rock is all about.

The Nice Paper: We must confess that it wasn’t until this latest record with Bob Rock that we became fans.

Jason Newsted: That’s true for a lot of people these days. But that’s fine with me because you’ve got to start somewhere. And then you can work backwards and discover the other stuff. So whether you started with Metallica in ’82 and worked up to now, or whether you start in ’92 and work backwards to catch up, it doesn’t matter as long as you’re part of the family. That’s what matters now.

The Nice Paper: Question number 3 that you should never ask Metallica – ‘How can you play heavy metal, seeing as it’s so sexist?’

Jason Newsted: Well, I’ve never even thought about it like that. We’ve never been a band that sang about anything that had to do with anybody being one sex or another. James’ lyrics have always been an open thing to whoever it was that was listening to it, whether you were a man or a woman or otherwise. That’s just the way it is. We never sang about fast cars or doing girls. Metallica has a lot more to say than that.

The Nice Paper: Question number 4 that you should never ask Metallica – ‘Read any good books lately?’

Jason Newsted: I’m reading ‘The Stand’ by Stephen King, and ‘I Am the Blues,’ Willie Dixon’s autobiography.

The Nice Paper: How do you like it?

Jason Newsted: It’s wonderful. I’m a very big blues fan and very into Willie Dixon. Have been for a while. Let’s see, what else have I got going? ‘The Vitamin Bible,’ I’ve been reading that.

The Nice Paper: Are you a ‘Health Person?’

Jason Newsted: Yeah, I try to be. I have a couple of beers, but I don’t do any drugs or anything like that, and I always take my vitamins and eat right and exercise and drink a lot of water. All that. The live thing is what I live for, so if I’m not at 200 percent like I have to be every night, then I don’t feel strong and I don’t feel right. When you’re playing 2 1/2 hours every night, flying every day with a lot of climate changes, it’s very important to keep yourself together as much as possible. When you do things like hard drugs and drink a lot, it’s only going to tear you up. You’re not going to be at your potential. I can’t say that I didn’t have my time way back, when I, of course, tried these different things. But I’ve come around to see that I cannot do that and perform.

The Nice Paper: Question number 5 that you should never ask Metallica – ‘Where do you keep your Grammys?’

Jason Newsted: They’re on the mantel in the sitting room of my California house. I have a house in Michigan and in California.

The Nice Paper: Do you have anything on your mantel besides your Grammys?

Jason Newsted: Let’s see. I don’t know if there’s Bammys (Bay Area Music Awards) up there or if the Bammys are in a separate place. My girlfriend moves them around. The Grammys always stay but the Bammys get moved around. For us in the Bay Area, that’s a pretty big deal, receiving Bammys. That’s as big as a Grammy to us, actually.

The Nice Paper: This brings us to the last question that you should never ask Metallica – ‘What’s it all about?’

Jason Newsted: The Metallica crew is a family. There’s 70 of us. Most of the crew guys have been out with us for years. Some of them are new – the big stage requires more hands. When people get asked to go on a Metallica tour these days, they drop everything else in order to do that because they know about the relationship that the band has with the crew. I think that’s unique at this level. We hear stories about some of these other bands. When we’re not on the road, these guys go in teams – lighting team, sound team – on to other tours. And we hear stories about other bands that don’t even recognize these guys. The bands work with the same guys for a year, and they don’t even know their names. ‘Oh you work for us? What do you do?’ Things like that. It’s not a relationship like Metallica has with their crew. It’s a big family and therefore it makes the show happen every night in a big way. Everybody from carpenters to the lighting guy to the sound guy to me, playing bass – we all work hard for each other to make this thing happen. We’re all proud to do our job and to make everybody else happy and proud of what they’re doing. It’s really good chemistry. So to answer your question, ‘What’s it all about?’ I think it’s about pride. I think it’s all about being happy with yourself, making something of yourself. That’s what it’s all about for me.

Metallica celebrated Leap Year on February 29, 1992 at the Providence Civic Center.

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Al Gomes Big Noise Joey Ramone Interview : Ramones Get Back the Spirit

Big Noise Archive:
Ramones’ Joey Ramone 1984 interview

Note: Al Gomes was one of the first journalists that Joey Ramone ever granted an interview to. At that time, during the early stages of The Ramones’ career from 1976-1980, nearly all interviews with The Ramones were conducted and controlled by Tommy and Johnny Ramone (as evidenced in the Grammy-nominated documentary, ‘End of the Century.’) The following took place in March 1984 when the band appeared at The Main Event in Providence, RI. It was the fourth time that Joey sat and talked with Al.

Ramones Get Back the Spirit
by Al Gomes
The Providence Local
First published in April 1984

What can you say about The Ramones that hasn’t been written already? The band has had one of the most colorful histories in all of rock ‘n’ roll history – Lord, they single-handedly saved rock ‘n’ roll from possible oblivion in 1976.

