Copyright: 2009 -> on this page by Adele Holzman and Jari-Pekka Laitio-Ramone, Mickey Leigh etc.
This review is written by Adele Holzman. Adele hadn't chance to take sharp photos of Mickey's and Legs' conversation because she only had her cellphone camera.
At first, I wasn't sure if I was going to attend. I had work all day and
way too much home work. Then, I thought about all of the conversations
about the book that I've either had with Mickey or seen on the
Joey Ramone message board over the course of the past few years. There
was no way I could miss this when I was in the area to begin with. And
I really was in the area..., the Tribeca Barnes And Noble store is a 10
minute walk from where I work. I got there early and did homework. At around 6:15PM, I went and sat down. I thought it was kind of funny that they were having the event right in front of the childrens' section, but there really was no room anywhere else. There were already about 20-30 people in the seats. I recognized some from local Ramones related shows.
At 6:30PM, they started playing Ramones music and announced that the reading would be taking place. By 7:00PM, the seats were almost full and they had put more out. Even with the additional chairs, people were still standing. Attendees included Ramones' creative director Arturo Vega, and photographers Tom Hearn and Bob Gruen. The book's editor was there too and told the story of paring down a 900 page manuscript when a relevant question came up during the Q and A.
Legs McNeil (he has written Please Kill Me book etc.) took his place and, about a minute later, someone whizzed by me and nearly knocked me sideways. It was Mickey rushing up to the stage. They begun by taking turns reading out of the book. They went from the prologue, to parts of Joey's childhood, to some early Ramones memories. You could see emotion on their faces.
Afterwards, they took 5 or 6 questions. They joked around while answering them. Mickey knew two of the people who raised their hands from Forest Hills and another from somewhere else. They asked about the book being cathartic (to some extent), the meaning of the title (when he was little Mickey used to sleep with Joey when he was scared), will there be a sequel? (HELL no)
One woman asked Mickey to settle a rumor: Did Joey have Marfan's syndrome? Mickey immediately recognized Carol Monares (Prettysloth on the joeyramone.com board). For everyone's reference, the answer is NO.
Also, The KKK Took My Baby Away song is NOT about Johnny and Linda. Joey
was still WITH Linda when he wrote it. It was about another ex whose
parents decided to take matters into their own hands and forcibly
remove her from Joey's company. They didn't like their black daughter
dating a white guy. Later on, I went and introduced myself to Carol Monares. It was cool to finally meet her. I was going to leave after that, but changed my mind and got my book signed. The line was really long. When I was debating getting the book signed, I walked around the store for about 15-20 minutes and then waited at least that long in line.
While I was wandering around the store, they were playing Joey's solo album Don't Worry About Me (which you ironically could not hear in the area where the signing was being held). One of the songs has two F-bombs in it and they didn't censor it either time. Not exactly the norm for Barnes And Noble. Joey was probably laughing at that somewhere.
Unfortunately Mickey did not mention anything about the upcoming second Joey solo album.
- Adele Holzman -
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