I recently had the privilege of jumping on the phone with Monte A. Melnick, author of On the Road with the Ramones. Monte is a soft spoken guy with very clear traces of his New York upbringing in his voice. It was particularly exciting for me, since I'm such a big Ramones fan!
I found Monte to be an interesting, forthcoming guy. He's pretty mellow for someone who played a major role in making music history. He was generous enough to give me some of his time and share some of his stories and insights with me - and now, with you!
Diva: For people who haven't yet read the book and are interested in your background, how did you find yourself in this crazy life?
MM: By the time I met the Ramones, I had been in the music business for a while. I was in a country/rock band called 30 Days Out. I had played in a few other bands with Tommy; we'd known each other since junior high school. 30 Days Out had two records out on Reprise records and I was also doing studio work.
At that time, Tommy and I were involved with a rehearsal/recording studio in New York called Performance studios. One of the benefits of working there was that we got studio time for our own projects. Tommy would come in with the Ramones. I was pretty shocked when I saw them for the first time, they were pretty raw then. I mean, I was in a country/rock band with three part harmonies!
Dee Dee was a bass player and so was I, so I had no intention of joining the band. I was happy to help them out though.
Diva: Reading the book I thought that you must be incredibly even tempered. It seems like you were the one neutral party in the van and kept everyone's trust - for the most part. Were there any special techniques that you developed to keep the peace?
MM: [laughs] Well, I am pretty even tempered. You know, somebody had to do it or they would have blown apart. I didn't really have specific techniques, it was an ongoing process. It developed over the years.
Diva: It seems like they all had pretty big personalities.
MM: Huge personalities.
Diva: In telling this story, you manage to treat all of the band members with tremendous respect. A lesser person might have gone for airing all of the dirty laundry. How did you decide what to reveal and what to keep private?
MM: There was plenty of dirty laundry to air. A lot of the things that I didn't want to say, other people said. That's what's great about an oral history. But when you write a book, you never know what's going to upset people. There are things in the book that people didn't like. But that's what happened. Sometimes people don't want to see that.
I'd been approached a lot of times to write a book but with everyone still around it was too hard to do it. I didn't want to write it while Joey was alive.
Diva: Why?
MM: Because there are things in it, personal things, that Joey wouldn't have liked. I didn't want to upset him.
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Diva Interviews