But even with the lengendary status the band has gained, they’ve never been able to grasp a large enough share of an audience to collect even a gold album or single. While other bands would have given up (The Ramones are celebrating their tenth year together), they continue to stick with it, knowing that their audience still continues to grow with a new generation discovering them through MTV and TV’s repeated showings of ‘Rock and Roll High School.’

If there is a message to The Ramones’ music, it’s that the simplest things in life are what matter most, and if you believe in the power of rock ‘n’ roll, you will never age and will always feel a sense of immortality. Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, and new drummer Richie Ramone truly believe in the power of rock ‘n’ roll – that it is indeed 20th Century youth’s new church – where truth reigns. And no one gets to the core of the truth like The Ramones and their music.

Since the last time the boys performed in Providence, RI, they’ve had their share of newsworthy stories: Johnny received a concussion trying to pry his girlfriend from an irate passerby, the band’s possible severing of their long ties with Sire Records, and the addition of new drummer Richie Ramone.

‘Pleasant Dreams,’ their last album, didn’t do as well as expected. But the band is hopeful that with acts like Talking Heads and The Clash showing new-found success, the Ramones’ crack at riding high on the charts can’t be far off either.

Joey Ramone and I sat down after their recent show in his hotel room in Providence. This is the fourth time in three years that we’ve talked, and his self-confidence remains as steadfast as when I first met him. There are sure signs of anger and frustration, but they seemed to be channeled (as always) right back into their stage show, which is as fresh and exciting as ever.

Joey Ramone and Al Gomes backstage 1984

The Ramones are hungry. They ain’t quitting until they’ve chewed the musical landscape to bits.

The Local: You’ve been up to a lot in the last year.

Joey Ramone: We’ve taken turns being in the hospital. Now we’re all healed and mended our injuries.

The Local: What happened to you?

Joey Ramone: A bit of indigestion. I alternated with John.

The Local: How’s he doing now?

Joey Ramone: He’s alright.

The Local: What exactly happened?

Joey Ramone: Just a little domestic problem. (Smiling) He got into a fight and got hurt. He wasn’t in the hospital very long. But, he got a fractured skull.

The Local: MTV reported that you were close to losing your recording contract.

Joey Ramone: No, we just resigned with a new company, Warner Brothers. Did MTV make it sound negative?

The Local: No, more like sympathetic.

Joey Ramone: (Laughing) We don’t need sympathy from MTV. We don’t need their charity. We didn’t lose our contract, MTV – it was over. We signed for a certain number of albums and it was finished. We always did well for Sire. We’re a prestigious act. Matter of fact, we were the original Sire rock act. Before us, they had the Climax Blues Band, they were into reissues – you know – greatest hits packages, and stuff like that – ‘The Best of Del Shannon.’ They never really had anything unique. We were the first New York band to get signed in years after the whole deal went bad with the New York Dolls – who were sort of looked down upon because they didn’t sell a billion albums. Then Patti Smith got signed, but she really wasn’t doing rock. She was doing poetry and performance art. Sire Records and other companies watched our success for a long time and watched our growth. We went with Sire Records because they liked us for what we were doing. We didn’t want to get lost in the shuffle. So many conglomerate record companies don’t know anything about their artists whatsoever. We didn’t want that. A lot of major companies came down to check us out, but nobody really understood us. And after we got signed to Sire, they watched our progress for a year, and then everybody in the world got signed.

The Local: It’s interesting that you moved to Warner Brothers, the parent company of Sire.

Joey Ramone: In our position, we’ve always done well, but we just haven’t had that hit yet that put us over the top. We always break even. The fact that we’ve never lost anyone’s money, and the fact that we are a prestigious act – I mean, we started the whole thing. We’re responsible for even the synthesizer bullshit, which is a revolution of what we started in ’76.

The Local: What do you think of the current state of music in 1984 – Duran Duran and such?

Joey Ramone: It’s bullshit. It’s crap. It’s not rock. It’s elevator music. It’s Muzak.

The Local: Do you think we’re at a point like we were in the ’70s when Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles were homogenizing rock?

Joey Ramone: It seems that way, doesn’t it? Though things are actually a little more optimistic in 1984 with the presence of MTV. For better or worse, MTV sort of bridges the whole country together almost like the BBC does in England. It’s opened up everything so wide that it’s possible for everyone to have different ideas. It just seems that some people are favored over others, which I don’t understand. I don’t know if it’s payola or what. It’s just bullshit to me still. But things are definitely better. But…this synthesizer bullshit. All of these fucking groups come flooding out of London. Everybody makes it. It’s crap.

The Local: Do you share a lot of creative input in your videos?

Joey Ramone: Some of them we’ve brought to the director. Like ‘Psychotherapy,’ which was banned all over America. And the world, I guess. It wasn’t shown in London and Europe either. They said it was offensive. It was on MTV for awhile, but it was chopped up. USA’s ‘Night Flight’ showed it in its entirety. They did a special called ‘Sex and Violence in Rock Videos.’ There’s nothing violent about the video. It’s highly artistic, I think. It’s a piece of art.

