He Drank With Joey Ramone

Beer roadie for the Ramones? You could have worse jobs. The biggest disappointment in this for me, however, is that they drank Bud.

The entertaining blog entry started as a review of "I Slept With Joey Ramo0ne", the bio by Joey's brother Mickey Leigh. That book is essential reading and a Bar review of it appears here.

He Slept With Joey Ramone

Mickey Leigh. Joey's brother. He also roadied for his band and sang with him.

Mickey's family memoir on his life growing up with Joey - presumably containing all sorts of insights into the in-fighting that occurred within the band and that continued unabated after the passing of the principal members - was written with Legs McNeil (Please Kill Me co-author with Gillian McCain.)

It's due in December.

Mickey Leigh speaks

Mickey Leigh was Joey Ramone's brother and member of his own bands like Stop and was a guitar sideman to Lester Bangs in the writer's combo, Birdland. He still looks after Joey's interest, organising the annual Birthday Bash.

He'll be releasing a book about his life as a brother to a Ramone late in 2009. It may cause some ripples judging scuttlebutt over the years. Mickey and his mum, Charlotte, always seemed to be at odds with various surviving Ramones.

Read more in this interview here.