The niche topic Kirk Hammett and Johnny Ramone bonded over
Throughout the 30 years that the Ramones were an active unit, one maxim was repeated over and over: beware of Johnny Ramone. The iconic punk guitarist was a well-respected figure in the music scene that he helped birth, but he also had a notorious reputation. A noted hardcore conservative, Ramone was also fiercely competitive, surly, or downright mean to anyone he felt didn’t deserve the time of day.
That being said, Johnny also recognised the importance of being a Ramone. Highly organised and careful with the band’s image, Ramone made sure to engage with fans whenever he was stopped at record stores, guitar shops, or even convenience stores. Still, you met Johnny Ramone at your own peril, something that Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett was nervous about when he encountered Ramone for the first time.
“I would come into contact with Johnny in the mid-80s, and I was intimidated,” Hammett admitted to Rolling Stone shortly after Ramone’s death in 2004. “I’d heard the legend — how much of a hard-ass he was. But when we met in 1996 on the Lollapalooza tour Metallica did with the Ramones, he was completely different. He told me, ‘I never used to hang out with other bands because I considered them my competition. Now that the Ramones aren’t together anymore, I can hang out and feel comfortable.'”
Hammett and Ramone became fast friends as the Ramones wrapped up their final shows in 1996. Even though the two had plenty in common when it came to music, that wasn’t the main topic that the pair would find common ground on.
“We bonded over old horror-movie posters,” Hammett explained in the 2004 feature ‘The Last Days of Johnny Ramone’. “The stuff is super-rare. There’s a whole network of collectors, and Johnny is the only one I like to talk to because he isn’t full of typical collector bullshit. He knows what he’s talking about.”
When Hammett and Ramone hung out, music was rarely involved. Instead, old movies would be broken out and enjoyed. Fellow enthusiasts like Rob Zombie and Nicolas Cage were known to hang out with the guitarists as well, all loving the schlocky horror that B-movies could provide. Hammett and his wife even influenced Ramone to change his fashion style.
“He was enjoying his retirement. He was getting into wearing these Hawaiian shirts that my wife would buy for him,” Hammett said. “He would call my wife and say, ‘You need to get me some more of those shorts.’ It was really funny: Here’s the godfather of punk rock, and all he wants to do is wear Hawaiian shirts.”
When music inevitably did come up, Ramone’s comfort zone was 1970s rock. “We’d watch old clips of Slade and The Move,” Hammett added. “He turned me on to The Sonics. And he loved Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath — only the early stuff.”
Ramone kept a number of his guitars around the house, including his famous collection of Mosrite instruments that he played at almost every single Ramones concert. However, he rarely picked them up. “There was always one around,” Hammett said. “But his attitude was, ‘I’m retired. I just want to hang out and watch horror movies.’ And he did that. He did it very well.”
Watch Hammett give a speech at the 6th annual Johnny Ramone Tribute down below.