The Local: I think there’s a lot more violent videos. What about the Rolling Stones’ ‘Undercover of the Night?’ That is a truly violent, offensive video.

Joey Ramone: Yeah, it is. (Pauses) I don’t understand how our video doesn’t get played. It’s all contradiction and bullshit. It’s censorship and crap. The fact that we’re not as big as Michael Jackson, or some shit like that. Even MTV wouldn’t play him initially because he was black, and now they’ll play him. It’s politics and bullshit.

The Local: Many people have labeled MTV racist. Since you’re an artist that appears with frequency on MTV, do you feel the network’s racist in their programming choices.

Joey Ramone: I still think it’s a great service, all and all. I think it’s the best thing to happen to rock and roll, even though it’s not really a rock ‘n’ roll music channel. On one hand, they’ll play Kansas, then the Stones, then Prince, then someone else. But when it comes right down to being a great radio station, I’d say it’s the best radio station in America because of the extremes – from Rodney Dangerfield videos and Ramones to Public Image and Motorhead. For better or worse, they do play some good stuff.

The Local: What happened to your last drummer Marky? Why was he replaced?

Joey Ramone: He was over. He had this bad thirst he couldn’t quite thirst.

The Local: How is Richie the new drummer working out?

Joey Ramone: Oh, he’s great. I think he saved the band as far as I’m concerned. He’s the greatest thing to happen to the Ramones. He put the spirit back in the band.

The Local: Will he be taking the surname Ramone? He’s been mentioned in the press as Richie Beau.

Joey Ramone: The way I would look at it, I think the band’s really the three of us – myself, John and Dee Dee – and after these constant drummer changes,…you know. I think he’s a real Ramone.

The Local: Any other new plans?

Joey Ramone: I’ll be doing a solo album of my own this year. I’m writing for a magazine. John Holmes has got a new punk magazine called Start. It’s sort of a cultural magazine, but it’s a little different. It’s not a rock magazine. It’s sort of a multi-media type magazine. The first issue comes out in January and it’ll be international. And the Ramones have a newsletter now. It’s available at the moment. It’s got behind the scenes info, interviews, tour dates, bios, and all kinds of stuff. It’s really good. It’s put together by fans who really care, who really want to see us make it. And it’s free. It’s not really a fan club. It’s real honest. The thing is that the way it’s starting up now, they’re putting up their own money to put it out. It’s not funded by the band, though I feel at some point it should be compensated for. They just feel so strongly that they really wanted to do something. They didn’t see anybody else doing it. The band doesn’t have a fan club, and so they wanted to do it. It feels amazing, ’cause they work at day jobs, and the money they earn, they’re using it to print it up and fill the demand. I haven’t met them yet. I just speak to them all the time on the telephone. It’s monthly and it’s called Headbanger. It’s good.

The Local: Are there any definite plans for the next album you can talk about?

Joey Ramone: It’s going to be different. It’s real exciting. It’s called ‘Too Tough to Die.’ Not like any Ramones album. It’ll be the best Ramones album yet. It’s going to be totally diverse. It’s going to have some hardcore, some traditional Ramones, a touch of metal, Jerry Lee Lewis-type songs.

The Local: Who is producing your next record?

Joey Ramone: Our original drummer Tommy Erdelyi and one of our original producers Ed Stasium. You know – put the old spirit back in. Not that we lost it, but it’s sort of a reunion. Also, ’84 makes it ten years, so it’ll be like a real reunion.

The Local: It’s great to see that you haven’t lost hope of having that one big radio hit.

Joey Ramone: Well, I think we’re the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band in the world. I mean, it’s very frustrating at times. We’re the only band that kept the guts, and kept the excitement, and kept the belief, you know. We never side-tracked. We never went the way of the Clash, and never wanted to get into the discotheques that bad. It’s bullshit. Even now, with Mick Jones gone from The Clash, I don’t know what the fuck they’re going to do anyway. As far as I’m concerned, he was the band.

The Local: Are you still doing the bulk of writing in the band?

Joey Ramone: Well, no – it seems to be broken up now. I always have written mainly by myself. Although I’d like to write someday with Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick. I’m a huge fan and I feel he’s still got it in him. He wrote all those great songs before. He just needs someone to pull it out of him. On our new album, it’s just going to be about split on the writing. Even John’s writing with Dee Dee. Richie’s writing. He’s written some great things lately. I guess we’ve got about 12 songs now, and we’ll decide what’s best and that’s what will be on the next record. We start in February ’84 and hopefully it’ll be out by that spring.

The Local: You should personally write more ballads. They’ve always sounded so honest. They’re not syrupy ballads, but they always leave a heart-wrenching impression. ‘I Want You Around’ (from ‘Rock and Roll High School’) is just so open and honest and a beautiful song. And ‘Here Today, Gone Tomorrow’ is amazing.

Joey Ramone: I don’t personally like sappy, wimpy bullshit from other artists. I like things from the gut. I write and it just comes out. I don’t say, ‘I’ll try to write about this.’ I mean… (smiles) you just know when it’s right.

All Big Noise Interviews

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