1) On what he's up to now...
"I'm not out of the business, I'm still totally involved. Managing a band
called the Independents and have been producing as well, I'm doing a record with
Ronnie Spector. I did a duet with her. Earlier this year we did an EP and that
got us a record deal in England it was a four song EP, here it's five songs and
I wrote a couple of the songs."
2) On his favorite uses of a Ramones' song in film...
"I guess ROCK AND ROLL HIGH SCHOOL for one. PET SEMETARY was great, it was
like an honor. I like Bruce MacDonald's films, (our music appeared in) HARD CORE
LOGO, HIGHWAY 61 and ROADKILL. Our song, I WANNA BE SEDATED, was in a movie I
didn't see, IDLE HANDS and it was covered by THE OFFSPRING. [Last year's]
WHATEVER was a great film. Another film that really didn't get its justice.
Because it's a reality film, too real..."
3) On this year's summer movies...
"I saw SUMMER OF SAM, I thought that was OK. The STAR WARS film I found
very Disney-esque. With all those characters it was going for the kiddies. Jar
Jar Binks I found annoying. The old films of the '70s were great films. I wasn't
really into that stuff much but every time it comes on TV and I watch it now...
it was COOL. Not like now, all watered down. People are conditioned toward the
crap, that's what it was."
4) On covering Tom Waits' I DON'T WANNA GROW UP and Sonny Bono's NEEDLES AND
PINS...
"Recently I met someone who works for [Waites'] management company and we
never got any feedback and wondered what he thought, and we were told he loved
the version we did and that was great to hear. Never heard a thing from
[songwriter] Sonny Bono so I guess whatever he thought he took it to the grave
with him [laughs]. Only the worms know."
5) On who he'd cast if they started a Ramones bio pic...
"I guess I'd cast...what's his name... Tom Cruise. [laughs] And he'd have
to grow his real hair out, I don't approve of wigs."
6) On Joel Coen being mistaken all the time for Joey Ramone...
"Well, RAISING ARIZONA and FARGO were great. Tell that Coen Brother he
should do something with the Ramones. I could play him. I recently did a real
cult film called FINAL RINSE. I was attracted by the premise, it's a serial
killer rock and roll murder mystery where he only kills longhaired musicians and
then gives them funny haircuts. It's traveling around to film festivals. I
played one of the survivors, the club MC. It's a fun film, a lot of cool bands
in the film, The Independents, The Dictators, Bio Hazard."
7) On the new Rhino double CD greatest hits and more package...
"They did a great job. The hits and a lot of rare stuff. I think they want
to do more stuff with us and it's good working with them because it's a labor of
love. Most everybody else is out just to milk you."
8) On the state of music in general...
"It's pretty stateless. [laughs] There's not too much out there, it's kind
of a free for all, but the quality is getting pretty bad again. Corporate punk.
Whatever. It's time for a rebellion, an uprising, a revolution. Except everyone
is sucked into MTV schemes, nobodies rebelling. MP-3 is great. It's making the
major labels run scared and that's nice."